TIME IN THE NOVELS OF MILOS CRNJANSKI - Nottingham eTheses

CHAPTER FIVE
("they must stop living" 64). Howeve~. he changes his
mind and suggests that Nada go to he~
aunt in the United
States. "P~omenio sam mi~ljenje 0 samoubistvu. Nac!a.
Posla6u vas va~oj tetki u Ame~iku. Ne6ete vi. u
sta~osti. p~ositi po Londonu. To ne6u" ("I have changed
rnv mind about suicide. Nac!a. I shall send ~ou to ~ou~
aunt in Ame~ica. You won't. in ~ou~ old age. beg a~ound
London.
I won't have that" 65).' Rjepnin feels
pa~ticula~l~ conscious that his wife is fo~ced to share
this life with him. and the oppo~tunit~
that she go aw~
Would ~elieve
him of that bu~den.
He and Nac!a have a.lw~s
thought about the past as
an escape f~om the pain of the p~esent.' as is suggested
in the description "Tada. pre nego ~to
zaspe. u 6utanju.
oboje !ive u p~o~losti.
Ona se se6a prvih godina
njihovog braka. a on Rusije" ("Then. before falling
asleep. in silence. both live in the past. 'She recalls
the first ~ea~s of their marriage. and he Russia" 66).
The material p~oblems conf~onting Rjepnin take,on thei~
existential colouring when, he finds his identitv as a
Russian challenged.
The deepening of the problem in his
ps~che
can be measured bv the intensitv of his memories.
and the context in which thev arise.
Rjepnin is
considered to be a Pole bV manv of the English people
with whom he comes into contact. The ~eason for thei~
confusion is that "razoru!anih Poljaka bilo jet tada. u
Londonu mnogo" ("there were manv demobbed Poles in
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