Crafted Memories

The Blue Street owed its name to the sapphire fumes of opium and calm-fruit coming out of the pipes of glass hookahs. The buildings were colourful and winding, and everybody seemed to be high or drunk. Or both. Violence was almost unheard of, as the guilds of thieves kept a close eye on everything, well aware that blood would only draw in the city guard, giving the trade council the reason to jump up on their feet and begin preaching about the decay of civil virtue, of which Silktown, of course, had none. “Does Oak know we’re leaving?”“Only Crow and Blackbird know,” he smirked. “So, it’s only a matter of time when all the crew, together every drunkard in the docks, finds out.” “Don’t you trust our brothers?”“Crow I trust, I trust Blackbird too, but I trust his love for mead more.”“Who taught you to be so vicious?”“Why, you, of course.”“You couldn’t have learned anything nice from me, could you?” Needle looked at her with a hint of gentleness and curiosity. “Only the bad stuff?”“Like wh...

Peter Ackroyd’s novels explore encounters with the past in the present of literary creation. Through the figure of the ghost, the usual borders between past and present are crossed as elements or characters from the past resurface in the present. This analysis explores the ways in which Ackroyd’s works engage with the past in three singular life narratives. It hovers around two main steps that highlight conversations with the past: the first one considers the textual instances of communication, while the second addresses diegetic components. Through ‘transtextuality,’ past words and texts are used again in the novels, emphasizing how the ghost of the English canon pervades and invades Ackroyd’s works. Through the apparitions of spirits, along with the introduction of all-absorbing places, objects, or bodies of communication, spectral manifestations keep resurfacing in the novels. The ghost of the English literary tradition combined with specters and spirits embody how Ackroyd’s life na...

Following the twentieth-century’s spatial turn in literary and cultural studies, this paper examines spaces and spatiality in Don DeLillo’s novel Falling Man, a seminal fictional response to the most traumatic (spatial) event in the USA at the turn of the century. Starting from Robert T. Tally Jr.’s thesis that authors are cartographers, I analyze how DeLillo acts as a mapper of the post-9/11 space. By exploring the depictions of the altered spatial landscape DeLillo creates, and the world he thrusts his characters into, I examine the intricate relationship between space and identity. Ultimately, I argue that the loss of a familiar and dependable space creates unfamiliar spaces the characters struggle to navigate.Keywords: space, spatiality, DeLillo, Falling Man, 9/11, post-9/11 literatureIn the introduction to his 2013 book Spatiality, Robert T. Tally Jr. claims that “over the past few decades, spatiality has become a key concept for literary and critical studies” (3). Exploring the d...

I WAS in three languages and I died in all three of them.

So how come you still speak?

I wound myself around the bodies of three nations and then I sought an escape.

Then why haven't you yet?

I echoed every poem, every word three times then I fell silent.

Have you finally forgotten about them, so you may begin anew?

I entered the hearts of three women and I devoured each.

What have you done with...

U posljednjoj knjizi koju je objavio prije nego što si je oduzeo život, I sommersi i salvati (Utopljenici i spašeni), Primo Levi razmišlja, ovaj put ne u formi svjedočanstva već eseja, o toj nerješivoj zagonetki zašto neki – u rubnim situacijama kada im prijeti istrebljenje i smrt – imaju čudesnu sreću da izvuku živu glavu dok drugi, možda čak i većina, nesreću da se utope, odnosno, da ih uništi slijepa mržnja i nepravda proizašla iz povijesnih okolnosti, diktatura ili volje za moći.Postavljam si to isto pitanje od 27. lipnja 2023. u 19 sati i 28 minuta, kada je ruski projektil tipa Iskander, visoke preciznosti i natovaren sa šest stotina kilograma eksploziva, eksplodirao nad našim glavama u jednoj pizzeriji u Kramators'ku, na 21,6 kilometara udaljenosti od crte bojišnice između slobodne Ukrajine i Ukrajine koju su okupirali Rusi.U tom paklu koji se srušio s neba s jasnom namjerom da nanese najveću moguću štetu, izazove najveći mogući broj žrtava, najsnažniju bol i patnju, šezdeset lju...

Georges Perec (1936. – 1982.) zasigurno je jedan od najznačajnijih francuskih romanopisaca druge polovice 20. stoljeća. Godine 1967. postao je član Oulipo-a (OUvroir de LIttérature POtentielle, hrv. Radionica potencijalne književnosti), književne skupine koja je osnovana 1960. godine, u razdoblju koje je u povijesti francuskoga romana obilježeno intenzivnim traganjima za novim književnim formama i načinima izraza. Osnivači skupine, koja je i danas aktivna, bili su Raymond Queneau i François Le Lionnais, a neki od njezinih članova Italo Calvino, Noël Arnaud, Jacques Bens, Ross Chambers, Hervé Le Tellier, Jacques Roubaud, François Le Lionnais, Michele Metail itd. Oulipovci se zanimaju posebice za formalne aspekte književnih tekstova te stvaraju poštujući samonametnuta rigorozna pravila. Susret s Oulipom presudno je utjecao na djelovanje Georgesa Pereca, koji se danas drži jednim od najvećih inovatora na području književnosti. U svom prvom romanu Stvari (1965.) opisuje svakodnevicu mladog...