A Dystopian Perspective of (Auto)biography Transponed to Storytelling

The article presents for the first time a section of Vasa Stajić\u27s autobiographical notes, which describe his stay in Paris in 1901 and encounters with A.G. Matoš. The credibility of Stajić’s memories is confirmed by comparison to other documents that refer to the same people and events as Stajić. The notes on Matoš have triggered an inquiry into processes of transformation of real into literary character, which was also detected in prior studies on Matoš’s prose. The conclusions that we have reached confirm earlier views on Matoš as an autobiographical prose writer and reinforce moreover Mladen Leskovac’s assertion that Vasa Stajić is actually transposed into a character of Matoš\u27s novella named „Duševni čovjek” (The Spiritual Man). Understanding Matoš\u27s affinity toward autobiographical inclusion even in his less known novellas evinces his posture regarding possible transformation of society, which was present both in his work and his Parisian sojourn, and found its counterpart in Vasa Stajić\u27s work. Matoš\u27s literary relocation of Vasa Stajić indicates Matoš\u27s dystopian attitude toward possibilities for change in a society that he describes or that forms part of his surrounding during his stay in Paris, but also points out to so far unnoticed motivation of his characters which are related to both theory and practice of anarchism