DEMISTYFIKACJE CHORWACKIEGO RAJU W PROZIE INSULARNEJ DRUGIEJ POŁOWY XX I W XXI WIEKU

The doctoral thesis is an attempt to elaborate on the meanings and functions which are played by an island in the newest Croatian insular prose, moreover, it is an attempt that is to lead to negation of colloquial, trivial and strictly tourist representation of the country. The object of the research is eight contemporary, that means, created in the second half of the 20th and at the beginning of the 21st century, novels in which plots take place on selected islands on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. The author executes an overview of the isles using the Paul Ricoeur's method of exploring the symbol, which has been depicted in the text Symbol gives rise to thought from the volume Existence and Hermeneutics. Following the philosopher's idea, she indicates four symbols – a desert, a prison, the theatrum mundi and a garden – by which she tries to approximate the main symbol. The author elaborates on each of the topics on the basis of two different novels, portraying two dissimilar interpretations of the notion and uncovering which human experiences the functioning of a particular picture is connected with.