TIME IN THE NOVELS OF MILOS CRNJANSKI - Nottingham eTheses

CHAPTER SIX
re~enerative
cycle. and for Pavle it is absorbed into
the eternal repetition of epic consciousness.
Death
rebirth. eternal repetition. re~enerative
cycles are
cate~ories
of temporal order which humanise time and the
broad sweep of historical epochs.
Vuk and Pavle
Isakovi~
impose order. and make sense of time scales
lar~er than the personal by absorbin~ them into the
culture. traditions. and historical processes with which
they identify.
In this way the self. confronted by new
challen~es
in the inherently open vastness of history.
resists the continual de~eneration
which is described in
the final chapter of Dru~a knji~a seoba. Individuals
such as Pavle and his family. whole communities. and
nations disappear. to be supplanted by others in a
continuin~ sa~a. Each sta~e of the sa~a establishes its
own ori~in.
and reaches its own end in a duration which
has no meanin~
of and to itself. Time is a structure of
continuity. chan~e. renewal. and disappearance. It is
structured by human bein~s
and human societies. but
everythin~
will ultimately reach oblivion in an eternal
duration not of human makin~.
in which there i. no
death. only continual movement.
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