The thesis examines the question of a need for storytelling which is discussed from the point of view of philosophical anthropology and through the literary analysis of Danilo Kiš’s autobiographical novel Ashes, Garden (Bašta, pepeo, 1965). Philosophical reflection on storytelling as an existential need is based on Paul Ricoeur's understanding of the need for storytelling and the theory of trauma as outlined by Cathy Caruth through psychoanalysis. The thesis emphasizes the characteristic language of trauma, which serves as the basis for the literary analysis of Kiš's novel. The literary analysis of the Garden, Ashes is based on a reflection on the peculiarities of Kiš’s autobiographical writing, as shown in this narrative of the traumatic memory of the story of a father who died in Auschwitz. In the analysis, the author focuses mainly on Kiš's literary procedures, which question the status of reality in the autobiography and which allow the trauma to speak for itself.
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