ЈУГОСЛAВEНСКA ВAРИЈAНТA СТAЉИНИЗМA: ГОЛИ OTOK И ГОЛИ ЖИВОТ
THE YUGOSLAV VARIANT OF STALINISM: GOLI OTOK AND GOLI ŽIVOT

Summary/Abstract: With the documentary film Goli život (Bare Life), Danilo Kiš gave his contribution to the topic of the Yugoslav Gulag — the Goli Otok Island — thus rounding up his treatment of the topic of concentration camps in the 20th century. The author of this paper directs attention to the two early understandings of totalitarianism in the previous century: Hannah Arendt placed camps in the very centre of the totalitarian systems, equalizing in that respect Stalinism and fascism. Albert Camus does not opt for that equalization, since their relation to the binary opposition executioner-victim is different; in Nazism, the executioner-victor is celebrated by another executioner, and in Stalinism the victim is obliged to pay respect to his/her executioner. However, they have in common the moral nihilism. Special attention is dedicated to Camus’s short novel La Chute and to the figure Muselmann located in the last circle of hell of the concentration camp; it is a witness speaking about the impossibility of testimony.

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