This thesis seeks to explain the phenomenon of the large number of crown of sonnets in Slovenian literature as a consequence of the specific reception of France Prešeren’s »A Wreath of Sonnets«. Poets after Prešeren have understood the crown of sonnets as a masterful form, suitable for expressing the deepest poetic insights, a perception referred to here as the mythicization of the crown of sonnets form. This process is interpreted through a three-stage mythical structure following Roland Barthes, in which the characteristics of a specific literary work gradually differentiated into expectations attached to the poetic form itself.
The thesis examines the essential features of Prešeren’s »A Wreath of Sonnets« that enabled the mythicization of the form, with particular emphasis on the conception of love grounded in existential distress. Prešeren’s understanding of love for Julija Primic is connected to the tradition of courtly love of the troubadours, demonstrating that, on the basis of »A Wreath of Sonnets«, a narrative about Prešeren and Julija emerged. This narrative became embedded within a broader myth of the author and indirectly reinforced the mythologized status of the form.
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