Information about Milorad
Pavic
Milorad
Pavić (Serbian: Милорад
Павић) (born October 15,
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
In
1991 he was elected as a member of
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[Information]
- [Introduction] – [Analysis] – [Conclusion]
Academic year
2008/2009
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés López
© Marta Gimeno Mínguez
margimin@alumni.uv.es
Universitat de València Press