ZOFIA NALKOWSKA AND MIROSLAV KRLEZA OR 'THE IMPATIENT' ONCE AGAIN

It was the observation of a handful of affinities in the use of images in two novels of the 1930s, Miroslav Krleza's 'The Return of Philip Latinovic' and Zofia Nalkowska's 'The Impatient' that prompted the writing of this article. What was its source? Surely Nalkowska was not a person who would commit plagiarism. The answer must be sought in her biography. She had a brief love affair with Krleza exactly at the time when he was writing his novel. It is more than probable that he put into it words and images picked up from her, and conversely, she fell back later on Krleza's words and phrases. These were expressions that she must have heard rather than read off the page, vibrant because steeped in directly expressed emotion. As they were part of her own emotional life, she was able to remember them vividly, and have no hesitation in treating them a her own.