Aliquot

Life as an uninterrupted game (afterword by Anita Peti-Stantić)

Aliquot by Jasna Horvat, writer and scholar, a Renaissance author in constant quest for knowledge, cognition and discovery of the unknown at the intersection of past and present, is in many ways a multi-layered novel whose internal organisation gives rise to numerous, and possibly quite divergent interpretations. An assemblage of characters revolves around those that appear to live in the present, and those that might seem to have lived in the past, but, existing in a cyclical world such as the Aliquot’s, the latter actually still live in their intensively busy present.
The representative of the present, and of bridges, is Dane Puljiz, who strives to understand the clash between the Western European and Ottoman culture, and attempts to experience that clash by travelling the world. Very few people show even a glimpse of understanding for his travels, simply because these searches fit neither into the expectations of everyday life nor into issues that seem relevant to the majority. At the other side of his journey are Vasco da Gama and Melek Jaša, both sprouting out of a legend, but the roles have been cast contrary to our expectations. Strength and determination, giving and taking, followed by uncompromising sharing, is on the side of Dubrovnik-born Melek Jaša, who was forcefully taken away, initially submissive, but risen out of his own shadow, rather than on the side of Vasco da Gama, universally acknowledged as one of history’s greats. Anchored in all the available writings, starting from a 1925 study by Vladimir Mažuranić “Melek Jaša Dubrovčanin in India in the years 1480-1528 and his predecessors in Islam ten centuries ago”, to the historical adventure novel “Jaša Dalmatin: Viceroy of Gujarat” by Ivana Brlić Mažuranić published in 1937, but also woven out of imagination and poetic dreaminess, Aliquot is a novel that comes from (and requires) erudition, but allows both reading with a key, and an intuitive adventure of text (re)creation.
It is a voyage from Osijek and Slavonia to Dubrovnik, and then, expectedly, over distant seas to parts unknown. The past brought to life in the novel is relevant for the present. It is a past that, summed-up and multiplied, makes a whole with the present, in the same way that an aliquot makes a whole with the number of which it is an aliquot part, inseparable from it in this specific interconnectedness, and yet having its own character, independent in its wholeness and uniqueness. As the past and present interlace, there are numerous other characters that pull the reader into the adventure, whether it be one apparently ordinary Ružica, who is anything but ordinary, or mathematical greats such as Pythagoras, Eratosthenes or Ulam. Whoever it is about, the story is focused on fractals of life of the chosen individuals that have, according to the author, devoted themselves unreservedly to their visions and their times.
Because of its complexity and multi-layered structure, Aliquot, the author’s first novel, is very much a reflection of her intuitive and intellectual world, conceived of and realized as a metatext guided by mathematical principles, presented here for deciphering to those who are patient enough.

Invisible publishing

Nives Tomašević & Jasna Horvat

„Nevidljivost“ nakladništva istaknuta u naslovu ove knjige ključ je za razumijevanje njezine osnovne ideje, ali i cjeline predmeta: skrivene moći nakladništva u proizvodnji i promicanju kulturnoga identiteta. Polazeći od suvremenih i u posljednje vrijeme iznimno atraktivnih pojmova postmaterijalizma, kreativne ekonomije i proizvođenja kulturnog identiteta, autorice pružaju nov pogled na nakladništvo kao dio kulturne i kreativne industrije. Kako je riječ o relativno novome fenomenu, postavke koje autorice donose korektno su potkrijepljene relevantnom literaturom, a prohodnosti teksta pridonosi bogata likovna građa raspoređena po rubnicama. Takav pristup metodički je opravdan ponajprije zbog studenata koji će se priručnikom služiti od prve studijske godine sve do doktorskoga studija. Studenti ovdje mogu dobiti pregled brojnih definicija kulture, kulturne i kreativne ekonomije, industrije dokolice, književnoga nagrađivanja, resursa knjige, dokumentarizma prisutnog u književnoj produkciji i postmaterijalizma. Uz definicije pojmova i fenomena suvremenoga nakladništva priručnik donosi i primjere njihove konkretne primjene, poput Standardnog eurobarometra 69, konstruiranja i provođenja istraživanja o nagradama, povezivanja nakladništva i turizma i komentiranja rezultata istraživanja o turizmu u Republici Hrvatskoj. Autorice pokazuju na vlastitim primjerima nakladničke proizvodnje mogućnosti spajanja književnosti i turizma, nakladništva i drugih segmenata industrije dokolice. Posebno zanimljivo poglavlje Glagoljički kulturni kontekst upućuje na komercijalne mogućnosti glagoljice kao baštinskoga pisma. Dionice o semiotičkim sposobnostima glagoljičkoga pisma otvaraju cijeli niz novih znanstvenih hipoteza podignutih na temeljima više različitih znanosti. Svojim novim ideja o kreativnoj ekonomiji, industriji dokolice i nakladništvu kao mediju proizvodnje kulturnoga identiteta, ali i sretnom kombinacijom dviju profesija, Nives Tomašević kao urednice/znanstvenice i Jasne Horvat kao profesorice ekonomije/književnice, ova će knjiga zasigurno postati tražen i omiljen priručnik za studente nakladništva i komunikologije, ali i privlačno štivo za sve koji žele da im se nakladništvo i njegova kulturotvorna uloga osvijetle i tako učine „vidljivima“.

Fairycon

Folktales about fairies, old mythological women from Croatia in a completely new light in the novel Vilikon. Through discussion of Marco Polo and Kublai Khan, which is written by author herself, from the novel, can be learned all about fairies in Croatia. Vilikon is a special contribution to the heritage and culture of the Croatian history, which in the novel through the character of Marco Polo ties with the Mongols and the Mongol Empire. The novel is structured as a play field magic square of the number 12, in which the chapters are listed.
“Parallel interpretations of postmodernist novels, Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino and Vilikon by Jasna Horvat confirm several postmodernist determinants within Brian McHale’s theoretical framework. Next to the ontological structure of both novels, the author seeks to show the narrative, formative and combinatorial structures. Literary procedures that contribute to their construction are: intertextuality, auto-reference, topoi, networks, and lemmatization. The backbone of both novels is a mutual intertext that implies mutual characters, but with a different theme and motif. Auto-reference in Invisible Cities is evident in the atlas metaphor, chess and reflection, whereas in Vilikon the auto-referential framework is based on the manuscript of the novel and the network metaphor. Postmodern topoi like mirrors, labyrinths, maps, travels, lexicons, and networks are also analyzed. Although most literary procedures coincide in both novels, the key for interpreting in Vilikon is a novelty compared to Invisible Cities.“

(Buljubašić, Varga-Oswald: Parallel interpretations of Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino and Vilikon by Jasna Horvat)

Introductory statistics

Udžbenik Osnove statistike sadrži iscrpna pojmovna pojašnjenja iz područja statistike s posebnim naglaskom na analizama zanimljivim za ekonomiste i privrednike. Ujedno udovoljava znanstvenim i nastavnim kriterijima, ponajprije izraženim u načinu na koji prezentira temeljna znanja iz statističke teorije i prakse. Izložena građa razdijeljena je u dvanaest poglavlja prikazanih na 680 stranica s 310 tablica, 23 shematskih prikaza, 200 primjera, 196 slika te 91 grafikon. Na kraju svakog poglavlja ponavljaju se prethodni sadržaji kako u pitanjima za provjeru teorijskog znanja tako i u praktičnim primjerima za vježbu zadataka. Snalaženju u pregledu trenutačnih spoznaja doprinosi i pregled literature te preporuke za uporabu statističkih programa za računala. Rubnice udžbenika donose zanimljivosti iz znanstvenog i popularnog okruženja te na taj način potiču na proširivanje i produbljivanje stečenih znanja. Premda je udžbenik Osnove statistike ponajprije namijenjen studentima preddiplomskih, diplomskih i poslijediplomskih studija i istraživačima društvenih znanosti, zbog svoje višenamjenske uloge može biti zanimljiv nestatističarima, računovođama, revizorima, rukovoditeljima, privrednicima i srednjoškolcima. Udžbenik Osnove statistike sadrži dvanaest poglavlja: - Temeljni pojmovi - Numerički niz i grafičko prikazivanje podataka - Deskriptivna statistika - Osnove vjerojatnosti - Slučajna varijabla - Sampling distribucija i procjena parametara populacije - Testiranje hipoteza - Hi-kvadrat test - Korelacijska analiza - Regresijska analiza - Indeksi - Trend

Auron

The novel AURON is an intriguing and innovative novelistic text, focusing on the ideal and single perfect proportion to the human’s eye – the golden ratio. The golden ratio, a universal code present both in all of nature and in the universe as the complete harmony between the whole and its parts, has inspired artists and scientists of different profiles for centuries, especially painters, sculptors, architects, mathematicians, designers and constructors. And while earlier-period authors were familiar with it as well, adapting their epic poems, sonnets, dramas and even epigraphic monuments (Baška tablet being the most beautiful one) to the demands of the ideal composition, twentieth-century literature (whether in aspiration for avant-garde shocking or in the practice of postmodernist disproportion and fragmentation) has almost completely lost its sight for such quests.
By incorporating the golden ratio, on one hand, in its fundamental compositional and narrative concept (through the ratio of chapters and narrators with regard to several different criteria) and, on the other hand, in its main thematic orientation (the golden ratio is the subject matter of several topic threads, described in various and for the reader interesting ways), Auron presents a novum not only in Croatian literature but in literature in general. With its theme placed in the contemporary age (Šibenik and Osijek in the second half of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century), presenting an attractive theme (confirmed in reality) about the theft of the halo from the St. Mark sculpture on the Šibenik Cathedral and the confession of the act following about 20 years later, a variety of different male and female characters in everyday life situations (family, love, business and recreational affairs) recognizable to the contemporary reader, Auron presents the ideal read for an exceptionally broad spectrum of readers; from those looking solely for a good and interesting story, over the ones prone to the search for a perfected narrative-stylistic bravura, to artists, scientists and everyone else willing to seek the eternal and ever-intriguing codes of the world we live in.

Translated By: Josipa Forko, Master of English and German Language and Literature

Bizzarium

BIZARRIUM consist of fifteen stories about the city of Osijek, on known and unknown people who have entered into their major attachment - life, work, residence, passing, fate or coincidence - living in others, with others, and among others. All of these characters bizarijskih bizarre and interesting story, Osijek's axis, as we ourselves are the axis of each other, and the like are all together, arranged in a series of imaginary vezničkom. Fate of which tells Bizarij (Emperor Constantius II., Isabella von Habsburg, John Korođ, A. Bernhard, Maximilian de Gosseau Heneff, Eugene of Savoy, Suleiman the Magnificent, Adela Dessaty, Nikola Zrinski, Ilija Lekic, a dancer Suleiman, Mary Pejačević ...) are very different, belonging to different historical times, falter, or simply unfold flow in different ways.

“The novel Bizarij (2009) preserves a cultural memory of the town of Osijek, at the same time recycling faction through fiction just as the author did in her other novels (Az, Auron, Vilikon). The novel here is being seen as a post-OULIPO (Ouvroir de littérature potentielle) narrative that shapes a conceptual Romanesque-like structure primarily as grammar code for subordinate conjunctions and their dependent and independent clauses in Croatian language. Apart from the grammar code for novel composition and its conceptualization, as well as its 15 chapters, the novel provides very important ties between the narrators and the characters and their elaborate distribution. A key figure is a phantasmagoric character of Isabella von Habsburg, functioning as the novel’s recurrent theme, but also a Jacques Lacan-like point de capiton. The conceptualization of Romanesque-like structure is also achieved by further elaboration of symmetry motive, used at several discourse layers in various ways. The symmetry exists in distribution of the narrators’ voices, as key order of narration. The novel has 15 different narrators and particular importance is given to interconnection between the characters and the narrators and their ties to socio-historic periods they belong to. It is the very order of the characters and/or narrators through different criteria – gender, historic period, profession, and their ethnicity – that gives the convincing and credible multi-layered cultural memory of the town of Osijek. At the same time, it deconstructs some established notions and prejudices, and yet builds some new, possible ways how to perceive the town or its history. A distinct, narrative set of methods that is characteristic for a scientific, lexicographical discourse type, additionally proves our ‘reading‘ of Osijek as a cultural mnemotope.”

(Kos-Lajtman, Buljubašić: A Conceptual Mnemotope of Osijek in Jasna Horvat's Novel Bizarij)

AZ

Pilot of the novel takes place in the 9th century, at the time the brothers Constantine (Cyril) and Methodius. The central figure of the novel is the Constantine the Philosopher, the creator of a new Glagolitic alphabet in which the characters are stored not only the letter but also numeric and symbolic value. Constantine has found the inspiration for Glagolitic letters in the game of Nine Men\\\'s Morris, or mill, the game that is played everywhere since childhood... As construction of the rosette and its various plot, which was performed Glagolitic letters, Constantine confirms the importance of combinations, as well as novel as a whole, a structure composed by numeric values ​​of Glagolitic letters, where each chapter opens a letter, confirming the importance of play as such.Plot of the novel takes place in Istanbul, Kerson, Moravia, Dalmatia, Venice and Rome. Life story of Constantine Cyril, from different angles and in different ways, illustrate four narrators (Methodius, Empress Theodora, Anastasius the Librarian and the Croatian prince Mutimir).
“The novel Az by Jasna Horvat, with Glagolitic alphabet in the core of its thematic, structural, conceptual and ludic concept, is characterized by creative play and creation at all discourse levels. An important place in such an approach belongs to numeric symbolism, which is used in multiple ways at different textual levels and in all parts of the novel. By combining numeric, alphabetic and symbolic coding of Glagolitic alphabet with the complex structure of the novel, the fragmentary quality of each part, but also the mosaic quality within chapters, the author is building numeric and symbolic combinations corresponding to the semantic code of the Glagolitic script. Numeric and symbolic permutations include the semantic level of each chapter, but also the particular recurring motifs, into a coded network in which a certain chapter, character or situation has a designated place, defined by the symbolism of Glagolitic numerology.
The complex structure of the novel (four parts and four narrators, and the fifth who is outside the story, but the most important one for unveiling the numeric and symbolic potency of the text) can be expressed through a mathematical formula 4+1, where number four may be viewed through traditional symbolism of arrangement in the world, through Christian symbolism of four Gospels, through the concept of a quadrant planning field, which, according to some hypotheses, was used for the construction of Glagolitic characters, as well as through the symbolism of a rosette/mandala based on the geometry of a square and circle, the relationship of quaternity and trinity, the human and divine. By means of the concept of a game called the Mill, which plays an important part in the novel, the numeric structure becomes crucial - through the model of transforming a trigonal game into a tetragonal, through nine intersections and nine “mill” stones corresponding to nine chapters in the first three parts of the novel, with nine ones, tenths and hundreds, and, on the symbolic level, to the number of Glagolitic characters expressing the basic message of the Glagolitic script, and to the century when it originated.”

(Kos-Lajtman: Glagolitic-coded numeric and symbolic combinations in the novel Az by Jasna Horvat)

The bonefires

Krijesnici by Jasna Horvat (2009) brings us worlds of fantasy, each in its own way, with certain points of commonality (first of all, by touching on the elements of the Potter-type of novel), but also with differences, which are most evident in their attitude towards the early Croatian mythological substrate as an intertext and an important constitutive element of the fantastic realm. The entire fantasy world in the novel Krijesnici, and the structure of the story itself, rests on a literary template based on a mythological and historiographic intertext – on the novel Knez Zoran by Dragutin Nemet (1929). Hence the fantastic in the author Horvat, besides serving as a means to present tense adventures of child protagonists, is first of all a means for the presentation of characters and situations of early Croatian mythology and folk tradition validated in the Croatian literary, historiographic and oral-folkloric discourse.

A letter in a letter

The book A Letter in a Letter is an unusual form of an epistolary novel: it is designed in the form of a letter exchange which took place over the course of almost two years between the author Jasna Horvat and Irena Vrkljan, the first lady of the Croatian literary autobiography. Written with the techniques like epistolary immediacy, simultaneousness, quotation, documentary, scientific annotation and lyric passages the novel brings an abundance of cultural themes, emotions and questions about identity and true values.
The author of the book is the professor at the Faculty of Economics in Osijek and as the narrator seeks room for herself in the gap between arid profession and lively escapes from everyday life, between Osijek and global touristic travels, between everyday working life and all sorts of perusals. In her simple, but elaborate, in no way pathetic, inconspicuously documented, emotional and always witty letters to Irena, the author writes about her travel impressions, her literary and cultural observations based upon numerous qoutes, her family memories and recollections while trying to find her own "essence" and thus establish her own identity despite all the gaps and the dissipations facing her.
The book has been inspired by Irena's book Pisma mladoj ženi (Letters to a Young Woman). As an accomplished author, Irena Vrkljan has advertently accepted the role of a means to help the development of Jasna's persona and art, and Jasna has assumed the role of a young, talented woman who by meeting the great Irena develops her own personality and art in a diverse and splendid manner.

Gemfeather's sayings

Slavs Mythology
By employing the chatty bird Alemperka (Gemfeather), the companion of the highest Slavic god Svarog, as narrator, Jasna Horvat passes on ancient Croatian myths that are hardly familiar anymore except from some folk songs, sayings, proverbs, and folk customs. The allegoric- symbolic tales and legends mirror the old Slavs’ view of the world’s organisation. They describe the creation of the world and of the first human beings, talk about the sky and the underworld, about the world tree, kind or evil gods, fairies, ghosts, and giants. Through their combination of rhymes and rhythmic prose, the texts perfectly lend themselves to reading aloud and are clearly reminiscent of folk poetry. The appendix, which explains names and specific terms to the readers, is also very useful. The illustrations resemble bright panel paintings and thus underline the symbolic character of the tales. They help young readers grasp the content of the texts even more easily. (8+)
The book Alemperkina kazivanja (Gemfeather’s Sayings) is an interesting, unusual, informative and sententious collection of short stories. Such a refreshingly shaped text woven by poetry and prose transfers the stock of the hereditary identity, which is an important part of the national identity recognition process in young readers in these globalizing times, in a simple way.
Jasna Horvat leads us through her stories into the world of more or less known legends, giving life to fairies, good and evil gods and goddesses. She offers the new dimension of reality with her poetic text interfering like a true expert of something that children’s sentiments can’t easily explore or understand.
Primarily, she nourishes positive attitude towards the tradition and teaches about the forgotten parts of the historical heritage.

Lost fairy

Antiatlas

Može li se putovanjem ostvariti potreba za upoznavanjem prostora i kultura? Nosimo li na putovanja ono što je doista potrebno i jesmo li na putovanjima drukčiji no inače? Kako se pokrećemo, koga upoznajemo i što pamtimo?
Pitanja su to na koja čitatelj može dobiti odgovor u Antiatlasu Jasne Horvat nastalom u Osijeku nakon autoričinih povrataka s najrazličitijih odredišta. Susreću se tu Indija i Jordan, Izrael i Meksiko, Kina i Brazil, Palma de Mallorca i Krk, Pariz i Barcelona, Moskva i Beograd, Kopenhagen i Tallinn, Sankt Peterburg i Helsinki, Stockholm i Beč te Zagreb i Osijek. Antiatlas donosi razmišljanja o ljudskoj pismenosti, o odlikama hebrejskog i majanskog pisma, Lullovoj Ars magni i hrvatskoj glagoljici, uspoređuje življenja po tradicijskom kanonu i po odlikama novoga doba. Antiatlas je knjiga i o suputnicima – važnom i vrijednom „začinu“ odjeljivanja iz kolotečine i svakodnevice, u njemu su portretirani važni kulturni predstavnici proputovanih destinacija, turistički vodiči, slučajni prolaznici, ali i autoričini bliski prijatelji.
Antiatlas je istodobno hommage putovanju, književnosti i prijateljstvu. On je kulturološka studija, intimni itinerarij te autoričin idearij u koji su upisani poticaji za stvaranje njezinih književnih tekstova. Neka od opisanih putovanja dio su tekstova koje je Jasna Horvat u tom trenutku ispisivala, a neka od putovanja nadahnula su autoricu za buduće, danas uglavnom ukoričene tekstove.
Osim što Antiatlas može poslužiti kao vodič i putnički priručnik onima koji putuju, ujedno je i vodič onim putnicima koji ne putuju već u svakodnevici traže putokaze za širenje vlastitih spoznaja o kulturi, filozofiji, povijesti i baštini. Time Jasna Horvat potvrđuje tezu kako je svaki dan jedno novo putovanje te da se tekstom ostvaruje odlazak u druge prostore jednako kao što se uobičajene vizure svakodnevice izoštreno uočavaju tek odlaskom i/ili pristankom na putovanje .
Moja zapisana putovanja moj su Antiatlas umnogome različit od onoga koji tražim. Pisala sam ga nazivajući samu sebe Alem­perkom – mitskom pticom pričalicom, a po uzoru na one putnike čija su traganja za idealnim mjestom ostala sačuvana posre­dovanjem pisane riječi. Ti su putnici Odisej i Don Quijote, Ksenofont sa svojim Efeškim pričama, Ibn al-Džubajr, Evlija Čelebija, Ibn Haukal, Lav Afrikanac, Dante s Božanstve­nom komedijom, a iz ovih naših krajeva – Marko Polo sa svojim Milijunom, Vladimir Mažuranić sa studijom Melek Jaše Dubrov­čanina, Hektorović sa Ribanjem i ribarskim prigovaranjem te najrazličitiji biblijski i jeruzalemski itinerariji i svi ostali tekstovi koji su ozbiljavali moju potrebu da imagi­narno ovjerim u stvarnom. Antiatlas okuplja stvarna zbivanja i stvarne mape te predstavlja jedan od načina kako se izgubiti u vremenu i pronaći u prostoru. U njemu se nalaze fragmentirani i izrabrani dijelovi putopisa koje sam pisala i u obliku pisama slala svojim prijateljima. Prvi dio započinje apodemijom – uzvikom najave kretanja na put – u njemu se istodobno susreću odlazak i povratak, umijeće puto­vanja i umijeće ostajanja, pisanje i čitanje, stvarno i imaginarno. Drugi dio nastajao je po uzoru na čuvenu ars apodemicu ili nauk o umijeću putovanja. U njemu sam razmiš­ljala o ovodobnom Homo viatoru – čovjeku u hodu i pokretu te sam mu namijenila svo­je podsjetnike koje koristim kao dio osobne metodike „umijeća putovanja“.

Vilijun

The novel Viijun (2016) by contemporary Croatian author Jasna Horvat is set in the year when the great ruler Kublai Khan and his confidant Marco Polo reach a parting of the ways. After the 17-years service in Kublai-Khan's Court, Marco Polo pleads to be allowed to return to the Kingdom of Croatia. Kublai Khan insists on Marco explaining the reasons why he should let him return home, which is at the same time the occasion for this fellowhisp at the very end of Kublai Khan's life.

Besides providing a comprehensive account of Croatia — his homeland on the Adriatic Sea where fairies, invisible women from the Kingdom of Croatia, dwell, Marco Polo also mentions experience he gained in the Khan's Empire, as well as the travellers going along the two routes on the Silk Road to bow before the Great Khan. In his accounts, Marco Polo mentions both Korčula, Šibenik, Venice – the cities on the coast of the Adritic Sea and the cities along the continental and sea trade routes on the Silk Road. Almost like a magic song, descriptions of mediaval stations emerge before the Great Khan's eyes. Literary connection between today's China and Europe is presented through descriptions of geographical locations, history and culture of the cities along the Maritime Sea Route, which take Marco back to Croatia and Europe (Bagan, Chengdu, Camblau, Hormuz, Arbil, Trabzon, Constantinople) by the author applying the concept of storytelling from an outside the time perspective. The Silk Road in two Marco's directions, from West to East and from East to West, generates in Vilijun a palindromic sequence of reading the same in either direction favoured in the poetics of the Oulipians – writers and mathematicians whose expression is very close to that of the author Jasna Horvat.
The plot takes place throughout a year in which Kublai Khan and Marco Polo spend their time at the Khan's residences. Here the reader finds out about the life of the Great Khan in the capital city Camblau, his hunting habits as well as the valuables of the Great Empire such as tea, spices, silk, porcelain, cashmere, paper and compass. By getting to know Kublai Khan more thoroughly the reader gets an insight into the wealth of the then Empire, the nomads travelling along the sea and continental route on the Silk Road and cultural exchange between East and West. On the occasion of their parting Marco Polo and Kublai Khan exchange gifts - Marco Polo is given the Map of the World and the Golden tablet – the special passport through the Khan's Empire, and Kublai Khan a salt nugget from the Kingdom of Croatia and the word million which was invented by Marco Polo to describe the greatness of Ancient China.

The novel Vilijun is adorned with numerous quotations from Coleridge's poem Kublai Khan or A Vision in a Dream , Orhan Pamuk's Snow , Jorge Luis Borges's The Dream of Coleridge or Calvin's Invisible Cities and many others. With these quotes, the novel becomes a literature catalogue of major world writers dealing with Kublai Khan and Marco Polo as the main theme in their literary texts. All of the above mentioned leads to the conclusion that the novel Vilijun connects the Great Empire with today's China, and today's China with cultural achievements of the Silk Route as pivotal, all-time link between East and West.

Atanor

Atanor je roman za čije se dubinsko čitanje ključ nalazi u periodnom sustavu elemenata položenom u središte ljudskoga postojanja. Likovi su metafore kemijskih elemenata, a životopisi i uloge u romanu određene su im svojstvima elemenata koje predstavljaju.
Radnja romana opisuje trenutak u kojemu je glavni lik Vatroslav Pero Horvat (vodik – špijun) doznao za nestanak Sunčice Davorke Završnik (helij – kemičarka znanstvenica). To dvoje junaka kozmički su povezani od postanka svijeta jer, kako doznajemo, helij je element nastao mutacijom vodika, prvog i kozmički najstarijeg elementa u periodnom sustavu elemenata. Takvim povezanostima zbog kojih smo jedni drugima kozmički i duhovni srodnici ne mogu umaknuti niti ostali likovi ovoga romana. Time je periodni sustav elemenata književna mapa, no ujedno i krvna slika kozmosa kroz koju se čita uloga svakog lika-elementa, a uzbudljiv zaplet Atanora pred čitatelje postavlja novu knjigu igračku koju je moguće čitati u svim smjerovima.
Naslov romana povezan je s enigmom ljudskoga tijela i rijetkih spoznaja. Kozmička peć (atanor) istodobno označava životvornu toplinu, težnju za stvaranjem plemenitih djela, ali i gibanja koja izgrađuju zbilju. Riječ je to kojom su alkemičari označavali peć za pripremanje eliksira besmrtnosti, oznakom je ljudskoga tijela te je time i pojednostavnjena slika kozmosa.
Atanor je posljednji u nizu oulipovskih romana Jasne Horvat i još jedna knjiga igračka otvorena mnogim raznovrsnim načinima čitanja. Atanor je i pametan roman jer su u njega ugrađeni QR kodovi, a čitatelji se njime koriste uz pomoć pametnih telefona.