Dissidence, Intellectuals and Lacanian Psychoanalysis: The Case of Miroslav Krleža’sThe Banquet in Blitva

Abstract

This paper explores the negative psychological aspects of the experience of being a dissident intellectual in an authoritarian country (moods, attitudes, perceptions, relations with other people, possible psychosomatic disorders) and attempts to understand their causes using the insights of Lacanian psychoanalysis. Its focus is on the three-volume novel of political fiction by Miroslav Krleža, The Banquet in Blitva (1938, 1939, 1963). Krleža (1893–1981) was one of the greatest twentieth century Yugoslav (Croatian) writers and dissident intellectuals. The novel is partly autobiographical and it is set in an imaginary East-Central European country, tells a story of an intellectual who publicly takes a stand against a corrupt dictatorship, affirming the principles of justice and the rule of law. Importantly, the anguishes and inner struggles of certain well-known real-life non-conformist intellectuals and dissidents, evidenced by their autobiographical non-fiction, are compared to the experiences of Krleža’s hero. My conclusion is that a Lacanian perspective can give an answer as to the high psychological costs of dissidence and explain under what conditions they may be avoided.