The Particle zar in the Story Collection Croatian god Mars by Miroslav Krleža

Abstract

In his collection of stories Croatian God Mars, Miroslav Krleža used the zar particle 65 times. In the story Battle at Bistrica Lesna, this particle does not appear at all, and it is unevenly distributed in other stories. In some stories there are places of concentration, parts of the text in which several instances of this particle are located close to one another. The particle zar is most commonly used in the description of situations in which one person addresses another person or groups of people by asking questions to which no answer is expected. Such questions in Krleža’s stories are used by officers while they revile, curse and rebuke soldiers, especially officers Jugović (Magyar királyi honvéd novella / ‘Royal Hungarian Soldier Novella’) and Ratković (Three Soldiers). The use of the particle zar contributes to the characterization of these officers. Krleža used the same particle in the description of soldiers’ conversations. In these descriptions, when it appears in the conversations, the particle zar contributes to expressing the vivacity of the conversation. Rhetorical questions in which the particle zar appears are also used in the description of the content of internal monologues. Such questions are given an important role in the descriptions of the contemplations, to which both the officers and the soldiers are subject in moments of solitude, while thinking about their role and their position in the situation in which they find themselves.