TIME IN THE NOVELS OF MILOS CRNJANSKI - Nottingham eTheses

CHAPTER SIX
Before. when they foueht with the Turks.
they would see villaees put to the torch.
Turkish boats sai~ by ~aden with ~I~ves
-:. : _ . - ..... on the water. they wou~d hear
of monasteries burnine. of women raped.
of chi~dren tossed into the air and
caueht on knives. and now of a~~ that
there was not a word.
The community. no ~oneer
participates in the history of
the nation. Vuk is distanced from fami~y. community.
nation. and the historica~
process of his own times.
VUk's view of his past, present. and future.
chances under the influence of new h1storica~
circumstances. Now the past constant~y disappears from
consciousness when he eoes to war, and when he returns,
"kao i da n1je bilo" ("as if it had never even been"
22) • The future ~ooks very uncertain for his men and
their nation in Austria:
Isakovi~ je, osim toea, prib~i~avaju6i
se, po ~etvrt1 put, boji~tu, s~utio da
n1kad bolje biti ne6e i da 6e ih pode~iti
1 kod ku6e, na domu. razdelivli ih
spahijama i eradovima kao roblje, kao
sluee, kao paore. .Ne6e 1m dati da ostanu
vojnici. ne6e da im dati ni da imaju
svoje crkve, kao Ito 1m ne daju da svoj
kraj nazivaju Novom Serbiom (23).
Moreover. Isakovi~, approachine the
batt~ef1e~d for the fourth time, fe~t
that ~ife would never eet better and
that they will be separated at home.
dispersed to the landowners and towns
like eoods, like servants. like
serfs. They wil~ not a~~Qw them to
remain soldiers, they w1~l not a~low them
even to have their own churches, as they
w11~ not al~ow them to call their land
New Serbia.'
The conditions under whioh he 1. livina at the moment,
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