Faculty of Philology and Arts

This paper explores the dehumanizing consequences that the ultimately restrictive, 'politically correct' mechanism of social interaction can yield, as exemplified in David Mamet's play Oleanna (1992). In the course of a detailed analysis of themes, motifs, and overall cultural background of Oleanna, the aim was to contradict the misdirected criticism which focused on sexual harassment as the core issue of the play and to demonstrate how intricate, mostly subconscious social norms imposed by the establishment of political correctness are, in fact, those corrupting sources which prevent the two protagonists, John and Carol, from achieving meaningful communication. The sole concept of political correctness and its underlying mythically utopian propositions prove to be the main alienating forces further expanding the gap between individuals, who are too vulnerable to expose themselves to a chaotic world in order to rebuild the one which has failed them. Finally, it is by making necessary connections between the social, political, and personal aspects of Oleanna that this paper ventures to propose what Mamet has refrained from doing -a solution to what has been perceived as devastating repercussions that the passive acceptance of superficial reality eventually leads to, in the form of critical revaluation of that same reality in order for it to become 'real' once again.

Предмет анализе у овом раду су два дела Радослава Петковића, роман Савршено сећање на смрт и збирка есеја Византиијски интернет, као подручја преиспитивања византијског наслеђа. Централна проблематика рада лежи у повезаности између историје и фикције, као и улози историје у формирању културног и индивидуалног идентитета човека. Историја се открива као дискурзивни пандан фикцији и каопоследица људске потребе да осмишљава себе у сваком времену. Са друге стране, Петковићево стваралаштво нам говори да је немогуће изопштити се из историје, али и да је морамо унутар сопствене матрице деконструисати како бисмо постали свесни свог наслеђа.

НЕМОГУЋНОСТ ПРИЧЕ И НЕОПХОДНОСТ ПРИЧАЊА: НАРАТОЛОШКА АНАЛИЗА КРАТКЕ ПРИЧЕ РУЖА ЗА ЕМИЛИ ВИЛИЈАМА ФОКНЕРА 2 У овам раду ауторка примењује типологију приповедних фигура Жерара Женета у оквиру наратолошке анализе кратке приче Вилијама Фокнера Ружа за Емили. Посебна пажња посвећена је Женетовим функцијама начина и гласа, при чему је наратор одређен као колективни хомодијегетички и фокализација као унутрашња. При одређивању ових функција испитани су и потенцијални недостаци наратолошке теорије и указано је на границе примене основних наратолошких категоризација. Постављена су питања порекла наратолошке перспективе и њене сврсисходности у презентацији главног протагонисте приче. Ова временски анахрона, карактерно децентрирана и наративно разобличена прича у оквирима наратолошке анализе пружа закључке о немогућности онтолошке разрешивости фабуле као претпостављене приче, али и о неопходности континуираног процеса приповедања у коме се живот једино и одвија.

This paper aims to distinguish among and subsequently analyze diverse aspects of cultural stereotypes, with special emphasis on complex issues of gender, in David Henry Hwang's play M. Butterfly (1988). The overt as well as implicit presuppositions regarding cultural and sexual identities are in this play exemplified through the intricate relationship between Western and Oriental social mores and perspectives, which are further complicated by a fluctuating conception of gender. Themes of competing ethnicities, fluid sexuality, discrimination, and political hegemony are analyzed against the backdrop of Judith Butler's performative theory of identity and Edward Said's study on Orientalism. These theories dispute the idea of one's identity as a stable, monolithic concept, determining it as a fluid phenomenon, substantially dependent upon a social audience. Once applied to the intricate web of complex relationships among the different identities projected by the protagonists of M. Butterfly, the propositions of these theories paint a picture tainted with racism and sexism. The resulting discussion uncovers the dominant-inferior structure of the West-Orient relationship and a similar mapping of male-female categories, which interlock in a template of cultural stereotypes and subsequent discrimination. Shifting semi-ironically from one cultural stereotype to another, M. Butterfly ends in a complete abandonment of the revaluation of established convictions, while the main protagonist opts for a fictionalized world of preset generalizations. On the other hand, Hwang's message proves to be a warning against fiction as a replacement for reality, for only through such action does human life gain its value.

Овај рад за предмет анализе узима провокативну драму америчког драмског писца Едварда Олбија Коза или, ко је Силвија? (Прилози за једну дефиницију трагедије) (2002), са циљем да испита односе које путем ње Олби успоставља са традиционалним наслеђем трагичког жанра. У митопоетском кључу, ослањајући се превасходно на концепцију ритуала прелаза коју је уобличио Виктор Тарнер, Коза се проматра као потенцијална реинтерпретација ритуално-митског обреда иницијације са освртима на теорију мономита Џозефа Кембела. Користећи увиде Линде Хачн у пародију као постмодернистичку технику улажења у окршај са позитивистичко-хуманистичком заоставштином књижевности, указује се и на Олбијево поигравање са традицијом и језиком путем метатеатралности, метатекстуалности, интертекстуалности, пастиша, и иронизованог дискурса. У оквирима наведене интерпретације, главни протагониста Козе, Мартин, указује се као трагички лик заробљен у лиминалној (средишњој) фази иницијацијског обреда, из које не може изаћи будући да је ре-интеграција у савремено друштво оптерећено идеологијама које партикуларизују човеково јединство са светом непожељна. Олби заиста пружа једну нову дефиницију трагедије својом драмом Коза, указавши на неуспех pharmakos-а, односно жртвене животиње која се уопштава на ниво трагичког протагонисте, да данас изазове катарзу на сцени -она се преноси у публику, која са нелагодом напушта позориште. Као и у његовом целокупном опусу, Олбија и у овој драми интересује првенствено тема љубави, како њен опстанак у савременом добу, тако и њена многострука обличја и трансформативни потенцијал у човековом животу. Проблематизујући табу, он нас суочава са нама сâмима у жељи да подстакне почетак самоспознаје и осећање интегралне повезаности једних са другима, да пробуди везу са прошлошћу коју смо жртвовали боговима савремене цивилизације.

The aim of this paper is to interpret Samuel Beckett's novel The Unnamable inside the framework of poststructuralist criticism, primarily that of Jacques Derrida. The first part of the paper is dedicated to exploring Beckett's specific, bilingual situation in relation to how The Unnamable is narratively constructed. The main analysis focuses on the novel's narrative structure as a process of endless discursive deconstruction of the narrator's self, which, nevertheless, continuously aspires toward that end, toward silence. Special emphasis is placed on the analysis of the discursive treatment of the body, narratively positioned as the cultural product and physical setting of such discourse, but also as an insurmountable obstacle in the process of self-deconstruction, which can only go so far. We come to the conclusion that it is via The Unnamable's stream-of-consciousness narration and its attempted dissolution of the self, established in the Western metaphysical mindset, that Beckett most radically criticized the ideological conception of identity.

The aim of this paper is to conduct an analysis of Kazuo Ishiguro's first novel A Pale View of Hills (1982) in order to discern the origins of his distinct narrative methods which have enabled him to tackle the intricate notion of memory and its temporal manifestations. In his debut novel, Ishiguro effectively blends chronologically shifting narratives, which associatively link to each other, thus pointing to a disturbance in Etsuko's, who is the novel's protagonist, perception of her past. By understating the most frequently emphasized modes of characterization, Ishiguro constructs a type of realism which presents itself as speculative on account of being highly reliant upon subjective perception. The temporal frameworks employed do not obey the principles of conventional linearity, but contribute to a structure of the traumatic memories that resist overt treatment and demand an evasion that involves a distortion of the expected methods of recollection. The temporal gaps reveal the nature of remembering as complex and influenced by taught mechanisms of ordering past experiences, but also by those mechanisms which function subconsciously and refuse to comply with the usually perceived notions of how the present interrelates with the past.

In this paper, Leslie Marmon Silko's short story "Lullaby" is analyzed within the framework of deconstruction and trauma theory, as a narrative attempt at resignification of familiar worldview patterns. The theoretical base involving C. S. Peirce's triadic conception of meaning as cyclic in nature -an infinite semiosisprovided a useful framework for interpreting Silko's "Lullaby" as a narrative modeling of traumatic memory in need of sense-structuring, which in its progression demystifies the perceived solidity and straightforwardness of Western meaning-construction techniques. "Lullaby" is a powerful story about marginalization and, as such, it displaces margins, bringing about a temporary collapse of the ideological center. It constructs potentially revolutionary meaning by denouncing available patterns of producing signification and by disclosing them as constrictive and discriminatory. Ultimately, the failure of its protagonists to reach positions of power does not imply a failure of the narrative to testify to a struggle for the right to signification, which is what its every reading reopens and keeps alive.

A permeating theme in Kazuo Ishiguro's opus is the theme of memory, structured both individually and collectively. In his novel Never Let Me Go (2005), the genre of dystopian science fiction is subsumed under this theme, which is taken on in this paper in order to explore the phenomenon of loss and its problematic constitution. The methodology will encompass insights pertinent to trauma theory, which envisions the concept of loss as inherently qualified by an existential lack, which again conditions the narrative structure of the novel and destabilises expected notions of formal and thematic progression. On an individual level, loss is conceived of via memory, which sheds light on the core issues of the novel. They filter down to never letting go and remaining with the Other if one is to truly mourn and respect the Other's separateness, but also their ties to us, to our own lack, of which loss is only a symptom. This aspect of Ishiguro's fiction reveals the ethical aspect of loss. He paints a world marked by subtle confrontations with the human condition, which is essentially intertwined with trauma and loss, both simultaneously vital and detrimental for the continued revival of flawed human existence.

The poetic oeuvre of Sylvia Plath abounds in motifs related to the polymorphous moon, whiteness, or a lack of colour altogether, depicted as transparent paleness or pallor. This paper aims to conduct an analysis of the symbolism produced by the aforementioned motifs in Plath's poetry, which embody a more complex paradigm than a simple, direct reference to the traditionally associated meanings of fertility, virginity, purity, and the like. Via a comparative analysis of a selection of Plath's poems with the most prominent key motifs crucial for this paper, an attempt will be made at describing Plath's idiosyncratic symbolism, which disturbs the established conception of femininity. Robert Graves's study The White Goddess will be conducive to a versatile interpretation, but will likewise provide a framework of reference for, at times contradictory, analytic deduction. The mythopoetic microcosm Plath envisioned for her poetry uncovers the meandering progression of her sensibility, from the early poems like "Moonrise", to her mature verses, such as "In Plaster", "Tulips", "The Moon and the Yew Tree", and "Edge". The figure of woman as goddess inherently connected with the natural world undergoes deconstruction in Plath's poetry, while the goddess as fury is reaffirmed to suit the needs of the female narrator, positioned amidst 20 th century references.

Since the last decade of the twentieth century, the issues pertaining to the phenomenon of trauma, which figure greatly in both historical and psychoanalytic discourses, have been made prominent in literary interpretation as well, especially where it relies on postmodernist theories. Stemming from the ethical turn, trauma theory explores how the traumatic can endanger but also become constitutive of individual and communal identities, how it can illuminate the constructed nature of both, and how its belated, compulsive, and recursive return exposes desire and conflict as sustaining the ego. Jacque Lacan's return to Freud has become a field of theoretical inspiration for trauma theory and its literary implications. The impossible traumatic memory - indicating a missed encounter with the Lacanian Real - cannot be approached directly, but only testified to in a shared struggle. Shoshana Felman and Dori Laub point out that such testimony inevitably constitutes a speech act, one that according to Michael S. Roth makes explicit the poststructuralist notion of representation as mediated and inherently limited in tackling the aporetic sublime, whether it be tied to structural or historical trauma, as differentiated by Dominick LaCapra. Kazuo Ishiguro's elusive, reticent, prominently subject-oriented prose is permeated with the traumatic which conditions the narratives of his protagonists. The discursive methods they employ are structurally disturbed by trauma, while the autobiographical reconfigurations of their memories aim toward an archival wholeness, an ontological consolation. As such homogenizing projects become foiled, the protagonists' modes of dealing with the traumas of their pasts end up exposing the ideological and psychological mechanisms at work in individual and collective identity construction and preservation.

У раду се проматрају фигурације и одсутна места смрти у роману Закопани џин (2015) Казуа Ишигура. Жанр фантазије у Закопаном џину тумачи се као иронизовање жанра артуријанске романсе и подривање колективне митологије о националном идентитету са стабилним упориштем у архиви сећања као оприсутњеној. Заборав квалификује спектралност архиве тако да се места смрти проблематизују као непрозирна места сећања. Неманифестујући закопани џин индикативан је за парадоксалну темпоралност трауматизма, а на њу упућују и недосежни гроб сина главних протагониста Аксл и Беатрис, као и скривени, онемоћали змај Квериг, чији дах производи измаглицу колективног заборава некадашњих етничких сукоба између Брита и Саксонаца. Рад жалости као рад сећања захтева несамерљиво сучељавање и живот са сабластима, али и опроштај као апоретичну монструозност. У Закопаном џину, међутим, присилно заборављање укида простор слободе за опроштај, те се у васпостављању заборава као лека за трауматично сећање оспорава динамика сећања и тако интегрише смрт, која се укидањем насилног заборава навраћа међу живе.