Sprachliche und andere Grenzfälle – Identitätskritik in Stevan Sremac’ Pop Ćira i pop Spira

Abstract

Abstract Stevan Sremac’s 1898 novel about the two priests Ćira and Spira in the Vojvodina represents an all-embracing, tongue-in-cheek deconstruction of national, social and gender identities. What initially promises to be a story about two (male) clerics appears on closer inspection to be a book about their wives and daughters. The tale is presented by a narrator whose manner of speech is likewise inspired by ‘women’s gossip’ and which appears feminised throughout. Contamination takes place on a national as well as a sexual level. The Serbian language – as a sign of its speakers’ desire for social advancement – is corrupted by countless Germanisms. Nothing appears intact or pure; Sremac’s characters challenge boundaries of every kind and can themselves be described as occupying positions on the borderline of individual, social and aesthetic integrity. Above all, this diagnosis applies to the novel as a – highly unstable – unity. An important role is played here by the ‘printing errors’ with which the author explicitly embellishes his text.