BALKAN IDENTITY BETWEEN THE ORIENT AND EUROPE IN MILORAD PAVIĆ’S “DICTIONARY OF THE KHAZARS”

• Authors: Karásek Matej
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

This article analyses the cultural, historical and religious contexts of Milorad Pavić’s post-modern novel “Dictionary of the Khazars”. Its aim is to analyse the role of Oriental, Balkan and European literary and folkloric motifs as the means of Pavić’s original narrative strategy. Another goal is to discuss whether Pavić’s employment of these motifs could be framed in terms of Gingrich’s concept of frontier Orientalism, or should be conceptualized by other categories. Pavić’s approach toward the Balkan’s common identity seems to be more likely based on the idea of a crossroad than the idea of “no man’s land” of liminal frontier area. The author discusses the accuracy of applying already existing theoretical concepts to Pavić’s works and tries to propose conceptual instruments that would enable to see the work of this postmodern writer in a more accurate manner.

Keywords

EN

FRONTIER ORIENTALISM; BALKANISM; MILORAD PAVIĆ; ORIENTALISM; BALKAN IDENTITY; KHAZARS

• Publisher: Institute of World Literature, Slovak Academy of Sciences
• Journal: World Literature Studies
• Year: 2018
• Volume: 10
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 39 – 49

Contributors

author

Karásek Matej

• Department of ethnology and Non-European studies, Faculty of Arts, University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius, námestie J. Herdu 29, 17 01 Trnava, Slovak Republic