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SGJMJMB V?PMNGP F? DFGI , IGEDALMPQ G IRJQROR PHILOLOGIST JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE, LITERARY AND CULTURAL STUDIES
IV/2011 OOIDIK>IK I K> UKI O>A Vladislava Gordi E Petkovi E Filozofski fakultet u Novom Sadu UDK 821.163.41(091) NARRATIVE STRATEGIES IN CONTEMPORARY SERBIAN FICTION
Abstract: The paper deals with nine authors of contemporary Serbian ction which represent three narrative strategies: postmodern textual play, rewriting history, and ob- sessive confession. However, their common interest lies in the reinvention of reality. Dra- gan Veliki E, Mileta Prodanovi E, Radoslav Petkovi E, Sreten Ugri GiE and David Albahari ma- nipulate facts and ction in di erent ways, exploring the blurry border between the two, and the result of this playful trespassing is meta ction packed with actual events from either recent or remote history. Unlike their male counterparts, Serbian women writers explore the pursuit of happiness as their main motif. Mirjana Novakovi E, Mirjana #ur Kevi E, Jelena Lengold and Ljubica Arsi E either twist master narratives or reinvent inti- mate stories in order to escape preestablished designs imposed by the male-oriented liter- ary canon. Keywords: Serbian literature, postmodernism, meta ction, history.
Contemporary Serbian ction could Petkovi E’s latest novel the Irish poet Wil- be described as an intersection of three liam Butler Yeats appears within a crum- narrative strategies: postmodern textual bling world of the 14th century Constanti- play, rewriting history, and obsessive con- nople, in a vision of a young man whose fession. The greatest concern of the writers meddling with magic will forcibly lead him which will be discussed here, however, is into priesthood and provide him rescue in the reinvention of reality. Both male and the form of the newly acquired identity: he female authors whose work will be pre- will become Philarion. Since the authori- sented in the paper manipulate facts and ties frown upon practical magic, even if ction in various ways, exploring the blur- meant to save the city from the impending ry border that separates the two realms, Ottomite invasion, embracing religion will and the result of this playful trespassing is be Philarion’s narrow escape of death. meta ction packed with actual events However, even as a dutiful monk, this from either recent or remote history. young man will a ront magic yet again, In his novels Destiny, Annotated (Sud- owing to his mysterious tutor, who is a phi- bina and komentari, 1993) and The Perfect losopher and a wizzard. Abounding in Remembrance of Death (Savršeno se Eanje mysticism, philosophy and juicy historical na smrt, 2008) Radoslav Petkovi E explores tidbits, The Perfect Remembrance of Death the ways war, revolutions and unrests is both an esotheric thriller and an adven- shape up social and personal histories. The turous travelogue, as well as a bildungsro- author twists and turns some lesser known man of an enchanter. historical facts so as to induce unexpected In Petkovi E’s previous novel Destiny, encounters of literary heroes and histori- Annotated , which received all Serbian lit- 11 cal personages in time and space. Thus in erary awards, history is used as a material Vladislava Gordi E Petkovi E to be subverted. The narrative is under- On the other hand, Dragan Veliki E pinned by a consistent current of irony and has been warmly received in the German- the narrator uses every opportunity to ap- speaking countries with his novels which peal to the reader by using generic state- mostly deal with personal quest for iden- ments drawing on a commonality of expe- tity amid the turbulent scene of the south- rience. Petkovi E’s history takes on a cycli- eastern Europe. Inclined to investigate cal form instead of the more common lin- personal histories hidden behind the walls ear conception, with historic events rele- of European cities from the Mediterranean gated to the margins of the narrative and to the Central Europe, Veliki E is deeply turned into a backdrop against which the concerned with exile as the condition of personal histories and private turmoils of the modern man. Thus his character Rudi the two main protagonists are presented. Stupar from the much praised novel The The rst two sections of the novel deal Russian Window (Ruski prozor, 2007) trav- with the 18th century Trieste and the third- els from his hometown Szabadka further person narrator whose identity remains to the north in order to invent a new life, unknown to the reader focuses our atten- unburdened with ethnic animosities and tion on Russian naval o cer Pavel Volkov, war con icts. A considerable part of the who desperately tries to navigate his way novel takes place in Budapest, where Rudi among various national and religions com- successfully resettles until the city turns munities of Trieste against the backdrop of into a „Serbian Casablanca“ with the ow the impending Napoleon’s invasion of the of Serbian expatriates who have escaped city, unable to resist to the charm of the the NATO air strikes. Veliki E is at his best wife of a prominent Serbian merchant, Ka- when he casts his elaborate sketches of the tarina Rizni E, a fatal beaty who manipu- cities from Pola to Hamburg, which get to lates him both politically and sexually. The be much more than a mere backdrop to the third section of Destiny, Annotated deals characters’ identity crises. His heroes are with the Budapest in the second half of the con dent but dissatis ed lonely men who 20th century, where both the tone and the try to come to terms with their historical, narrator substantially change: this part of cultural and intimate legacies, looking for the book is written in the form of autobio- their idols and friends among the gures of graphical notes taken by historian Pavle prominent artists who set the example of Vukovi E, in which he describes his doomed successful reconciliation of love, ambition relationship with Márta Kovács and his and faith. visit to Budapest during the Hungarian The inclination toward both the po- Revolution of 1956. Pavle is a Serbian intel- litical and the fantastic can be observed in lectual who unwittingly got caught amid the ctional opus of Sreten Ugri GiE, which the 1956 revolution in Budapest, his desti- is positioned in between political allegory ny intersecting with the eventful life of his and a modern fairy tale with the element of ancestor and namesake, a 19th century of- the uncanny. As elsewhere, the intrusion cer who had been entangled into strata- of fantastic elements begins with the char- gems and schemes of seemingly benevo- acter’s perception of reality as monstrous lent people around him. Petkovi E’s multi- and perverted. Thus in his latest novel, To layered, intricate narratives are packed the Unknown Hero (Neznanom junaku, with both irony and suspense, having 2010), Ugri GiE skillfully combines the burn- earned him a huge critical acclaim in Ser- ing issue of Kosovo with dystopia and fa- bia and abroad, as his novels have been ble, turning the Serbia of the year 2014 into translated into Hungarian, French, Ger- a bleak country packed with terror and ig- 12 man, Greek and Bulgarian so far. norance, corruption and unrest, and the Narrative strategies in contemporary Serbian ction only free media in such a dismal place is Bait , a novel about exile, memory and in- con ned to – telepathy. The love story in heritance. The audio tapes, brought to such a dystopic world cannot but end in Canada from the Former Yugoslavia by the tears and tragedy, but even the much used main character, contain his mother’s per- convention of star-crossed lovers leads to sonal history. The narrator hears his moth- an unexpected twist: the lovers die of gas er’s voice speaking in his mother tongue poisoning after spending only one night „across time and outside of life“(Albahari together, and their lives end before they 1996: 93), equaling her voice to an urn con- have even managed to become the princi- taining the ashes and a substitute to reality. pal narrative concern of the plot. Ugri GiE For the narrator’s mother, „history had boldly uses history and politics as decon- been a fact, a mallet that with inexorable structed metaphors in order to show that precision had come down on her“(Albahari they su ocate love and life in general: an 1996:20). Born in a small Bosnian town, inscription on the wall, saying „Serbia she got married in Zagreb to a communist kills“, turns from a simple reality bite into a Jew from an Ashkenazi family, and con- concept of menace, which over ows the verted to Judaism at the beginning of the world of the novel. Second World War. In order to escape the David Albahari has obviously rein- Holocaust that started in Zagreb, the fam- vented his ction after having moved to ily moved to Belgrade, but the father was Canada in the nineties, focusing upon a sent to a concentration camp and killed. quest for faith, language and identity with- The narrator’s mother has to represent in a historical tapestry which is di cult to herself as an Orthodox Serb again, in order comprehend. Unlike Petkovi E, who o ers to save the lives of her children, and her an elaborate historical background, Alba- manipulations with her identity go on. „I hari is focused upon his character’s claus- never stopped being a Serb, nor did I re- trophobic world of intimate dilemmas. nounce the Jewish faith then. In war, life is The character from the novel Bait (Mamac, a document. What was written on the pa- 1996) is set within an enviroment which per, and on all my papers, still said that I might not be hostile, but is irreparably in- was a Serb” (Albahari 1996: 28). At rst di erent: which is not dangerous, but is forced to change her identity because she dangerously unable to tolerate the intro- „did not exist“ for her husband’s family, the spection and isolation of the expatriate narrator’s mother had to revert to the „old“, hero who is trying to solve the puzzle of abandoned identity which suddenly pro- the identity, the history, and the home- vided her with an existence in the histori- land. Canada has turned into an estranged cal context. The Balkan identities thus utopia whose slowliness and simplicity are seem to be absolutely inconvenient: they dreamlike, but also frightening and un- are subject to change, they must be adopt- natural. Albahari is probably the only Ser- ed and renounced, lost and found. bian storyteller who successfully balances The impossibility of self-identi cati- two landscapes and two wordscapes: living on in the Balkans seems to be as absurd as in Canada, he writes in Serbian for the Ser- the postmodern trans gurations of iden- bian audience, tackling the issues which tity: the narrator’s mother was born shortly are both local and global, as in his Naboko- before the fall of the Austrian-Hungarian vian short novel Ludwig (Ludvig, 2008), monarchy and saw the birth of a new coun- which deals with the touchy subject of pla- try, which rst became the Kingdom of giarism and undeserved literary fame. Serbs, Croats, and Slovenians (1918), then The motives of communication and The Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1929), only to 13 confession are related in David Albahari’s – shortly after World War II – turn into the Vladislava Gordi E Petkovi E National Federative Yugoslavia, and then whose plot joins art history with criminal the Socialistic Federative Republic of Yu- records, and postmodern experiment with goslavia that fell apart in the 1990s. The newspaper scandals, in order to investigate changes of the name and the political sys- the dangerous mystery of a collection of tem denied the possibility of the formation silver gone missing. of a xed identity. The disintegration of Both playful and confessional, either the private self is in uenced by the social- twisting the master narratives or sticking political discourse in a tragic way. In the to intimate stories, Serbian women writers, case of the identi cation of the Balkans unlike their male counterparts, all set to ex- the playfulness and experimental potential plore the pursuit of happiness along with of the postmodern identities are irretriev- its various, unexpected consequences. ably lost to a dismal threat of social exclu- Mirjana ;ur Kevi E’s novel Kaya, Bel- sion. grade and the Good American (Kaja, Beo- Mileta Prodanovi E’s collection of sto- grad i dobri Amerikanac, 2009) is a comic ries Agnus Dei (Agnec, 2009) revolves family saga and a ctitious docudrama de- around the motives of miracle and pen- scribing Belgrade between the 1920’s and ance, using transition as an emblematic the 1950’s, with a wildly hilarious plot condition of either the nation as a whole or which combines melodrama, satire, and the pursuit of an individual. Loaded with mystery. The novel partly reconstructs the irony and grotesque, the stories resemble history of Kalmyks, western Mongolic peo- anecdotes or newspaper sketches, usually ple whose Belgrade temple was the only delivered in the colloquial and jovial tone Buddhist place of worship in Europe be- of an objective, yet bemused reporter. For tween 1929 and 1944. The author uses the instance, the story „Patriotism“ tells of a scant historical records about a Kalmykian religious order „Mary Magdalene“, whose community which resettled in Belgrade af- duty is to provide sexual grati cation to ter eeing from the savage reprisals by Bol- the soldiers in the First World War. On the sheviks during the Russian Revolution to other hand, fantasy, religion and parody weave a compelling story of cultural en- are blended so as to stress the absurd ele- counters. The principal narrative concern ments in the world of today. Thus the story is a Kalmyk girl Kaya who bedazzles John „Agnus Dei“ tells of a miracle which occurs Dyneley Prince, the US Ambassador to Yu- where it is mostly needed, amid crude ma- goslavia and a renowned linguist, becom- terial concerns. The narrator is a business- ing his protégé, but also the instigator of man who made money on recruiting beg- either hilarious or dangerous enterprises, gars, only to nd out one day that his pack such as the robbery of church relics or will- of paupers has inexplicably turned into a ful participation in Nazi experiments. Kaya ock of sheep. Moral and religious hypoc- and the good American are closest friends risy results in a mixture of satire and ca- to Serbian writer, Mica ;ur Kevi E, who is a tharsis after having provoked miracles of humorous and self-ironic incarnation of all sorts: either circus animals suddenly the novel’s author herself. Mirjana ;ur- blurt out the startling testimony of atroc- Kevi E casts a vivid sketch of her namesake ites committed in a small Vojvodinian vil- – a writer, a fencing master and a former lage, or an elderly lady literally grows the student of architecture who ghts tooth new generation of „homo machiavellicus“ and nail for the proper urban planning of from plain tomato sauce. Hypocrisy, greed Belgrade. Most of her stratagems or ideas and blasphemy are frequent motives in the turn awry, but she never gives up on in- novels of Mileta Prodanovi E as well, such is structing Kaya and sel essly helping the 14 the case with Collection (Kolekcija, 2006), Kalmykian community. Mirjana ;ur Kevi E Narrative strategies in contemporary Serbian ction uses the historical records to show both cess and the devil set o on a vampire hunt the abrupt changes in attitudes and out- in order to investigate the case, but also to looks as well as with the intention to de- rede ne their beliefs and priorities. construct ethnic and gender stereotypes. While the seemingly carefree life of Mirjana Novakovi E inserts complex Maria Augusta revolves around her love- cultural and political issues into the frame less marriage, Von Hausburg lives in a hell of an either realistic or fantastic plot, tell- of self-depreciation and resentment. The ing her elaborate tales in a seemingly ca- Devil is both charming and childish, ruth- sual, jovial style. Her two novels, Fear and less and cunning, robust and proud, yet Servant (Strah i njegov sluga, 2000) and Jo- melancholic and lled with self-loathing hann’s 501 (Johann’s 501, 2005) were short- and self-reviling. The novel is packed with listed for the NIN Award, earning critical many vivid sidekicks, a considerable num- acclaim and a wide readership. The novel ber of European kings, counts, generals had seven printings in seven years, which and philosophers are mentioned in pass- is considered a huge success for a contem- ing, and there are also sneering allusions to porary novel in Serbia. former president of Serbia Slobodan Milo- Fear and Servant is a paradox in itself: ševi E, who becomes „a handy lad from it is both a page-turner and a complex ex- Požarevac“. The 18 th century Serbia is a de- perimental novel with a rich referential structured and de-centered community, frame containing political allusions and wallowing in disorder and meaningless- witty parodies of many authors and styles ness. The critical and satirical focus on the from Serbian, English and American litera- homeland shows how successfully and ture. Set in XVIII century in Belgrade un- skillfully Novakovi E handles complex phil- der Austrian administration, the narrative osophical, psychological and scienti c revolves around historical facts such as the con cepts. 1725 arrival of the commission from Vienna Writing truly in the vein of minimalist to investigate vampires in Serbia. Alleged- ction, Serbian writer Jelena Lengold ex- ly, after the death of Petar Blagojevi E in the plores American short story heritage in or- Serbian village Kiseljevo, several peasants der to cast her own unassuming accounts claimed in their dying moments that late of ordinary lives. Her stories focus upon Petar was coming to them during the night the concept of everlasting love and its nu- to drink their blood. After the commission merous triumphs and tribulations, telling and the local priest had exhumed Petar’s of the many ways love can live and die: body, stabbed it with a hawthorn stake and adultery, divorce, dysfunctional family re- burned it, the report about the arch vam- cord or passion dissolved into melancholy pire was sent to Belgrade and Vienna. Mir- and loneliness, among other things. The jana Novakovi E uses this trivial event as a characters’ fear of happiness is almost as trigger for her novel. unbearable as their fear of death, while Fear and Servant tells two versions of their intense awareness of love’s fragility the hunt for vampires: the his-story and stems from their turbulent family histo- the her-story . The he who tells his story is ries. The novel Baltimore (Baltimor, 2003) the Devil himself, under the assumed name portrays a woman in her forties, trying to of Otto von Hausburg, whereas the render- cope with the marital bliss gone sour, to ing of events from a woman’s point of view settle a strained relationship with her comes from Maria Augusta, Princess of mother and to overcome the writer’s block. Thurn und Taxis, wife to regent of Serbia. The heroine develops an eccentric habit: at Joined like Mulder and Scully and in much quarter past two every day she is at her 15 the same way drawn to each other, the prin- computer, watching via web camera a man Vladislava Gordi E Petkovi E in Baltimore heading o to work, quarter from the battle eld of love, women „es- past eight his time. She names him Edgar cape” back to the kitchen while men set o after E. A. Poe, and promotes him into an for the pub. Routine is a desperate game, imaginary friend and lover. She constructs according to Arsi E, and her book actually his quotidian routine and emotional his- accuses literature of having murdered the tory, believing that the deepest bonds are romance. created between strangers and that the This short overview of narrative strat- most intimate friendship springs where egies used in novels and short stories col- people know nothing of one another. The lections written by nine contemporary Ser- other plane of the narrative tells of the bian writers intends not only to shed some character’s visits to her psychoanalyst. Her light on their artistic practices, but also to personal history unwinds, not particularly serve as a modest proposal for their pro- stressful but marked with pain, melan- spective translation. The focus of this arti- choly and fears. The novel ends with a puz- cle was predominantly upon those either zling remark: „Nobody will ever know why already translated or translatable works of I went away, where I went and what be- ction, which might win the heart of the came of me. Some will try to nd the clues foreign reader with their narrative mastery. in my rst and last novel. They will start looking for me in Baltimore, but in vain.” References The wordscape of the novel suggests that the search for love actually was only a part 1. Albahari, David (1996), Mamac , Beo- of the journey towards death, yet the grad: Stubovi kulture. search for the meaning of life might have 2. Arsi E, Ljubica (2005), Maco, da l’ me resulted in the new novel, which the hero- voliš? , Beograd: Narodna knjiga. ine is desperately trying to write all along. 3. Gordi E Petkovi E, Vladislava (2007), Na For Ljubica Arsi E, love seems to be a ženskom kontinentu , Novi Sad: Dnevnik. genuine rabbit-hole echoing with cynical 4. Gordi E Petkovi E, Vladislava (2010), and scornful laughter aimed at our secret Mistika i mehanika , Beograd: Stubovi dilemmas. Her ctional patchwork Baby, kulture. do you love me? (Maco, da l’ me voliš? 2005) 5. ;ur Kevi E, Mirjana (2009), Kaja, Beo- tells of how love descends into the dark- grad i dobri Amerikanac , Beograd: La- ness of routine by using a kaleidoscope of guna. literary plots. The novel stems from the list 6. Lengold, Jelena (2003), Baltimor , Beo- of hundred sentences which regularly oc- grad: Stubovi kulture. cur in lovers’ discourse. Each triggers a 7. McHale, Brian (1987), Postmodernist narrative on what happens when love goes Fiction , London and New York: Rout- sour with everyday routine. The characters ledge. in Arsi E’s wordscape vary from the Serbian 8. Novakovi E, Mirjana (2009), Fear and highwayman Hajduk Veljko to Fidel Cas- Servant , translated from the Serbian by tro, from Goethe to Batman, from Napo- Terrence McEneny, Beograd: Geopoeti- leon to Don Quixote. They are used in a ka. rewriting of myths about love and devo- 9. Petkovi E, Radoslav (1993), Sudbina i ko- tion which is largely playful and experi- mentari , Beograd: Vreme knjige. mental, but also deliberately packed with 10. Petkovi E, Radoslav (2008), Savršeno se- stereotypes taken from contemporary cul- Ea nje na smrt , Beograd: Stubovi kulture. ture and media. Men and women in this 11. Petkovi E, Radoslav (2010), Destiny, An- string of narratives behave like natural ele- notated , translated from the Serbian by ments, „warring for regiment” or killing Terrence McEneny, Beograd: Geopoeti- 16 each other for sport. In the end, all ee ka. Narrative strategies in contemporary Serbian ction 12. Prodanovi E, M. (2009). Agnec. Beo- 14. Ugri GiE, S. (2009). Neznanom junaku. grad: Stubovi kulture. Beograd: Laguna. 13. Veliki E, D. (2007). Ruski prozor. Beo- grad: Stubovi kulture.
PRIPOVEDNE STRATEGIJE SAVREMENE SRPSKE PROZE
Rezime
Rad prikazuje recentni opus devet savremenih srpskih pisaca i njihove pripovedne strategije, koje se mogu svrstati u tri grupe: postmoderni tekstualni eksperiment, preispisivanje istorije (što podrazumeva i opis i interpretaciju istorijskih doga Kaja) i ispo- vedanje. Sve ove strategije povezuje motivacija ponovnog otkri- vanja stvarnosti, a isto tako i potreba da se preispita uidna gra- nica koja razdvaja literarno od autenti Gnog. Dragan Veliki E, Mi- leta Prodanovi E, Radoslav Petkovi E, Sreten Ugri GiE i David Alba- hari pišu meta kciju Giji je otklon od realnog uvek usmeren prema postmodernisti Gkom problematizovanju istorije, koja je uidna i amorfna jednako kao literarni tekst, do Gim Mirjana Novakovi E, Mirjana ;ur Kevi E, Jelena Lengold i Ljubica Arsi E svaka na svoj na Gin oblikuju i velike istorijske teme i male pri- vatne pri Ge, izmi GuEi klasi kacijama koje uspostavlja književni kanon u kom dominiraju muški pisci.
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