Cankar's Novel Gospa Judit and Nietzsche's Philosophy

Abstract

This article focuses on Cankar’s novel Gospa Judit, exploring the connection between the text’s main innovations and its inherent fragments of Nietzschean philosophy. These innova­tions—i.e., syncretism of genres, essayisation (discursivity), interweaving of two first-person narrators, a female protagonist, as well as an evaluative criterion or satirical polemic, and autobiography as the main poetical principle—were examined from the perspective of the nu­clei of Nietzsche’s philosophy: morality, will to power, individuality, autobiographicality, and yearning. A Nietzschean approach of adopting a moral framework is analysed as a critique of the nation’s morality, while the will to power is perceived as a trait of a distinct individuality or autobiography. Finally, the work is analysed as the mirror of society.