TIME IN THE NOVELS OF MILOS CRNJANSKI - Nottingham eTheses

CHAPTER FIVE
Not alive - of course - but as brou2ht to
life bv an En2lish film actor who was
famous at the time. Leslie Howard. On
the occasion of some ceremonv. on the
steps of the church which is called St
Paul's. the actor was representin2 the
admiral. Does she remember how thev
stood. as if bewitched? It seemed that
it was reallv Nelson brou2ht to life.
The effect created bv the actor's steppin2 off the
screen and port ravine Nelson in the street breaks the
barrier between illusion and realitv. reinforcin2 the
presence of the illusion as real. Similarlv. Rjepnin's
movement from one frame to another resolves the tension
between illusion and realitv. R;Jepnin shifts into the
frame of an actor. and "radio :Ie svoj posao kao da je u
nekom pozoriltu. 2lumac" ("he did hid job as if he were
in a theatre. an actor" 91).
And when he dies. he is to
die not as a real person but as if on sta2e. on which
"treba samo stati i pucati mirno. kao Ito 2lumci puca:lu"
("he onlv has to stand and fire calmlv. as actors fire"
98) • In his essav on Roman 0 Londopu Puva~i6 remarks
on the "~esto
koril6enje pozorilne terminolo2ije"
("frequent use of theatrical terminolocv" 99) as a
feature which stresses Rjepnin's alienation.
The
tension between the past in memorv and the past as it
reallv was. irrecoverable. is resolved when Rjepnin
steps entirelv into the svrnbolic frame of the theatre.
In this theatrical frame. R;Jepnin's suicide is a
svmbolio death of·a self which he does notrecoenis ••
and the appropriation of an ima2e of self' f'rom memorv.
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