STRUCTURAL AND SEMANTIC RELATIONS BETWEEN BORGES’ SHORT STORY "THE GARDEN OF FORKING PATHS" AND PAVIĆ’S NOVEL "UNIQUE ITEM" Cover Image

СТРУКТУРНО-СЕМАНТИЧКИ ОДНОСИ БОРХЕСОВЕ ПРИЧЕ „ВРТ СА РАЧВАСТИМ СТАЗАМА И ПАВИЋЕВОГ РОМАНА "УНИКАТ"
STRUCTURAL AND SEMANTIC RELATIONS BETWEEN BORGES’ SHORT STORY "THE GARDEN OF FORKING PATHS" AND PAVIĆ’S NOVEL "UNIQUE ITEM"

Author(s): Nikola Peulić
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Comparative Study of Literature, Serbian Literature, Other Language Literature, Theory of Literature
Published by: Универзитет у Крагујевцу
Keywords: postmodernism;labyrinth;path;crime

Summary/Abstract: The subject of this paper is re-examination of the semantics and structure of Borges’ short story The Garden of Forking Paths and Pavić’s novel Unique Item. The aim of the research is to point to the similarity of the abovementioned works through the elements of postmodernist poetics, especially through observation of the topos of labyrinth, the role of dreams and oneiric experience in Pavić’s Unique Item, where the death of opera singer, Disteli, is being resolved through dreams. In Pavić’s novel Unique Item and Borges’ story The Garden of Forking Paths, the labyrinth is both a potential exit and a potential dead end. The novel Unique Item poses a paradoxical question to readers: does а novel with a hundred endings really have a finite end, or is it just a large labyrinth that forks in different paths? The reader has a universal opportunity to choose one path which leads him to a unique ending where he will find a killer, an accomplice or himself.

  • Issue Year: XXV/2024
  • Issue No: 83
  • Page Range: 83-92
  • Page Count: 10
  • Language: Serbian
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