The Poetics of Elusive Structure (On the Novel Astralni niz by Feri Lainšček)

Abstract

The basic tension on which the entire structure of criminalistic novel operates is the antagonism between a criminal and a detective. In Lainšček's novel Astralni niz (The Astral String) this very antagonism is contaminated by the fact that the criminal does not exist and that detective does not perfom the expected role of crime solving. The novel is structured accroding to the principle of a spiraling plot, which results in open-endedness: although the murders are explained, one strike of an astral force does not preclude the second, the third one, etc. Hence, all the characters are connected into a spiral flow of being trapped and fatally helpless. Their role unites them on the same pole of the actant plane and means acting as a medium-victim