TIME IN THE NOVELS OF MILOS CRNJANSKI - Nottingham eTheses

CHAPTER THREE
The assessment of t~me as a psvcho1oc~ca1 catecorv
~n th~s nove1 1~nks the issue of t~me to the ~ssue of
the se1f. The diarv ~s titled Diary about Carnojev~6.
In add~tion
to the diarist. Carnojevi6. there are two
other characters. and these are Petar Raj~6.
and the
Dalmat~an sailor of the diarist's dream. The ident~tv
of the d~arist has been disputed ~n cr~tica1 wr~t~ncs.
Nikola Milolevi6 maintains that Carnojevi6 prov~des
the
focus of attent~on (44). wh~le Nov~ca Petkov~6 ma~nta~ns
that Raj~6 is the fictional author of the diarv. That
is not to sav that Raj~6 ~s a convent~onal l~terarv
character.
Leovac savs as much when he remarks that
Raj.~6 "nije romaneskn~ l~k koj~ razv~ja radnju" ("is not
a novelistic character who develops the action" 46).
Nov~ca M~1~6 has recentlv Quest~oned the ev~dence for
succest~nc Raji6 as the narrator (47). Raj~6's name ~s
c~ven in full onlv ~n an ~ron~c tone. on the pat~ent's
chart hancinc bv his bed ~n hospita1. and ~t is then
ind~cated twice more. The .~ssue of ~dent~tv and the
self in the novel is strencthened bv a deliberate
blurr~nc of the dist~nct~on between these characters.
The "I" of the novel refers to Carnojev~6
as the
diar~st. Raj~6 comes to personifv the d~ar~st's memorv
of self. while the sa~lor
who is referred to as "he"
comes to,represent an ideal ~mace which Carnojev~6 has
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