Death of the Author and Birth of the Nation: Literary Postmodernism and Nationalism in Serbia

Abstract

This paper explores different influences between, on the one hand, the ideology and politics of nationalism in Serbia, and postmodern literature and literary criticism, on the other. The theoretical controversy regarding the alleged conformism or subversiveness of postmodern art, serves as a framework for examining Serbian literary post modernism of the 1980s and 1990s. The focus is on the relationship between the postmodern literature and ethno nationalist narratives that prepared the ground for the civil war and the dissolution of socialist Yugoslavia. The literary work, ideological position and public engagement of Danilo Kiš (1935–1989) and Milorad Pavić (1929–2009) are the basis for delineating two major paradigms within Serbian literary postmodernism. Using the methodologies of discourse analysis and literary sociology, the paper departs from the framework of narratological or text-immanent criticism and delineates the transition of literary works and their reception in the space of the socio-political field.