Poetics and the Representation of Water in Tea Tulić’s Old World Vultures and Esther Kinsky’s Rombo
Contemporary literary texts challenge traditional cultural constructions and representations of water, fostering fluid and anti-essentialist debates that transcend the dichotomy between nature and culture. Through hybrid narratives, they highlight the intricate entanglements characterizing life on Earth. I examine here specific literary-aesthetic representations of water in the Anthropocene, using examples from Tea Tulić’s Old World Vultures (Strvinari starog svijeta, in Croatian only) and Esther Kinsky’s Rombo (German literature). Particular attention is paid to the portrayal of the city of Rijeka in Tulić's novel, with the central question being how people live together in this rapidly changing port city. The presentation also examines the narrative possibilities of depicting the Karst region and the interdependence between people and their water-shaped environment.
Milka Car is a Full Professor at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, and an editorial board member for the journals Zagreber Germanistische Beiträge and Umjetnost riječi. Her research interests encompass theater reception phenomena, documentary literature, intercultural literature and cultural transfer, and contemporary Germanophone literature.
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