The essay revolves around an intriguing part of the still relatively unexplored dramatic opus of Matjaž Kmecl, in which the author explores the Slovenian mythical motif of the beautiful Vida. The analysis focuses on his monodrama Lepa Vida ali problem svetega Ožbalta (Beautiful Vida or the Problem of Saint Ožbalt), through which the author enters into a dialogical relationship with a series of Slovenian authors who interpret this key myth of Slovenian literature. The play is a specific continuation of Cankar’s Beautiful Vida, primarily through occasional references to the central motif. On the one hand, the essay will explore the relationship between Kmecl’s Beautiful Vida and Cankar’s prototext. On the other hand, attention will be given to two interpretations of the motif of the beautiful Vida in the 1970s, when Matjaž Kmecl and Rudi Šeligo reimagined and reinterpreted it in innovative ways. These interpretations will be compared and placed in the broader context of contemporary Slovenian drama. While Cankar’s Beautiful Vida was already a vision of longing, and Šeligo’s Vida attempts to formally follow the narrative of a folk song but offers its own and partly new vision of Beautiful Vida through the reinterpretation of lyrical work. But it is Kmecl who radically breaks away from the Slovenian myth, freeing it from Prešeren’s dichotomy and Cankar’s longing.
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