TO SPEAK AS / INSTEAD OF THE OTHER

Abstract

Starting from the theoretical descriptions of heterobiography (Lucia Boldrini), this text aims to interpret the novel Conversation with Spinoza by the Macedonian writer Goce Smilevski as a paradigmatic heterobiography in contemporary Macedonian prose. The interpretive focus is placed on three levels: 1 on the narrative procedures in the novel; 2 on genre and interdiscursive transgressions between fiction and history, between literature and philosophy, and ontological transgressions between worlds and texts; 3 on the ethical implications of heterobiography through the prism of the ethical and legal responsibility of the author to “borrow” the voice of another historical person.