Milorad Pavić

Milorad Pavić (born October 15, 1929, Belgrade, Yugoslavia [now in Serbia]—died November 30, 2009, Belgrade) was a poet, translator, literary historian, and postmodern novelist who was one of the most popular and most translated Serbian authors of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. He attained international acclaim with Hazarski rečnik (1984; Dictionary of the Khazars), a novel in the form of a dictionary that shows his unique style of experimentation with traditional narrative form.

Pavić graduated from the University of Belgrade with a degree in Yugoslav literature (1954), and he received a Ph.D. at the University of Zagreb (1966). During his academic career, he published numerous books and essays on Serbian literature of the 17th to the 19th century, which he connected to, and placed within, European literature of that period. He assumed professorial posts at universities in Novi Sad (1974–82) and Belgrade (from 1982). In 1991 he became a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

Pavić’s earliest publications, in newspapers and periodicals, date to 1949. His first literary works were translations of classic Russian and English authors such as Aleksandr Pushkin (Yevgeny Onegin and Boris Godunov) and Lord Byron (selected works). In subsequent years he translated modern French and American writers as well. Pavić also authored two volumes of his own erudite meditative poetry, renewing the tradition of Serbian-Byzantine poetic style in the form of sonnets and mixing songs with fantasy tales (Palimpsesti [1967; “Palimpsests”], Mesečev kamen [1971; “Moon Rock”]), after which he turned his attention exclusively to prose.

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In 1973 Pavić issued his first short-story collection, Gvozdena zavesa (“Iron Curtain”), followed by a host of others, including Konji svetoga Marka (1976; “Saint Mark’s Horses”), Ruski hrt (1979; “Russian Greyhound”), Duše se kupaju poslednji put (1982; “Souls Bathe for the Last Time”), and Izvrnuta rukavica (1989; “Glove Turned Inside Out”). Through these books Pavić became recognized as an author of wondrous imagination and of passionate and energetic style whose storytelling is characterized by the perpetual intertwinement of the possible and the real, of waking and dreaming, and of life and death. His most widely known novel, Dictionary of the Khazars, is a quintessential example of his fiction: its theme is the loss of identity through history, and it brings together fantasy and science while also breaking from traditional novelistic style by using a nonliterary form—in this case, a dictionary. Dictionary of the Khazars became a global best seller soon after it was published, in 1984.

Other novels in which Pavić challenged his audience with nonlinear narrative include Predeo slikan čajem (1988; Landscape Painted with Tea), which is structured as a crossword puzzle; Unutrašnja strana vetra (1991; The Inner Side of the Wind), which is modelled after a clepsydra, or water clock; Poslednja ljubav u Carigradu (1994; Last Love in Constantinople), a “tarot novel”; Kutija za pisanje (1999; The Writing Box); Zvezdani plašt (2000; “Star Cape”), written as an astrology guide; Unikat (2004; Unique Item), in which the reader chooses between multiple endings; Priča koja je ubila Emiliju Knor (2005; “The Tale That Killed Emilija Knor”), in which the story kills its reader; and Veštački mlade (2009; “False Beauty Mark”).

Regarded as a leader of European postmodernism, Pavić used his Borgesian-style novels to reshape the manner in which the novel communicates with its reader. He believed that classical linear narrative slows language, which, in turn, should be upgraded with pictures and sounds. As a result, he became the first Serbian novelist to create a Web site and, in 1998, post his works online. He was motivated, he said, by the belief that there are more gifted readers in the world than there are gifted writers. Ever a versatile author, Pavić also published several interactive novels, children’s stories, and plays (e.g., Zauvek i dan više [1993; For Ever and a Day], which is in the form of a theatre restaurant’s menu).