SOURCE: “The Theme of the Unwed Mother in Slovene Literature,” in Slovene Studies: Journal of the Society for Slovene Studies, Vol. 3, No. 2, 1981, pp. 59-71.

In the following essay, Ožbalt studies the representation of unwed mothers in the fiction of Cankar, Francè Prešeren, and Prežihov Voranc.

Marriage laws and customs almost universally condemn births out of wedlock. The form and degree of this condemnation vary, however, from society to society, as well as from time to time and among different strata of the same society. Impulses, a confused mass of feelings surrounding the sexual relationship, as well as the feeling of mystery about procreation, interact with social forces embodied in institutions and in the religious or other beliefs acknowledged in a society. Historically, illegitimacy has been dealt with very harshly in many societies. The same medieval ignorance which caused women to be burned as witches, imposed...