Anakronizam hrvatske lezbijske književnosti

Abstract

Although queer literature can fit into common timelines of the history of literature, this essay discusses ways in which Croatian lesbian fiction challenges and sabotages such attempts. It combines interpretations of fin-de-siècle early lesbian writing (novels the Widow by Josip Eugen Tomić and the Passion by David Pijade) with those of contemporary texts. As for recently published texts, the essay analyzes short story collection Posudi mi smajl (Lend Me Your Smile) and novel Do isteka zaliha (Until the Supplies Run Out) by Nora Verde, the short story "Vrata Pakla" ("the Gates of Hell") by Ružica Gašperov and the postmodernist short story collection Moja ti (My You) by Jasna Jasna Žmak, in order to show that foreign model should not be uncritically applied to Croatian literature. These texts were published almost simultaneously, which prevents a simple understanding of Croatian lesbian fiction as developing from suffering and secrecy towards affirmation and open displays of identity. Also, the authors appropriate and reinterpret older genre models - in the essay, I show that the timeline of Croatian lesbian fiction is a queer (nonnormative) timeline. Like the coherent chronology, coherent identity also comes under question: Žmak destabilizes it through her postmodernist textuality. The authors of Croatian women's prose treat lesbian relationships as parts of female self-actualization narratives. This shows that Croatian lesbian (and, more generally, queer) literature cannot be reduced to gay and lesbian confessions targeting a similar audience.