Master's thesis presents the problem of sexual violence at the turn of the twentieth century through the analysis of themes and motifs, connected with sexual violence, in selected Slovenian and Czech literary works, and concrete examples of sexual violence in archival sources and newspapers. In the thesis I intend to find out, how was the theme of sexual violence presented in literary works, if it was seen as problematic, as well as provide an analysis of the circumstances of the cases of sexual abuse and of literary characters as perpetrators and victims. Besides that, I want to figure out to what extent are the various depictions of sexual violence in literary works a reflection of the actual situation, therefore, in the thesis I also present real sex crimes through an analysis of the files of convicted sex offenders from Men's Penitentiary in Maribor, which I also compare with the situation as can be seen from archival sources in the Czech Republic. The thesis first presents the attitude towards sexuality and sexual violence in a society characterised by bourgeois morality, then presents the overlooked forms of sexual violence, followed by a presentation of the issue of sexual violence in the context of the feminist movement, which was very active at the time, because it was also an issue related to the relationship between the sexes. The view on sexual violence in public discourse of the time is also portrayed, with an emphasis on debates published in various newspapers, and court reports of trials for sexual crimes. An analysis of archival sources is then presented, followed by a brief overview of literary trends in Czech and Slovenian literature with an emphasis on aspects relevant to the topic of sexual violence, and then eight Slovenian writers and their sixteen literary works and six Czech writers and their ten literary works are discussed regarding the themes and motifs of sexual violence. In the last part, there is a comparison of the characteristics of all the works, as well as possible differences between the Czech and Slovenian literary works, and finally, a comparison of the real situation with the one presented by the literary works.
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