Reprezentacija ratnih iskustava u romanu blockbuster zorana žmirića

Abstract

Representation of war experiences in Zoran Žmirić’s novel Blockbuster The paper analyzes the representation of the war experiences of a group of soldiers on the front line of the battlefield during the Homeland War, depicted in the novel Blockbuster (2009) by the writer Zoran Žmirić. The thematization of warrior activities is based on the intertwining of military operations and scouting actions with the presentation of personal moral doubts, psychological traumas of individuals and collectives. In the novel, the characters specific to contemporary Croatian war prose are shaped in an interesting way (figures of warriorsdefenders, enemies, victims, traitors, war invalids). Relying on the theoreticalmethodological assumptions of selected narratological concepts, literary studies of memory and theories of disability, the paper will analyze the narrative strategies used to thematize the war experience in Žmirić's action war novel; the role of retrospective narrative episodes will be investigated, the hint of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the role of amputation metaphors, and the design and purpose of warrior instruments will be also investigated.