WORD – DOING AND UNDOING
(MEŠA SELIMOVIĆ’S DERVISH AND THE DEATH) Cover Image

WORD – DOING AND UNDOING (MEŠA SELIMOVIĆ’S DERVISH AND THE DEATH)
WORD – DOING AND UNDOING (MEŠA SELIMOVIĆ’S DERVISH AND THE DEATH)

Author(s): Carmen Dărăbuş
Subject(s): Novel, Bosnian Literature
Published by: Bosansko filološko društvo
Keywords: Dervish and the Death by Meša Selimović; word; doing; undoing;

Summary/Abstract: Alongside rebellion and knowledge, the word is another tenor of M. Selimović’s book Dervish and the Death, mediating the other two in a Kafkian atmosphere which is transposed in the Balkans, where the culprit and his family are not distinctly made known their fault. The character of Ahmed Nurudin, the dervish of a tekke in Sarajevo belonging to the Mevlev order, on the one hand-relates to the protective world of the tekke in a certain way, the latter giving him limited, yet probingly deep knowledge of a particular section of life and, on the other hand, in a different way to the wide world, which he starts to decode and perpetuate through words. Thus, knowledge becomes a form of undoing a way of life, nevertheless this unraveling of a life style occurs in order that he might see beyond the restrictive boundaries of his narrow world. His becoming a new being comes about through violent disruptions which are generated by events of similar violence: murder in broad daylight, unjust sentence to death and the premature death of a son to his father as well as a father’s death to his son.

  • Issue Year: 1/2012
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 69-78
  • Page Count: 10
  • Language: English
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