THE (UN)HIDDEN AMERICA IN SRĐAN VALJAREVIĆ’S COMO

Abstract

This paper explores the yet unexamined image of America as a global capitalist power in Srđan Valjarević’s Como. The very title, evoking the northern Italian lake and city of Como, sets the spatial coordinates of the novel’s chronotope, while the Rockefeller Foundation scholarship – its driving motive – and Villa “Serbelloni” as a site of American cultural influence remain overlooked in most readings. Consequently, the interpretive potential for exploring the relationship between the narrator – a marginal figure of Yugoslav
origin – and American, Western influence through Rancière’s notion of the politics of literature and postcolonial theory remains unexplored. Through close reading and the aforementioned theoretical perspectives, this paper aims to reveal the (un)hidden figure of America in Como, a central work within Valjarević’s prose and a notable piece of contemporary Serbian literature.