Interpretations of Cankar’s Martin Kačur between Myth, Science, and Theory

Abstract

The article examines interpretations of Ivan Cankar's Martin Kačur (1904) in Slovene literary studies. Based on post-Marxist theory (Althusser, Močnik, Jameson), it tries to find structural shifts within textual interpretations, which, according to Močnik, lead from mythographic interpretations toward literary studies per se. Izidor Cankar's afterword that accompanies Ivan Cankar's first collected works of 1929 tries to break through the mythographic practice of the previous interpretations. The same can be said for Taras Kermauner: with his interpretation of previous, particularly post-war readings, which were closely connected to the hegemonic ideology of vulgar communism, Kermauner entered the field of literary studies as Močnik sees it. Post-Kermauner interpretations do not take Kermauner's interpretations into consideration; rather, they mostly return to the thought of Izidor Cankar or even further into the mythographic matrix.