TIME IN THE NOVELS OF MILOS CRNJANSKI - Nottingham eTheses

CHAPTER SEVEN
Carnojevi6u, are personi~ied as his dead ~riend Barlov,
and Jim and John.
Bv minimisin~ the role o~ action as the index o~
chan~e, and emphasisin~ the role plaved bV characters in
constructin~
temporal relationships. Crnjanski denies
time as a neutral or natural order o~
experience and
makes o~ time an expression o~ the values held bV the
characters. Di~~erent characters and voices arran~e
their interpretation o~
events in a wav which exposes
their ~ears, hopes, and desires. "Ne postoje
nepromenljive vrednosti" ("Unchan~in~
values do not
exist 11), remarks Crnjanski in his essav "ObjaAnjenje
'Sumatre'''. Values chan~e as e~f'ects and expressions
o~ the multiple time schemes created bv the characters.
The conclusion to be drawn ~rom
Crnjanski's
representation of' time as discussed in Chapters Three
and Four is that time is a ~ramework
within which the
characters ~ormulate their views o~ self' and of' self' in
historv. Crnjanski's use o~ lan~ua~e and narrative
structure projects the characters as the creators of'
temporal schemes, as thev attempt to capture ~or
themselves meanine. purpose. and identitv in time.
Time
is a central ~eature o~ Crnjanski's novels. and its
oomplexitv is based on the view o~
time as an inner
process: which stl'Ucture. the relationship between
oharacter and experienoe. The e~f'ect o~ Crnjanski's use
of' laneua~e disrupts the linear. pro~ressive f'low of'