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

II/40, 12. listopada,,,. 31Devad KarahasanSara and Serafinapublished by Durieux, Zagreb: 1999arahasan's novel Sara and Serafinacan be seen both as a "genre revival"and as a call for the traditionallyaccepted models of fictional narration.Both notions are clearly present inthe writer's formal insistence on the primacyof the storyline that reflects narratedreality, in his treatment of the characteras an integrative force of the text, inreinforcing the mechanisms of "realistic"narrative motivation and, most generally,in the methodology that constructs theworld of the text on the principle of discoursivecontrasts. It seems that despitethe prevalent postmodern rhetoric ofnarrative multiplication, Karahasan, whoin one interview described literary postmodernismas "the pitiful capacity toconfuse", is trying to reestablish the principleof consequential and textual homogenizationin his latest novel (and in hisother works too), thereby rethinking therelationship between the real world andthe possible worlds of the literature.He is interested in characters andtheir relationships, he takes care to narrateevents in "real time", but above everythingelse, he is doing it to honor thegood old-fashioned story. The story mustbe beautiful, exciting and trustworthy.Besides reinventing the genre, Karahasancreates and nurtures an impressively widesemantic field located outside theboundaries of the text, sometimes crossingover into his previous works, and sometimesover the historical borders of amuch broader culture-specific context.The structure of Sara and Serafina iscomplex and carefully plotted, presupposingseveral levels on which the text canbe read and interpreted. But no matterhow far the reader heremeneuticallystrolls, he is always invited to return tothe core of well-narrated story.The plot of the Sara and Serafinaunwinds during the war years in Sarajevo.It concerns itself with different ways inwhich people escaped the besieged city.In order to persuade his wife to leavetown, the narrator (if biographical data isto be believed, he closely resembles thewriter himself) has not only to obtain thenecessary documents, but also to persuadethe stranger Sara, that is, Serafina, toleave the town. (...)Through the composition that constantlyquestions the reasons for goingand reasons for staying, Karahasan alsoindirectly depicts the everyday life duringwartime. War has made personal relationships(like love, friendship and mutualunderstanding) so important preciselybecause they are inseparable fromthe "bare" reality of daily life, the realityof survival. The novel says it perfectly:"In liminal states, in times of great temptations,people become more sensitiveto ethics than usual, perhaps even moreethical in general, or at least more ethicalthan they would normally be, becausethere is nothing else left." (...)The principle of duality, expressed andrespected on almost all narrative levels,can also be identified in the concept ofdramatic characterization, where dialogicalprinciple turns out to be the patternof signification and interconnection betweenseparated elements of the text. Forinstance, narrator’s voice changes intonationby shifting from the main plottowards more personal reflections, thereforechanging the dominant linearity ofnarrative discourse to a more essayisticstyle. Using the same methods, Karahasanalso tries his hand at modernistic formulasof generic hybridization, betterknown as "novel-essay". Essayistic partsof the novel always elaborate on subjectsthat form specific cultural and historicalcontext of Bosnia and Herzegovina (alsofrequently discussed in other Karahasan'sworks). (...)New dialogical and culturally contrastedperspective within the novel is introducedthrough the duality of the name Sara/Serafina,where Sara refers to Jewishheritage (the name is taken from OldTestament), while Serafina connotes aChristian name for an angel. Inner contradictionof this "dual personality" emphasizesmany inner conflicts within thecultural system in Bosnia and Herzegovina.The dialogical relationship betweentextual and extratextual meaning in thenovel does not only serve as a hugelysymbolic parallelism; it also registers binarismon almost every level of culturalsignification of the described and narratedarea. Karahasan successfully avoidspathetic and simplistic narrative solutions;he makes sophisticated allusions andcareful semantic interconnections, constantlykeeping in mind the whole "network"of the story. I believe that thisnarrative excellence and the power of hisnovelistic imagination are Karahasan'sessential qualities.Katarina LuketiæBody in Transitionedited by Djurdja Barlett, publishedby Faculty of Textile Technology, Universityof Zagreb, Department of FashionDesign; Zagreb, 1999ody as a culturological fact makesa common denominator of otherwisevery heterogeneous texts inthe book Body in Transition. The textsreflect different styles of writing, fromthe scientific analysis of empirical data toart essay. All the works, published in thistwo-language edition in English andCroatian, are based on the papers presentedduring the international conferencethat was organized several years ago bythe Fashion Design Department at theFaculty of Textile Technology. The authorsdeal with the body, in the spectrumof ideologized, dressed, artful, sexed orfuture body images (these attributes arealso the thematic units within the book).Scholarly perspectives include authorsfrom sociology, ethnology, cultural studies,psychoanalysis, communicationtheory, philosophy, philosophy, historyand art theory.The book of sixteen essays on the subjectof the body opens with Igor Pribac'scomparison between Descartes' and Spinoza'snotion of the body, followed byNadeda Èaèinoviæ's text Civilizing theBody (here the discussions include authorslike Elias, Mauss, Nietzsche, Derrida,Baudrillard, Mary Douglas). DanielLabaš lists the elements of non-verbalcommunication, Maria Bruna Pustetto ispreoccupied with body in politics. FlorenceMüller writes about "ideal femaleimage versus the female reality fromneoclassicism till today", and "male" partof the story is covered by the text Masculinity,Fashion and the Body 1870-1915 byChristopher Breward. Ingrid Šafranekdiscusses Paradoxical Body - Texts of MargaretDuras and Mariapija Bobbioni is theauthor of Face, the Space of the Speech. Inthe work Body Fetish, Ugo Volli presentsa thesis on body fragmented in pornoindustry images. Ivanka Ivkanec registerssome elements of eroticism in traditionalnational costumes and oral literature. Theonly text that was not presented at Zagrebconference but was nevertheless includedin the book is the abbreviatedchapter About Sexual Life of the Feet andShoes from Valerie Steele's book Fetish:Fashion, Sex and Power.Alexander Štulhofer deals with relationshipbetween postmaterialism andsocial organization of sexuality; IngaTomiæ Koludroviæ expounds on the notionof transition (underlined with thetitle of the whole book) that permanentlydetermines transsexual behavior. The lastpart of the book, entitled Bodies of theFuture, consists of texts by Ted Polhemus(Postmodern Body) and Marie-LouiseAngerer (The Body Possibilities: Body asInterface).Iva PlešeAndrija MauroviæKandaul: EroticTestamentpublished by TV Extra, Zagreb 2000oubtless it began as an accident:on some occasion while he wasdrawing an intercourse between aman and a woman, something Mauroviædid frequently and enthusiastically toamuse himself and the others, his handadded an onlooker. Having made the discovery,the hand got busy turning out endlessvariations of the subject, until it finallysupplied the onlooker with its ownface. There must have been a single momentwhen Mauroviæ stopped in amazement:his comic strip had revealed theunknown, suppressed, probably unacknowledgedtruth. In any case, once theartist faced his most secret fancies, hecontinued exploring them insatiably. Inyears to come, his fantasy has achieved algorithmicprecision, where the same inputalways resulted in the same output,i.e. the artist’s pleasure.Input, if you must know, involves aspitting image of Mauroviæ and his wife,a fifty year old woman of ample bosomand buttocks. Her thin hair is tied in abun, she has a certain type of earrings,and a transparent dark slip with stockings,or else she wears nothing at all. Thethird player in this perfect triangle is astranger: he is usually black, Jewish, Muslim,German or some homegrown rake: adock worker, drunk, cobbler or priest asugly as the Devil. After a brief introduction,the old sly "yields" his wife to theother man, and later on decides whetherto join the game or just watch it (while heconveniently pretends he's asleep). As faras the artistic skill is concerned, Mauroviæ’serotic testament makes Auer’s eroticlegacy appear naïve and amateurish, whilethe male rape from Pulp Fiction seems likea work of an innocent schoolboywhen compared to Mauroviæ’s doctoralthesis entitled In Prison. I have no doubtthat this antipode to Manara's eroticwonderings through literature and thesubconscious, as brutal and banal as it isgynecologically precise, shall find manyfaithful followers among its readers...Boris BeckCyberfeminism[ver.1.0]edited by Igor Markoviæ andtranslated by Rada Boriæ, MarioDueviæ, Vesna Jankoviæ, IgorMarkoviæ, Natalija Rihtman, OliverSeriæ and Goran Vujasinoviæ.Published by Centar za enske studije,Zagreb: 1999nthology of female on-line andoff-line writings offers differentapproaches to cyberfeminist research,theoretical analysis and cyber activismin general. Rosi Braidotti, SadiePlant, Anne Balsamo, Nancy Paterson,Alla Mitrofanova, Olga Suslova, FaithWilding and Jennifer Brayton are some ofthe authors selected by Igor Mirkoviæ. Itseems that his goal was to cover the largestpossible field of cyberfeminism, thereforeincluding variety of subjects (whichinclude problems of sex, gender, bodyand its lack, identity, cyber-art, virtualreality, science fiction, techno culture andwomen’s love/hate relationship with theInternet and technology en gros).Iva Pleše