The article treats the development of Slovenian biographical novel and attempts to define it in relation to foreign influences (mostly through translation) as well as in relation to historical novel. On the basis of selected cases from Slovenian text corpus it draws the often elusive demarcation lines between factual biography, fictional biography and 'true' biographical novel, trying - in accordance with modern tendencies - to free the latter of the obligatory norms, which were in force for the biographical novel of classical type (linear narrative, faithfulness to facts, authenticity, credibility), and establish its 'legitimacy' as an independent literary genre.
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