Trivial and/or Sentimental? Pavlina Pajk’s Arabela: A Case Study

Abstract

The author proceeds from the question whether it is appropriate to classify Pavlina Pajk's prose as trivial literature and to what extent elements of sentimental narrative prose are present in her text. The results of the analysis of the thematic, narrative, and formal pecularities of the novel Arabela are juxtaposed with Miran Hladnik's findings in his study Slovenski ženski roman v 19. stoletju [Slovene women's novel in the 19th century], where he briefly compares this text with the novel The old mamʹselle's secret by E. Marlitt stating that the Slovene womenʹs novel was conceived based on the example of this German writer. By comparing both novels and the reception of E. Marlitt in the Slovene lands, the author sheds new light on the relationship between E. Marlit and Pavlina Pajk and answers the question why her contemporaries pesistently accused her of being E. Marlitt's epigone.