Kratke novele – nedovršena III. knjiga novela Vladana Desnice i drugi novelistički tekstovi iz piščeve ostavštine

Abstract

Summary: Novellas comprise the majority of Vladan Desnica’s literary estate. Th e thirty seven manuscripts and dactylograms discovered after his demise, of varying sizes and degrees of comple-teness, and only one of which was ever published in a periodical in his lifetime, provide insight in-to Desnica’s storytelling process and change our understanding of that aspect of his literary work. Th e surviving list, which contains eighteen titles, shows that Desnica had planned to publish a third book of novellas (alternatively titled Short fi ction ). It is also evident that Desnica abandoned the original concept and was obviously working on his stories with the intent of publishing them in a diff erent conceptual form. In accordance with their degree of artistic completeness, twelve texts have been selected with the aim of publishing a critical edition in the near future. Th e titles in question are: Nobelovac ( Th e Nobel Prize Winner ), Uplakana ženica ( Th e Weeping Little Woman ), Čovječanstvo ( Humankind ), Tetka Melanija ( Th e Aunt Melanija ), Aperitiv ( Th e Aperitif ), Dva prijatelja ( Two friends ), Istina o Adalbertu ( Th e Truth About Adalbert ), Noć u Skrocima ( A Night in Skroci ), Onkel , Posjeta pjesniku ( A Visit to A Poet ), Svejednako ( All the Same ) and Zasluženi odmor ( A Well-Deserved Break ). Th is paper provides a textological analysis of the aforementioned selec-tion and discusses its position in the context of Desnica’s body of work as writer of short fi ction. It also provides an analysis of those aspects of the poetics of these novellas which shift our understanding of Desnica’s narrative techniques. Just as they change our understanding of Vladan Desnica as an artist, these texts shape our perception of his place within the literary and historical context he worked in.