Review article
https://doi.org/10.15291/csi.4302
Neopicaresque Elements in the Novel Vjetrogonja Babukić i njegovo doba [Babukić the Vagabond and His Time] by Miljenko Jergović
Sanja Tadić-Šokac
orcid.org/0000-0002-9573-1353
; University of Rijeka, Faculty of Humanities and Social Science, Rijeka, Croatia
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* Corresponding author.
Abstract
2021.), Miljenko Jergović also mentioned its genre feature: a picaresque novel. This paper problematizes the novel’s genre determination presented in the title and establishes that this novel is an example of a neo-picaresque novel in Croatian literature. This novel brings out the adventures of the vagabond Babukić, which he experiences on aeroplane trips and at the airports that have become his only home. During the development of the story, the narrator directs the careful reader a series of metatextual signals trough wich he warns about numerous stories in the story, thematizes the story and time in the novel, and problematizes the issue of genre. The modernist design of the narrative category of time, in which it deviates from the genre of the picaresque novel, are present in the work. At the novel's end, it is evident that it is a vagabond on Babukić's transcendental journey. This neo-picaresque novel connects two seemingly contradictory characteristics of the theme in the paper. The first theme refers to the need to preserve the individual integrity of the individual in the novel. The second theme is manifested in a strong tendency toward intellectualistic introspection, featuring the neo-picaresque novel.
Keywords
neopicaresque novel; picaresque novel; Jergović, M.; Vjetrogonja Babukić i njegovo doba [Babukić the Vagabond and His Time]
Hrčak ID:
312278
URI
Publication date:
28.12.2023.
Visits: 538 *