FAIRY-TALE MOTIFS OF HINKO SMREKAR

Abstract

The article presents the artistic work of the illustrator Hinko Smrekar from the point of view of literary studies. In his illustrations, which are a synthesis of visual and verbal text (M. Nikolajeva), Smrekar often used motifs from folk tales (merman, dwarf, fairy...) and thus recreated them. With the illustrations of Andersen’s Fairy Tales (1940), he expressed social criticism, e.g. in the Zrcalo sveta (Mirror of the World) series (1932-1933). The illustration of the classic Martin Krpan (1917) in picture book form represents the first picture book “for children” and at the same time marks a turning point in Slovenian youth literature. From the point of view of literary science, Smrekar's style could be defined as carnivalesque, as the author ridicules cultural figures, politicians, religious representatives, and above all, visionarily predicts the time of dystopia and the Second World War, including his own tragic death.

Keywords: Hinko Smrekar, fairy tales, ATU, Fran Levstik, Martin Krpan, H. C. Andersen, carnival, Mihail Bakhtin.