Time and the Vanities of Existence in Antun ?oljan’s Fiction

摘要

This paper explores the theme of hope and hopelessness in a selection of Antun ?oljan’sstories and novels and how the author creates in his heroes an interior atmosphere of inquirythat is paradoxically laden with uncertainty and the human instinct to move forward. A“parabolic moralist” (as Davor Kapetani? has called him), ?oljan depicts the world as morethan a simple continuity of events, political, personal, private or public. His major concern isto make sense of man’s existence in a universe that confronts him with both linear time and arepetitive or circular series of events. Examining the apparent contradictions of linear vs.circular existence, the author often places his characters “out of time” and analyzes any givenlife by finding its important events, actions and desires. While ?oljan’s heroes often concludethat temporal things are of little lasting value, he leaves his philosophically andpsychologically battered heroes with at least a small possibility of hope.