MOTIV STRAHA I NJEGOVI MEHANIZMI U HRVATSKOJ FANTASTIČNOJ NOVELI 19. STOLJEĆA
THE MOTIF OF FEAR AND ITS MECHANISMS IN THE CROATIAN FANTASTIC NOVEL OF THE 19TH CENTURY

Summary/Abstract: Given that from Romanticism onward the fantastic in world narrative fiction centers around the idea of fear of the unknown and inexplicable, this paper explores the manifestations of this emotion in selected Croatian fantastic stories from the 19th century. Since the concept of genre is a variable category dependent on a number of literary and non-literary factors, this paper also discusses topic and genre qualification, especially considering the presence of motifs related to the emotion of fear. In the Western literature of the 19th century, the fantastic narrative genre with the motive of fear as the main narrative core is quite frequent. Some elements of fantastically intoned literature with features of literary horror are also present in the research corpus: from the romantic features of Jorgovanić’s fantasy, the bridging of realistic poetics and the turn to mysticism in Gjalski’s stories to the modernist psychologization of Matoš and Leskovar. Although traditional Croatian literary historiography does not interpret its basic corpus through the prism of the motif of fear, its presence leads to a number of research questions: how does fear manifest itself in the narrative text?, which narrative level does the emotion of fear belong to?, how does the motif of fear participate in the production of the fantastic and irreal? etc.

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