engleski

Post-Yugoslav dystopian dilemmas and writing history of the future: alternative version or parody subversion?

Starting from the G. S. Morson objection that utopias describe an escape from history, while anti-utopias describe an escape to history, this paper will try to give a typology of writing history in contemporary Croatian novels focused on possible (dystopian) futures. The main differences between representations of history in dystopian novels can be found on two levels – first, in the selection of a certain part of history which a certain author finds relevant for the future, and second, in the modus/style of representation of the selected history. Regarding the style or modus, the selected history in dystopian novels can be represented in two main ways – in its alternative version as a repeated event, or in a parody subversion, with the literary processes characteristic for the genre of Menippean satire. The difference between these two types of dystopian representation of history reflected also two different types of social engagement – first in order to affirm traditional values, often with antimodernist moods and worldviews (in “antimodernist dystopia”) and second with a radical break from traditional and canonical values (in „dystopian menippea“). This paper will approach the novels written by Josip Mlakić and Edo Popović as the representatives of the first type and the novels written by Borivoj Radaković and Ivo Balenović as the representatives of the second type.

post-Yugoslav literature, dystopia, Menippean satire, antimodernism

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