Što je urbano u 'urbanoj prozi'? Grad koji proizvodi grad iz kojeg proizlazi suvremena hrvatska proza
What is Urban in "Urban Prose Fiction"? The Codification of City in Contemporary Croatian Fiction

Summary/Abstract: This essay addresses the notion of »urban prose« as used in the contemporary Croatian literary criticism. It wishes to discuss the phenomenon of the city in contemporary Croatian literature. Grounding its main methodological approach in the disciplines of cognitive geography, urban and socio semiotics and studies of everyday life (Barthes, Greimas, deCerteau etc.), the essay focuses on the basic theoretical divisions of space morphology and the uses of urban space, observing the simultaneous processes of production and representation of the city in the contemporary Croatian fiction. Common features in these texts are semantic privileging of urban periphery, permanent nomadism of the subject and the creation of heterotopy (Foucault) by the usage of urban space different from its designated function. It is for this reason that a very significant symbolic space is given to the changes in consumerist topography of Croatian reality in the period of transition and to the literary articulation of the re-evaluation of the main consumerist imperative for shopping. Consequently, it can be claimed that contemporary Croatian prose fiction does not just reflect but also restructures the sense of the city by highlighting the main neuralgic spots in the codification of the urban transition.

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