Milorad Pavić (Serbian:
Милорад
Павић) (born October 15,
1929 in Belgrade)
is a noted Serbian
poet, prose writer, translator,
and literary historian.
Pavić has written five novels that have been
translated into English: Dictionary of the Khazars: A Lexicon Novel,
Landscape Painted With Tea, Inner Side of the Wind, Last Love
in Constantinople and Unique Item as well as many short stories not
translated to English. His uncle, Nikola Pavić, wrote in the kajkavian
dialect of Croatian.
Though Pavić's novels can be enjoyed by
reading them cover-to-cover, among his stated goals are a desire to write novels with unusual forms,
and to make the reader a more active participant than is usual. In an interview
published in 1998, Pavić said,
"I
have tried my best to eliminate or to destroy the beginning and the end of my
novels. The Inner Side of the Wind, for example, has two beginnings. You start
reading this book from the side you want. In Dictionary of the Khazars you can start with whatever story you
want. But writing it, you have to keep in mind that every entry has to be read
before and after every other entry in the book. I managed to avoid, at least
until now, the old way of reading, which means reading from the classical
beginning to the classical end."
To achieve these ends, he has used a number of
unconventional techniques in order to introduce nonlinearity
into his works:
·
Dictionary of the Khazars takes the form of three cross-referenced encyclopaedias
of the Khazar
people
·
Landscape
Painted With Tea mixes the forms of novel and crossword
puzzle
·
Inner Side of the Wind — which tells the story of Hero and
Leander — can be read back to front, each section telling one
character's version of the story;
·
Last Love on
Constantinople has chapters numbered after tarot cards;
the reader is invited to use a tarot deck to determine the order the chapters
are read
·
Unique Item has one hundred different endings and the
reader can choose one.
Last Love In Constantinople and Dictionary of the Khazars both
have male and female versions, which differ in only a few brief, critical
passages.
As such, many of his works can be considered
examples of ergodic literature.
He has also written one play. There are more than
80 translations of his writing, into many languages. Milorad Pavić was
nominated for the Nobel prize in literature by experts in Europe, the USA and
Brazil.
In 1991 he was elected as a member of Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
in the Department of Language and Literature.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milorad_Pavi%C4%87_(writer)
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[Second Paper] [Introduction] [Autobiography] [Plot] [Time] [Conclusion]
Academic year 2008/2009
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés López
© Dolores Nácher Rubio
donaru@alumni.uv.es
Universitat de València Press