THE INNER AND OUTER EXILE IN THE NOVEL CATCH THE RABBIT BY LANA BASTASIC

. is paper's aim is to analyse the phenomenon of the inner and outer exile in the novel Catch the Rabbit (2018) by Lana Bastasic. Apart from the author belonging to the group of writers in exile due to not creating in her mother country/countries (Bosnia, Croatia) but abroad (Spain), her novel also thematises the escape from the homeland, as well as the later return. Sara, the protagonist, is therefore exposed to a double exile: to an objective, geographical exile (from Bosnia to Ireland) upon the Yugoslav wars in the 1990s; but at the same time to an inner, emotional one, empowered by the escape from her former best friend, Lejla. Lejla, identified with the protagonist's home country Bosnia, is here represented as the Otherness, the exotic instrument of self-reflection and an ambivalent object of the simultaneous desire and disdain. Sara's relation towards the mother tongue is also a subject of the analysis, as well as her relation towards former Yugoslavia, but also Ireland, which challenges her perception of her own identity.