The function of the chronotope of school in the contemporary novel for children

Abstract

Starting from Mikhail Bakhtin's and Yuri Lotman's theoretical postulates of space in an art work, the paper investigates the chronotope of school in the contemporary Serbian novel for children. The introductory part of the paper presents a review of prevailing attitudes of literary theoreticians towards space in prose works. In the central part of the paper the chronotope is seen as a meeting place for diverse populations and the initiator of the plot. The function of the prom was pointed out. The final part gives a review of the fabular, summary and chronotopic features of the novel. The corpus of investigation consists of the following novels: Miroslava Mihajlov Cerović's Schoolyard, Vladan Zec's The diary of one staff room, Boško Lomović's The theft of a mobile phone in class 7 B and Dragutin Beg's A party in school and Milutin Đuričković's: Twins and Friday the 13th.

Keywords

• chronotopic features of the school novel
• a youth novel
• elements of a detective novel
• privileged moments of school life
• the maturing of the young hero