FORMAT-LESS FORMAT

Reader’s experience relieved of narrative competences in a novel Leica Format

Abstract

The Leica Format (2003), novel written by Daša Drndić, has been recognized as a remarkable cultural and political event, equally important in the field of Croatian literary criticism and literary historiography as in general public. Numerous recent readings have insisted on its stylistic, genre and discursive complexity. Drawing from such insights and recognizing the ethical potential in the work of the narration, this paper is further organised around the analyses of its effects. In the realm of the postclassical narratology thesis, a close reading of Leica Format is a complex communication act whose consequences for readers and their reading could be numerous and heterogeneous. The aim is to reveal how to confront the readers with the multi-layered narrative strategies which draw them into the risky game of setting the boundaries and dividing the zones under the circumstances in which every decision would, at the same time, be both impossible and absolutely necessary.