Identitet subjekta u književničkoj autobiografiji i „biografija djela“
Subject identity in the fiction writer’s autobiography and the “biography of a work of fiction”

The case of Mato Lovrak’s novel Pero Kvržica među ljudima, published in 2014

Summary/Abstract: The paper explores the construction of subject identity in Mato Lovrak’s autobiographical discourse, using the novel Pero Kvržica među ljudima [Pero Knobble among people] (2014) as an example. Constructed in an intertextual manner – as a metatext of sorts – via the mediation of a (autoreferrential) narrative on the origin and reception of the author’s most famous novel, Družba Pere Kvržice [Pero Knobble’s Gang], Lovrak’s autobiographical novel is analysed at the level of the object text (second-degree text), with Družba Pere Kvržice as its referent (first-degree text). The paper identifies strategies by which Lovrak’s narration brings the notion of the merging of the author and his work – in complete contrast to theories which (whether partially or completely) deny such a unity – to the level of a symbolic function, deepening the complex issue of the textual construction of subject identity within the autobiographical discourse, especially when its author is a fiction writer. Further, the paper explores the use of a pseudo-heterodiegetic narrator, the role of the referent text, relations within the chain of communication (author – text – reader) and between documentarism and fictionality. The metaphor of the “biography of a work of fiction” presents the basis of the author’s construction of “self” and functions as his primary element of identity which has an important influence on all major elements of the object text. The subject identity is construed in a documentary and fictional manner, while Lovrak’s autobiographical discourse possesses the qualities of a sign which, in addition to structural elements and functions, engages in a playful interpretation of all the other elements of the literary communication chain.

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