Searching for the Narrative Text: Narration and References to Detective Fiction in the Novel Reticence by Jean-Philippe Toussaint

The aim of the article is to prove that the novel Reticence (1991) by Jean-Philippe Toussaint, Belgian writer, director and visual artist, is a parody of the detective novel’s sub-genres: the mystery novel and the suspens novel. These references to popular literature, however, are not aimed only at producing the comical catharsis effect. On the contrary,  they constitute especially the way of the revival of Gérard Genette’s category of narrative discourse. The enigma, the suspens and the investigation, the predominant features of detective novels, shape the unique fi ctional universe, in which the author plays with his readers. Toussaint revives the novelistic genre on three levels: of the story, the  narration and the narrative text. The mystery becomes the dominant element of the book, as well as a metaphor of the literary creation. In Reticence, Toussaint, as the omnipotent author, depicts his self-portrait to be able to discuss even better his own writing and the complex relations the book – the reader.

On the Road to Goal. Vjekoslav Kaleb’s Glorious Dust and Antun Šoljan’s Short Excursion

In the article a problem of mutual intertwining relationships between two Croatian short novels is taken into consideration. Although Vjekoslav Kaleb’s Glorious Dust (1954) and Antun Šoljan’s Short Excursion (1965) are set in a diff erent chronotope, namely the former in the Dalmatian hinterland during World War Two and the latter in the Istrian post- war Yugoslav reality, they possess some similar structural features. Among resemblances a motif of journey, taken allegorically as life (conceptual metaphor “life if a journey”), that binds together the two novels, is the most important. The author of this article attempts to investigate the problem of such a concept of journey referring both to the  philosophy of existentialism (notably Camus and Sartre) and literary preoccupations concerning the problem of meaningfulness and senselessness of human raison d’être.

Sonnet 126 is discussed as to its specifi c place in the sequence and its unusual form. Particular attention is paid to its language and the way ambiguities are created, especially in relation to the  ostensibly addressed ‘lovely boy’, leading to ironical distancing of the speaker. The discussion of three Polish translations of the sonnet traces shifts and changes of perspective yielding three diff erent variations on the themes of Shakespeare’s sonnet.

“Where is my place?” – around Richard Weiner’s Outseeding

The main goal of the article is to present the existential situation of Richard Weiner, Czech author, who is a typical representative of the modern era. The author of the article refers in her findings to the late Weiner’s work Hra doopravdy. The article focuses on the problem of alienation of the individual, disintegration of personality and attempts to merge it. The text demonstrates spheres of estrangement in the relations with the Other, inter alia the otherness of sexual orientation, which leads to the destruction of the individual’s subjectivity. He refers to the ideas of Jacques Lacan, Julia Kristeva, and German Ritz.

“The Keystone”. “The Wisdom of the Sands” (Citadelle) by Antoine de Saint-Exupery and “Suggestions to Leaders” Narrate about Spiritual Guidance and Ideal State

The state as a Citadel of the spirit, led by a wise Ruler, is an idea that seems utopian after all the cruel social experiments of the 20th century. But the course of world history is not created in the offi ces of modern politicians. The milestones of the coming evolution are formed by the thought which is consonant with the divine Beauty, this idea is dedicated to one of the last works of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry – philosophical story-parable Citadel. The heights of the human spirit, which were the basis of the Citadel, were amazingly accordant with the ideas of the book Parting Words to the Leader, a little earlier created on the Himalayan heights.

Contemporary Russian-Israeli Literature by the Example of Dennis Sobolev’s Novel Legends of Mount Carmel. Fourteen Stories about Love and Time

The great aliyah infl uenced the nature of Russian-language literature in Israel at the end of 1980s and the beginning of 1990s. Not only did it increase the number of creators writing in Russian, but it also became a potential that changed the nature of the latest Russian-Israeli literature. The basis for its evolution is the process of deminorization (the concept of Roman Katsman). It reveals itself mainly (though not only) in the revision of the subjects that have been covered hitherto – literature expands the spectrum of the world view and aims towards universalism; it becomes ambiguous, fi lled with philosophical thought, metaphysics and mysticism. Evolution is revealed not only in the content-ideological layer, but also in the composition of works. The character of the latest Russian-Israeli literature perfectly refl ects the work of Dennis Sobolev, especially his second novel, Legends of Mount Carmel. Fourteen Stories about Love and Time.