The Banquet in Blitva explained

Italic Title:yes
The Banquet in Blitva
Author:Miroslav Krleža
Title Orig:Banket u Blitvi
Orig Lang Code:hr
Translator:Edward Dennis Goy & Jasna Levinger-Goy
Country:Kingdom of Yugoslavia (first and second books)
SFR Yugoslavia (third book)
Language:Croatian
Genre:political satire
Pub Date:See below
English Pub Date:2004
Pages:337
Isbn:9780810118621
Isbn Note:English version only

The Banquet in Blitva: A Novel in Three Books (Croatian: Banket u Blitvi: roman u tri knjige) is a political novel by Miroslav Krleža. The story takes place in the fictitious northeastern European nation of Blitva, which, after centuries of foreign rule and political instability, has become a newly independent state under a dictatorship headed by Colonel Kristian Barutanski. The novel is generally regarded as a satire of interwar Yugoslavia.

Structure

The novel is split up into three books, narrated by an observer "from a distant and foggy foreign country".[1] The first two parts of the novel deal with the political situation in Blitva and two figures present in the country: Colonel Barutanski, its dictator, and Niels Nielsen, an intellectual and dissident. The third part reflect on Nielsen's life as a dissident, including his personal doubts and past actions. The first two parts were published in 1938 and 1939, respectively, but, due to political pressure, Krleža did not publish the last part until the 1960s. Only the first two parts of have been translated into English.[2]

Themes

The book has been described as a satire of "eastern European backwardness and western European decadence" and a critique of rising fascist sympathies in interwar Yugoslavia.[3] Other writers, such as, have compared the events in the novel to Józef Piłsudski's Poland.[4]

References

Notes

Notes and References

  1. Book: Krleža, Miroslav . 1938 . Banket u Blitvi: roman u tri knjige. 1 . The Banquet of Blitva . hr . Miroslav Krleža. Zagreb. Biblioteka nezavisnih pisaca.
  2. Book: Krleža, Miroslav. Edward Dennis Goy. Jasna Levinger-Goy . 2004 . The Banquet in Blitva: A Novel in Three Books . . Northwestern University Press . 9780810118621.
  3. Encyclopedia: Miroslav Krleža . . 25 December 2023 . Crnković . Gordana . 7 January 2024.
  4. Encyclopedia: Banket u Blitvi. Krležijana . 1999 . Leksikografski zavod Miroslav Krleža. . 7 January 2024. hr.