SYMBOLIC DISCOURSE IN THE CROATIAN MODERN NOVEL: CITY AS THE IDENTITY OF A PROTAGONIST AND AUTHOR Cover Image

SIMBOLIČKI DISKURS U HRVATSKOME SUVREMENOM ROMANU: GRAD KAO IDENTITET JUNAKA I AUTORA
SYMBOLIC DISCOURSE IN THE CROATIAN MODERN NOVEL: CITY AS THE IDENTITY OF A PROTAGONIST AND AUTHOR

Author(s): Sanja Knežević
Subject(s): Literary Texts
Published by: Filozofski fakultet Sveučilišta u Mostaru
Keywords: symbolism; city mythology; war; post-modern culture; novelistic discourse.

Summary/Abstract: The article elaborates an identity of the city which is identified with the author’s destiny during the hardest day of attacking the city in the Croatian War of Independence. Identifying himself with the city, at the same time he turns himself in the main novel protagonist. That is a completely different and so far unknown war letter in Croatia, because the work is completely turned to transcendence. In the novel the war is the evil force and not political product. Tragicalness of the war in Croatia as the literary topic is shown at the general civilization level as a true human damnation. City of Zadar, located at the Mediterranean coasts, with his history and destroying heritage takes over the role of human spokesperson. When a city as the holy area is destroyed, a human loses his/her own identity. Return of identity is possible only at the symbolic and metaphysic level, therefore the novel is full of symbolic and archetype motives.

  • Issue Year: 2010
  • Issue No: 6
  • Page Range: 124-150
  • Page Count: 27
  • Language: Croatian