Semantic analysis of the narrative worlds of Dragoljub Jankovic

Abstract

The subject of this work interest are four collection of stories of Dragoljub Janković: Odlazak (Departure) (1963), Opsena (Deception) (1965), Beli Kamen (White stone) (1984) and Neko drugo vreme (Some other time) (1990). The work analyses all the stories from the first three books while the last collection is given the least space as it is different from the others in all its literary and artistic elements as well as in the artistic forms used. Its thirty-five stories focus on people and events between the two world wars in Pirot while in the previous collection of stories the semantics of the chronotope tends to point out the universality of human time and space. A dominant recurring theme of many stories of Dragoljub Janković is 'past' lives and therefore some of the characters in the stories may be characterized as dead people alive again, going through the spaces of narrative world in the time which is 'borrowed' to be used and thus confirming the fact about human transience and inevitability of death. Linear flow of events without any special selection and editing and the end which resembles the cut film strip, make the artistic process that cannot be taken as a rule without exceptions but can be seen as prevailing. While the stories from the collection 'Some other time' tend to be realistic, the narration in 'Departure', 'Deception' and 'White Stone' is permeated with the language of symbols and metaphoric aiming to emphasize the impression of a failed, alienated and marginalized man. The work points out the considerations of the author's narrative style.