THE EXILE IN VLADAN DESNICA’S NOVEL THE WINTER SUMMER VACATION

Abstract

Vladan Desnica’s first novel The Winter Summer Holiday is recognized as the writer’s
important prose text. One of the key themes which, as will be shown, affects the narrative thread in this novel, is the issue of exile. The relation between the city and the countryside, which was regularly found in Desnica’s novel, is actually recognized as the relation between exiles and non-exiles. The fate of exiles is an important issue and its importance should be carefully noticed. The exile in the novel goes through several stages: first of all, the exiles leave the space of trauma, move and find another space for themselves – the space where they can go on with their existence. But finally, that new space, like any other, turns out to be a place of constant and open trauma that only confirms the finality of homelessness. The exiles form new illusions; when they realize that it’s impossible for them to adapt, they try to break away, leave and run away but they are again faced with an endless exile. Writing the biography of an exile, The Winter Summer Holiday – 75 years after its publication, is one of the key places of modern literature.