PERSPECTIVES OF JUSTICE: A NARRATIVE READING OF THE STORIES „JUSTICE” BY VLADAN DESNICA

Abstract

This paper interprets Vladan Desnica’s short story Justice as a narratological and philosophical construct that reexamines truth and justice through the dynamics of narrative perspective. Applying Bakhtin’s methodology and modern narratological concepts focalization, chronotope, and metasubjectivity the analysis demonstrates that Justice transcends the boundaries of a short story, becoming a model for reflecting on moral judgment and the limits of human understanding. The paper identifies a triadic narrative structure (narrator, double, reader) that generates a polyphonic dialogue on justice. Desnica’s homodiegetic narrator, both observer and analyst, embodies the allegory of the author-creator and the metaphorical modern judge of reality. A comparative view with Kurosawa’s Rashomon and Babaja’s 1966 film adaptation highlights the relativity of truth, moral ambiguity, and the cinematic dimension of Desnica’s prose. Ultimately, the study concludes that Justice presents three forms of justice subjective, collective, and divine suggesting that true justice is attainable only through a hermeneutical reconstruction of context.