The present master's thesis analyses the literary opuses of Fran Govekar, Janko Kersnik, Zofka Kveder and Pavlina Pajk. The beauty myth in literary works is central to our research, in which we devote our attention to the fundamental research question – are the characters described by the author as good and positive also attractive or are there unattractive characters among them, and are bad people at the same time also unattractive; essentially what is the proportion between “unattractive bad” and “attractive bad” characters. The goal of this thesis is to explore the connections between the characters’ physical appearance and their personal attributes, while considering their socioeconomic background and the development of their status throughout the narrative. The literary characters are evaluated based on their gender, age and their active/passive response in the story. We also deal with the characters’ altruism and whether or not they have entered a partnership, what was their motivation and how much effort they are putting into maintaining the relationship. We seek to answer these questions in connection to female and male main characters in selected literary works. The research additionally tries to establish how the author’s gender correlates with the description of female/male protagonists and antagonists.
The master’s thesis contains the theoretical and methodological part. The quantitative method was outlined in I. Žunkovič’s research and J. Gottschall’s reference research, published in the book Literature, Science, and a New Humanities.
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