Фикција као сведочанство: Први светски рат у модернистичкој прози (Милош Црњански, Иво Андрић и Растко Петровић)

Abstract

У раду се разматрају књижевнотеоријске импликације приказивања Првог светског рата у фикционалној прози европског и српског модернизма. Како проучавање књижевности посвећене Првом светском рату отвара више тема које по својој природи захтевају интердисциплинарни приступ, увиди из новије културне историје Првог светског рата, студије памћења, сведочења и трауме, као и теорије фикције, жанра и приповедања, употребљени су да би се указало на повезаност између различитих појава које су обележиле европску културну историју после 1918. године...

This thesis seeks to reconsider some implications - mainly those that hold a particular interest for literary theory - of the representation of World War I in European and Serbian modernist fiction. Given that any study of World War I literature opens itself to a variety of topics which, by their very nature, require an interdisciplinary approach, insights derived from the New Cultural History of the First World War, Memory, Testimony and Trauma Studies, as well as theories of fiction, genre and narrative, are summoned up in order to emphasize the connection between some distinct, though interrelated, features of post-1918 European cultural history. Various phenomena emerging during the interwar period, such as the appearance of the war veteran as a “moral witness”, the flourishing of war literature, and the advent of postwar modernism, are situated in their context and considered synchronically. This contextualization has a double aim. On the one hand, it invites us to consider the specificity of the modernist representation of World War I, as opposed to other contemporary modes of literary representation, some of which were modern, some traditional. For the purpose of contrast, the war novels of Henri Barbusse, Roland Dorgelès, and Erich Maria Remarque are frequently singled out and analyzed in this context. On the other hand, its aim is to trace the beginnings of a significant transformation, occurring towards the end of the Twenties, within the relationship between the fictional literary genres (mainly the novel) and the nonfictional ones (testimonies, autobiographies, and memoirs). This transformation would in many respects turn out to be hallmark of the second half of the 20th century. The insights derived from this preliminary survey are then tested by analyzing the representation of World War I in the narrative fiction and critical prose of three modernist authors - Miloš Crnjanski, Ivo Andric and Rastko Petrovic. Focusing on Crnjanski’s novel The Journal of Charoevich and his short stories, the early prose of Ivo Andric and The Bridge Over Drina, as well as the successive versions of Petrovic’s novel the Sixth Day, this analysis seeks to contribute to a better understanding of the attitudes towards literature, history and the First World War which these authors shared with one another and with other prominent modernists.