The village and the authorities in Zidar's novel »Sveti Pavel« (Saint Paul)

Abstract

It was mostly writers of the older generation (who were affirmed during the period of social realism, some continued while others renewed this theme) who had written about the post-war Slovene village, so that the appearance of Pavle Zidar (1932) was refreshening and a most positive surprise. Sveti Pavel (Saint Paul) (1965) is a novel about a village devoured by inner weaknesses and endangered by new forms of life. Zidar underlies the destratification of the village, the destruction of tradition and the process of socialization. He stresses the role of the political activists, people who were to represent the authorities In the village but whose behaviour (inhumanity, rudeness, primitive mentality, cruelty) brought unrest and dissatisfaction among the peasants and alienated them from the authorities. In addition, there was a prevalent false conception of the peasant (landowner mentality, exploiter) which lead to confrontation, either with individuals or with the village community (especially during the buying of farm goods, taxes, various confiscations). Although history has removed the village from the past, man's ties to the earth and to nature are above all other life values: Frenk Debevc is destroyed by languishing In the belfry of St. Paul and the village sacrifices and betrays him when it is separated front its cattle, land and children; as an activist Žan Debevc experiences all the successes and failures and disillusioned returns to the earth.