Politika istine u Izvanbrodskom dnevniku Slobodana Novaka

Abstract

This paper analyzes the novel Three Journeys (Izvanbrodski dnevnik) by Slobodan Novak, in terms of its narrative structure and literary devices that are being used to disfigure the speech produced by centres of power in both everyday and official communication. As opposed to political allegory, to which the novel has been linked so far, it is argued that a complex narrative structure and stylistically carefully crafted storytelling point to self-referentiality of the novel. The story of Magistar is framed by Magistar’s writing of manipulative techniques used by other characters against him. Writing is a successful resistance practice to manipulation of perception because it exposes the unspoken assumptions of the latter, as well as it reveals mechanisms of emotional abuse. The novel is read as a place of freedom from a one-sided interpretation referencing the political state in former Yugoslavia, demonstrating by its structure that freedom in literature is in fact entitlement of literature to be free of any type of instrumentalization.