Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.22210/ur.2025.070.1/01
The Symbolism of the Apocalypse as a Representation of Trauma and Form of Anti-War Engagement in the Twenty-First-Century Croatian Novel
Kornelija Kuvač
orcid.org/0000-0001-7250-6383
; Sveučilište u Zadru
Abstract
Based on contemporary interdisciplinary insights into the cultural coding of emotions and trauma studies that examine its influence and meaning for the individual and the collective in literature (and art in general), this paper explores the procedures and strategies by which two 21st-century Croatian novelists connect narrative and metaphorical constructs of emotions with the creation of anti-war engagement in the representation of war trauma in the territories of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Croatian literature has a rich tradition of anti-war literature, and it is a recognizable novel genre. In the Croatian novel of the 21st century, genre hybridization is noticeable, but this does not diminish the possibility of examining the expression of traumatic emotions and the ways in which emotional constructs are included in anti-war engagement. The paper analyzes two novels: "The Living and the Dead" (2002) by Josip Mlakić and "Yom Kippur" (2014) by Ivana Šojat Kuči, with regard to the role of apocalyptic discourse and the symbolism of the apocalypse in the representation of trauma and the formation of anti-war engagement. Apocalyptic symbolism is considered as a “post-traumatic figuration of the unbearableness of trauma that escapes the matrix of repression” according to the study by J. Berger (1999), which, together with the study by Philip Smith (2005) on the “apocalyptic narrative” that is constructed in public discourse on the eve of wars and is mediated by culture and then provides a narrative and cultural foundation (and thus emotional justification) for the sacrifice of human lives, forms the second theoretical pillar of the research. In addition to investigating the constructs of emotions that the authors associate with the traumatic experience of war, the goal is to discover the function of apocalyptic symbolism in the representation of trauma as a cultural trope and to determine whether the author’s empathy and symbolization of war trauma are truly committed to given social/political goals and at what levels is its representation connected to the given goals of anti-war engagement. In both novels, trauma is represented as an individual and transgenerational experience in an obvious connection with the cultural coding of geographical and historical space. It will be shown that both novels can be read as novels of trauma (according to M. Balaev's theory). Using apocalyptic symbolism and horor elements, both texts deconstruct the apocalyptic narrative of public discourse, subversively positioning themselves against its social presuppositions and cultural legitimization of war within the framework of "great war stories".
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
349187
URI
Publication date:
13.7.2026.
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