TIME IN THE NOVELS OF MILOS CRNJANSKI - Nottingham eTheses

CHAPTER FIVE
on himselt. the other is his desire to end his lite in
his chosen wav:
Rjepnin je bio relen da svoj plan
ostvari. pre ne~o Ito se Ordinski vrati.
sasvim si~urno. Samo doznalo bi set i
to. doznala bi i Na4a brzo. a doznali ~ak
i kad bit kao ludak. zapalio. nad sobom.
ku6u. u kojoj je sad stanovao. Cemu to?
Bila bi to sramota. Potomak ruskih
knja~eva. vojnik. i zavrlio tako sramno.
Leple je nestati na svoju komandu, ali
ne~de. ~de nje~ovu lelinu ne mo~u
otkriti. a dati neki razlo~. za to da
misle da je otputovao (88).
Rjepnin was resolved to execute his plan
betoreOrdinski .returned, definitely. It
people ~ot to know that, then Na4a would
quickly tind out, and they would tind out
even it he were to set tire to the root
over his head like a madman. Why ~o
throu~h that? It would be a disarace.
The descendant ot Russian princes, a
soldier, and to end up so shamed. It is
better to disappear at his own command,
but somewhere where they cannot tind his
corpse, and to aive some reason so they
think he has travelled awav.
His death "at his own command" and avoidina shame is his
last attempt to act.in the manner which he believes is
his real selt; as a sOl.dier and Russian aristocrat. He
kills himself to wipe out all trace ot his death. as it
he has never been and has stepped outside his
beina-in-time.
He cannot aCCOmmOdate his imaae ot his
self in the present to his ima~e
of self in the past.
He is livina outside the social· and historical process
ot what has made hi. an .mi~r'.
and cannot appropriate
the chan~es
which time has brouaht as part of his
personal history.
Rjepnin actin~
in accordance with his own desire is
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