TIME IN THE NOVELS OF MILOS CRNJANSKI - Nottingham eTheses

CHAPTER SIX
seemed to him as if heaven above
appeared. Like his brother. in his
sleep. he too saw above her. beside
himself with fear and sorrow. circles of
blue and in them a star.
As she dies the colour of the skV drains from her eNes.
and Aranetel "je nad njenim mrtvim telom aubio svest"
("lost consciousness over her dead bodv" 56).
The
cosmic vision of intearal unitv for Aranetel dies with
Dafina.
Both brothers are able to exert their will to a
certain dearee on the. social world.
In doina so. thev
have a space to act which is denied to Dafina.
The
functions which the brothers have in historv are
limited.
Vuk is a soldier. and at the end of the novel
resolves to devote his life to improvina the lot of his
countrvmen livina on his estate. Aranetel is a merchant
and has power in the commercial world.
TheN aiveshape
to their senses of past. present. and future in the
sNmbols of power which thev appropriate in svmbolic
lanauaae.
Vuk lives accordins to the promise of his
father. and Aranetel imasines his wealth aivins him power
over the natural world.
When their worlds are disrupted
bV other events and people thev are able.to re-assess
their desires and present them in new forms. in the
svmbols of the star and a promised land.
These svmbolS
of re-birth and new besinninss aive shape to time. and
sive them a purpose.
Thev represent WaNS of coneeivins
of time and the selt in historN.
However. Dafina does
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