Positive liberty in the drama The Serfs by Ivan Cankar

Abstract

Cankar’s drama The Serfs (Hlapci) was written during the cultural struggle waged at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and contains otherwise rarely stated political theses that have had a profound influence on the formation of Slovenian collective memory. The key world of Slovenian culture, as conveyed through the Cankar's drama, serves to express the dynamic processes of modernization and points to the unformed liberal and socialist discourse at the time. This is why the work functions in Slovenian culture as a call to action, even to active resistance.