Powojenna diaspora. Kilka uwag o obrazie serbskiej i chorwackiej emigracji w najnowszej literaturze

Abstract

The Post-War Diaspora: Some Remarks on the Depiction of Serbian and Croatian Emigrants in Recent LiteratureThe essay aims to show how modern literature of both Serbia and Croatia depicts the early South Slavic emigration of the post-World War II period. Describing historical conditions before and during WWII, the author depicts Serbian and Croatian emigration groups which differ one from the other in their mental backgrounds. But the books analysed in the essay show that, when abroad, both Serbs and Croats present identical attitudes and are involved in the same rituals, exclusion and stigmatisa­tion. The analysis is based on two texts: one written by Vladimir Tasić, a Serb emigrant to Canada, the other by Daša Drndić, a Croatian woman of many years’ emigrant experience. In their books the two authors describe members of both nations who form strongly consolidated groups abroad and exhibit nationalistic viewpoints. Both Tasić and Drndić are modern literary writers, open to novelty in art. Furthermore, they openly reject the nationally oriented state models which originated after the collapse of Yugoslavia. They also criticise representatives of the post-war emigration. The author of the essay thus concludes that, after years of silence about the post-war diaspora, the contempo­rary emigrant communities emerge in two contrasting ways in Serbian and Croatian literature and in scholarly discourse. One is represented by politically and aesthetically conservative artists and schol­ars, and has a clearly apologetic character. The other, represented by Drndić and Tasić, expresses a critical approach.