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Supplement Contemporary Croatian Literature, pp. 15 - 34 - Zarez

Supplement Contemporary Croatian Literature, pp. 15 - 34 - Zarez

Supplement Contemporary Croatian Literature, pp. 15 - 34 - Zarez

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18 II/40, 12. listopada 2,,,.n her influential work Poeticsof Postmodernism, LindaHutcheon retraces MichaelAsher's extraordinary spatial intervention:in 1973, he sandblastedthe wall of Toselli Gallery in Milanin order to "reveal" the plaster beneathas his work of art. His interventioncalled into question notonly the status of the "work of a-rt", but also the status of "gallery";it breathed new life into the debateon the relationship between creationand destruction, artistic conventions,the concept of "fringe"and the possibilities of goingbeyond the boundary of the fringe.What made me think of radicalism,literalness and obviousnessof Asher's "action" were the creativestrategies of the youngest <strong>Croatian</strong>poets, by which I mean the generationthat emerged during thenineties. Like that blast of sand,their books critically reve-aled majorexperiences of <strong>Croatian</strong> poetryduring the last few decades and focusedour attention to narcissisticisolation of literary subject. They"copied" everyday scenes with onlyslight stylization, as they copiedintertextual and intermedial gestuality,mimicries of the genre,fragmentation and colloquizationof lyrical idiom: these are the pointsof reference for "new poetry"...Unlike the previous generations,the nineties poets lacked a forumthat would help promote theirwork. They published in randompublications like magazines or anthologies(magazines Godine, Zor,Libra, Rijek, Aleph, Homo Volans...)or Quorum (the cult magazineof the eighties, still favoring theconspiratorial ferocity of the youngestpoets). More important poetsto a<strong>pp</strong>ear during the last decadeare: Tvrtko Vukoviæ, Katarina Ma-uran, Ivan Herceg, Alen Galoviæ,Damir Radiæ, Tatjana Gromaèa,Ivica Prtenjaèa, Dragan Jurak,Zvjezdana Bubnjar, Krešimir Pintariæ,Srðan Sacher, Katarina-ZrinkaMatijeviæ, Robert Perišiæ, MilanaVukoviæ, Kemal Mujèiæ-Artnam,Radenko Vadanjel, LucijaStamaæ, Tomislav Bogdan, SanjinSorel, Stjepan Balent, Ana Brnardiæ,Dorta Jagiæ, Lana Derkaè andothers.The <strong>Croatian</strong> setting in the ninetiesdid not really lend itself topoetry. The first half of the decadewas marked by war, the secondone by the profound national crisis.The catastrophic reality hascompletely wiped out the valuesthat were already eroded even beforethe war, simultaneously abolishingthe possibility of formingany evaluative hierarchy. Someonemight think that war triggered theemergence of a new value system,Poetic Generationof the NinetiesIndifferent subject, nonmetaphorical("journalistic")poetic style anddiscoursive pattern ofprose poem: these are thebasic characteristics oflyrical discourses in theworks of the most of ouryoung poetsKrešimir Bagiæbut that is not the case. Postmodernindifference is so deeply rootedin our environment (at least in theworks of the youngest generation),that it managed to overpowereven the factual apocalypseof war. The poets who started publishingduring the war mostly donot thematize the war (or if theydo, they do so very subtly, peripherallyand an passant); they refrainfrom lyrical projects that implyany involvement or action;they are preoccupied with intimacy,composing their poems by randomsuccession of concrete detailsand sentences that surround them.Their motto is "knock, and it shallnot be opened unto you." To illustratethe typical sensibility andcreative methods of the nineties, Ihave chosen the poem WeekendNo. 31 by Tvrtko Vukoviæ. Let memake things absolutely clear: in selectingVukoviæ's poem I was nottrying to single out the best text ofthe period, but simply the one thatfunctions as a symptom of the prevailingpoetic condition.WEEKEND No. 31Ivan is dead. Cecilia has a dog. Hisname is Lucky.Marina has undergone surgery: tumorof the uterus.Granny makes tomato soup. I hatetomato soup.For days, I eat only eggs. No meat. Ilove toeat meat. On weekends, there is noelectricity.Electricity is expensive. Life ischeap. Neighborsare fat and boring. The city lies inruins. Ourhouse still stands. Bars are empty.Police hourstarts at eleven. Zagreb is attractive.The trainleaves at three o'clock. My belongingsare packed.I leave. Neda will be waiting forme. Neda isbeautiful. I am content.(from the bookShrugging Your Shoulders)By accumulating "information"about himself and his immediatesurroundings, Vukoviæ's subject infact insists on dispersion of hisconsciousness. Lyrically, this dispersionmay act suggestively onlyafter the semantic value of "information"from the text has beenabolished. Through the successionof simple sentences, their relativecorrespondence and the absolutedenial of metaphorical speech, thelyrical subject expresses and establisheshis disinterest in the space ofreality and the space of imagination.Thus, his final statement (Iam content) could be understoodboth as a means by which the outsiderbecomes literally consciousof his position, and as a self-ironicexpression. In both cases, lyricalspeech has therapeutic function,because we are talking about thesubject who consented to his exileand who is in danger of disa<strong>pp</strong>earancefor that very reason. Indifferentsubject, non-metaphorical("journalistic") poetic style and thediscoursive pattern of prose poem:these are the basic characteristicsof lyrical discourses in works ofthe most of our young poets. Asstatements correlative to Vukoviæ'spseudo-punchline (I am content), Irandomly quote verses of his poeticpeers:- Actually, nothing is ha<strong>pp</strong>ening(by Alen Galoviæ, poem The GirlWho Sows Wheat from the bookLittle Body of Morning)- It’s best if we talk about theweather (by Ivan Herceg, fromOur Other Names)- This life suits me (by TatjanaGromaèa, poem Latrine in the Hills,from the book Is SomethingWrong?)- I'm fine, in fact --- no big dealeverything's fine anyway (by Katarina-ZrinkaMatijeviæ, from thebook I'm Fine, In Fact)Colloquialisation of thelyrical idiomPoets from the seventies andeighties mystified and variouslychallenged the (almost sanctified)position of an outsider. They fearfullyshut themselves off from realityinto the realm of literature oralternative culture. But poets fromthe nineties are equally indifferentto everything (even the realms ofculture and literature). And this, asfar as I can see, is their diferentiaspecifica. If indifference (no matterhow phony) is understood as majorcharacteristic of a lyrical subject,than improvisation and non-figurativepoetic speech stand aschief characteristic of poetic techniquesin the nineties.In Tatjana Gromaèa and her recentlypublished first book of lyricscalled Is Something Wrong, wegained a master of lyrical hyperbolizationof the present tense, accidentaldetails and unexceptionalsituations. This author synthesizes,to a certain degree, her generation’seffort to colloquialize poeticdiscourse, since she advocates those"factual" verses and dethroningof forms known for their lyricalmonumentality. Thematic referencesof her poetry are, for instance,a family quarrel, going to a hairdresser,conversation of two womenin the tram, guys who shovelsnow, workers playing cards in thetrain etc. What makes her variantof "factual poetry" attractive is itsseductive narrativity, ingenuity ofthematization and an outstandingcommunicative force of the text.She insists on little stories in verse,with skillfully chosen expressiveand factual perspectives, and sheexcels at dialogue and effectiveemphasis. Gromaèa's model couldbe illustrated with the next poemof hers:Fucked-up GirlShe leaves in the morning, comesback just before the evening news.Western working hours.Long black coat, gray reality on herface.Hair tucked behind the ears.Her mailbox empty,except for the pizza ads (free delivery)and bills for heat and water.She unlocks the door, throws thingson the floor.She washes her face, and while dryingit with a fluffy towelwatches her face in the mirror.She slips on some old worn-out tracksuitand sits in front of the TV.Warms up yesterday’s meal.Looks through a window, brushesher teeth.And finally, goes to sleep.The subject of Gromaèa's poetryclearly shows that in life - as o<strong>pp</strong>osedto grammar - there are morethan three persons to consider;moreover, under the first personsingular,countlessworlds mighthide. Gromaèa'ssubjectsimultaneouslycriticallyre-evaluatesthe mimesisof everydaylife andself-criticallyquestions itsexperiences.Its dispersionis signalized,among otherthings, byfrequentchanges ofthe speaker'sgender frommale to femaleor by playfulinterconnectingof highand lowmotives andcategories.This subjectdedramatizesreality andhis/her positionin it byexchangingprevious"expressive spasms" with expressiveease. As we might expect, thisimmediate experience is accompaniedby a<strong>pp</strong>ropriate speech idiom.Expressions like "honest to the hilt","existential comma" or "fuckedup girl" clearly point to the relaxedjargon of the contemporary loser.Although in some poems Gromaèatheatralizes the lyrical subject,we can’t help rejoicing in the factthat the poet challenges the typicaland often employed duo of "indifferencecum sense of powerlessness".Besides Vukoviæ and Gromaèa(whose writing styles are diametricallyo<strong>pp</strong>osed - he writes in exclusivistic,she in journalistic style),the colloquialization of lyricalidiom and the mystification of theconcrete, present and momentaryperception - these characteristicsare eagerly explored in the worksof Ivan Herceg, Dorta Jagiæ, AlenGaloviæ, Katarina Mauran etc.Narcissistic isolation<strong>Contemporary</strong> writers, includingthe <strong>Croatian</strong> poets under discussion,are condemned to bothnonliteral reiterations and searchfor authenticity in spite of theirawareness of how inauthentic theirevery experience and thought is.Various authorities warn us that itis exactly repetition that "authentically"marks our times. If someoneforced us to characterize the currentstate of affairs, I would say welive "after the orgies", said JeanBaudrillard, influential thinker andone of the ideologues of postmodernism.Baudrillard adds: Orgiesare explosive moment of modernity,they liberate modernity on everylevel. Today anything goes, thegames are already played out andwe are collectively faced with thequestion: but what after the orgies?It seems to me that the answerof the youngest <strong>Croatian</strong>writers to this question amountsto narcissistic isolation of the subjecton the one hand, and intertextualand intermedial revival ofthe old games on the other. Narcissisticisolation comes as a consequenceof subject's persistent focusingon the details and scenesthat immediately surround him/-/her. Isolation is used for self-analysisand therapy in the strict sense.This is most readily a<strong>pp</strong>arent inthe writings of Ivica Prtenjaèa, LanaDerkaè and Radenko Vadanjela.With the title of his first poetrybook, Writing Liberates, Prtenjaèaactualizes the ancient idea aboutbeneficial effects of poetry and thesymbolic healing and mental healthacquired through escape intopoetry. His impromptu lyrical therapyis performed in two stages:first the subject polemically facesthe surrounding world and declareshis nonconformity, then hetries to capitalize on his precious"autism". His polemical blade cutsmost deeply where the consumeristsociety and its status symbolsare concerned. We are repeatedlyreminded that all the real values intoday's world are lost, and that thisworld is primarily characterized byits artificiality. The dazzle of neonads, sacralization of money, silicones,street lights, screens: this, accordingto Prtenjaèa, is the inventoryof the amusement park we livein. Since he opted for loneliness,his lyrical subject insists on thedistinction of artificial/natural. Iquote Prtenjaèa's Silicone from thebook Writing Liberates:on Sunday whenF they turn off theblue neon lightand cool off the pipes full of lonelygasyes solitude is perfectif made of natural materialsJuxtaposing various discoursivematrices, Prtenjaèa analyzes andironizes ideas and concepts behindthem. The syntagm and the sentenceare the most frequently usedPrtenjaèa's frames through whichhe achieves his "power of speech".One might say that his poetic stylefollows the trace of Šalamun's orMaleš's euphoric associative linksand playfulness (especially in verseslike "the island has no children/he is someone’s dive into the co<strong>pp</strong>ersummer/ blue yachts dock there/yachts brimming with Odysseuses//").Prtenjaèa’s poetic worldsare immediate, extravagant andexclusive forms of self-oblivionpracticed by a being immersed inlanguage.Prtenjaèa also takes into accou-

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