The Slovenian and the European novel

The delay in the development of Slovenian prose hindered the dialogue with the contemporary European novel. For this reason the historical tendencies of the European novel took significantly different shapes than the 19th c. Slovenian novel. The fact that Slovenian society was bilingual at that time also posed an obstacle to the development of Slovenian prose. Ivan Cankar was the first writer to start a dialogue with the contemporary European novel, but his works range from realism to symbolism, and from late-romanticism to naturalism. However, his pioneering efforts made it possible for the Slovenian writers of the 20th c. to refer not only to the foreign novel-tradition, but also to a strong author of their own.