Neopicaresque elements in the novel Vjetrogonja Babukić i njegovo doba [Babukić the Vagabond and his time] by Miljenko Jergović

Abstract

In the subtitle of the novel Vjetrogonja Babukić i njegovo doba [Babukić the Vagabond and His Time] (Zagreb, 2021), Miljenko Jergović also mentioned its genre feature - a picaresque novel. This paper problematizes the novel’s genre determination presented in the title and establishes that this novel is an example of a neopicaresque novel in Croatian literature. This novel is about the adventures of the vagabond Babukić, which he experiences on his aeroplane trips and at the airports that have become his only home. During the development of the story, the narrator gives the careful reader a series of metatextual signals through which he warns about numerous stories in the story, thematizes the story and time in the novel, and problematizes the issue of genre. The modernist design of the narrative category of time, in which it deviates from the genre of the picaresque novel, is present in the work. At the end of the novel, it is evident that it is the vagabond Babukić's transcendental journey. This neopicaresque novel connects two seemingly contradictory characteristics of the theme in the work. The first theme refers to the need to preserve the integrity of an individual in the novel. The second theme is manifested in a strong tendency towards intellectualistic introspection, featuring the neopicaresque novel.