87:, Slovenia. Having kissed Vlasta, Nani gets to the conclusion that his relationship with Zdenko is just a consequence of the unnatural boarding-school environment. Zdenko can't accept this as the truth. While talking about their relationship, they are caught by the headmaster who prohibits them from socialising with each other. After some months of depression, Zdenko decides to suppress his feelings towards Nani. Nani is happy about it, but they find it hard to forget what has happened between them, and they are again caught together by the headmaster, who excludes Nani from the school just before the end of the school year. Nani and Zdenko meet again in
91:, Slovenia, to spend the summer holiday together. During the holiday, Nani writes down his memories of his relationship with Zdenko. When the new school year begins, they only rarely see each other and finally lose contact. Nani starts a relationship with a girl but gets ill and dies soon afterwards.
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relationships, just as the seemingly heteroerotic life is profoundly shaped by strong reminiscences of homoeroticism. Furthermore, Novšak provides a distinctly unhappy ending. Nani dies at the end of the novel, so he can't live his life as a heterosexual man, which was his firm decision. Zdenko's end
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boarding school, which suppresses the erotic development of students on the one hand and abuses boys in a barely disguised way on the other. The awakening of the boys' eroticism culminates in the almost iconic bathroom scene, where Nani and Zdenko admire each other's naked bodies, stopping just short
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relationship for gay characters. However, there are some traces of a more affirmative approach to the depiction of homosexuality in Novšak's novel and, according to Zavrl, Novšak does not subscribe wholeheartedly to the concept of the passing phase. Rather, he tacitly deconstructs it. There is no
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without any reference to the ‘passing phase’ of homoerotic attachments. Nani and Zdenko are acutely aware that ‘these things’ are prohibited and they find themselves at the inevitable crossroads: should they accept external morals or clutch to their personal ones, risking conflicts with the
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environment? After the very intense and life-changing school year they eventually surrender to external pressures and decide to go separate ways. But not before spending the last summer together, in which Nani writes down his memories of the year – the novel that we have just read.
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boarding school in Zagreb, Croatia, where Zdenko is the subject of great admiration, with students as well as educators generally regarding him as the most beautiful boy. Despite the differences in their backgrounds, the boys’ relationship becomes very intimate very quickly.
156:. At the most, literary criticism mentioned it as a novel about the harmfulness of single-gender Catholic educational institutions, which caused homosexual practices. The criticism of Catholic education was, actually,
112:, thus trying to make their admiration of the same sex socially acceptable. For instance, when Nani kisses Zdenko, he compares his lips to girls’ lips and believes that outside the institution his life could/should be
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Zavrl, Andrej (2016). France Novšak: oris življenja in dela. In Novšak, France. Dečki: Roman iz dijaškega internata. Ljubljana: Lambda. Pages 255-317. COBISS 288039936.
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Zavrl, Andrej (2016). France Novšak: oris življenja in dela. In Novšak, France. Dečki: Roman iz dijaškega internata. Ljubljana: Lambda. Pages 255-317. COBISS 288039936.
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The first magazine and book editions caused controversy, especially among
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in 1977. However, there were just two screenings of the movie in that year. The next one was held at the
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The eponymous boys of the novel, Zdenko
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The erotic moments between the boys in the movie are quite explicit. The original
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