Abstract
New Croatian fantastic prose (which was constituted as a genre at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, and reached its peak in the 1970s after which, in different variations of the genre, it has kept appearing until today) is often called the literature of “subversion”. Fantastic writers consciously take a step away from poetic and social norms of their time thus creating a discourse which pronouncedly corresponds to mythical in expressing ideas which are often contrary or strongly destabilizing for the ruling social ideology. This objective makes them reach into the treasury of mythical motives, symbols and techniques whose source lies in (also subversive) medieval literary genre – apocalyptic literature. All of these texts (canonic and apocryphal) are listed in literature under one common denominator – apocalyptic literature – and their purpose is to teach people about future things (i.e. ones that come after death). In medieval apocalyptic texts, especially apocryphal, a man – in ruling ideology raised to the pedestal of the peak of God’s creation – is seen as a sinner who, regardless of his social status, needs to be righteously punished for his sins. Apocalyptic writers with special enthusiasm describe the tortures awaiting high social classes and rulers, as well as priests. Mythical “revenge” for earthly evil done to their subjects often comes in the form of punishment which animals, otherwise inferior, but now after death and God’s final judgement, dominant and allied with God’s anger, will perform over them. Monsters and beasts destabilize the commonly accepted, ideologized image of a man, ruler of animals according to the Book of Genesis because after death animals rule over man and the greatest punishment for his earthly sins is the dehumanization the animals will perform.
Published Version
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