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PEKIĆ’S ORWELL
Maja Cvijetić
The book was published in Orpheus
Edition which investigates the traces of modernism and postmodernism in
literature, as well as the symbols and metaphors of our age. Crossed
reading of George Orwell and Borislav Pekić helped the author of the
book in the quest for the answers to the challenges of information age,
technology and political control of our time. Intertextual relations and detailed
comparison of texts that belong to antiutopian tradition enabled the
author to stress negative aspects of ideas of imaginary harmony as well
as of any ideology that implies sacrifice of genuine humanity. People’s
yearning for Paradise is more prominent today than it has been ever
before, since we live in the world quite similar to antiutopian
nightmare. Nihilism, contradiction and
destructive impulse of a modern world inevitably lead to antiutopia
which combines fantasy with reality and expresses fear, loneliness and
guilt of a modern man. The process of decanonization of narrative matrices contributes to the creation of an authentic literary space where the texts have been changed and re-read in new semantic context. Thus, Pekic’s Orwell can be interpreted in more different ways. Publishing in Serbia oscillates
between the demands of market and culture. The choice of this book
shows that literature can maintain its true meaning even if it mirrors
tendencies of development of a modern world as long as it keeps
aesthetic contact with established symbols over the period of time.
Therefore literature becomes imaginary museum, the Tower of Babel of
quotations, the play with familiar elements that gain their creative
power in the process of contemporary reception.
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 “Is android civilization logical conclusion of military society which uses scientific progress for total control of entire life, or the return to spiritual values is still possible?” These are only some of the questions this book raises in the attempt to rethink apparently set values.  |
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