FICTIONALISATION OF SUŠAK AND RIJEKA IN VASIL TOCINOVSKI'S SUŠAČKO POPODNE (SUŠAK AFTERNOON)

Abstract

The paper focuses on the possible link between Sušačke subote (Sušak Saturdays) by Vladimir Polić and Sušačko popodne (Sušak Afternoon) by a Macedonian author Vasil Tocinovski. Sušačke subote were published as essays between 1923 and 1925 in Primorski novi list. Polić’s essays were also published together with his short stories and novellas posthumously in 1989. Sušačko popodne is a recently published collection of 15 short stories that has won awards. The paper tries to identify stylisation of town sites, historical cronography of space and connotational transformations of Polić’s subtext in Tocinovski’s short stories. The paper also focuses on the interest in the author’s view of the Kvarner-Istria chronotope as a newcomer’s fictionalisation of the above-mentioned space. These stories topically intertwine the here and now with the there and then of Croatian and Macedonian mythical images. The author treats his heroes as those taking a nostalgic look from the bad present into a better past. The folklore fund, fantastic-magical and fairy tail heritage are the dominant motifs of this collection of short stories and model it.