TIME IN THE NOVELS OF MILOS CRNJANSKI - Nottingham eTheses

CHAPTER THREE
wi th it the passini: of time.
T.ime is compressed and
alternates only between the now of writini: and the
not-now of times past remembered by the diarist. There
is an unoertain waverin~ between the two times. The two
times are connected by the presence of the diarist. His
presence is hii:hlii:hted by the oral tone of delivery
implicit in the disruption of the conventions of the
written lani:ua~e.
For example. the omission of main
verbs is more characteristic of speech than writini:.
underlinin~
the presenCe of the diarist.
Sometimes the repetitions of lexical items in the
same or different s~ntactio formations are separated b~
one or more parai:raphs.
Questions concernini: the
direction and worth of his own life and existence in
i:eneral occur to him and he writes "Ko zna Ita ;Se
livot •••
Ko zna Ita ;Se livot" ("Who knows what life
is ••• Who knows what life is" 26). These questions are
repeated on the followin~ pa~e in a sli~htly different
formula. "2ivot'? Ko zna Ita ;Se to" ("Life,?
Who knows
what it (sIt). ·Kalezi6 remarked that such repetitions
appear with various i:aps ttposli;!e nekoliko redaka. ael6e
posli;!e nekoliko stranica. a ima i sluaa;!eva kad se
pretapaju i poslije ve6ih odlomaka" ("after several
lines. more frequently after several pa~es.
and there
are inst~nces when they ~ ~ ;n followinc even loncer
extracts" 27).
Such repetitions function as motifs in
the text. There is frequent mention of the word ttlelim"
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