A chapter from a monograph on Janko Kersnik discusses his creative collaboration with Josip Jurčič. The two authors met in 1867 when Janko Kernik was still a high-school pupil, while Josip Jurčič was already a recognised literary persona, as he had published the books Jurij Kozjak, Domen and Deseti brat (The Tenth Brother) by then. Their friendship grew deeper when they frequently met in Vienna, mainly when visiting Josip Stritar. It grew even stronger when Jurčič was the editor of the Slovenski narod for which Kersnik began writing feuilletons (Muhasta pisma (Whimsical Letters), Nedeljska pisma (Sunday Letters), Pisma iz Gradca (Letters from Graz), 1873–1874), and editorials (1875). While working and living in Ljubljana, Kersnik was a member of Jurčič’s circle. It is not known to what extent Jurčič influenced young Kersnik as a prose writer when he embarked on writing his first major work, Na Žerinjah; however, it undoubtedly helped considerably when Jurčič published it in the Slovenska knjižnica in 1876. The product of their joint venture in writing was a one-act play, “Berite Novice” (Read the News, 1878), while their most significant collaboration can be observed in Rokovnjači (1881): Jurčič wrote eleven chapters, and Kersnik thirteen. This novel is a great display not only of how much in tune their ideas and narration were, but also of their stylistic harmony.
|
