B. 1929 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, Milorad Pavic is a Serbian prose writer, poet, historian, essayist, and singularly-embodied textual factory of phantom words and hypertextual imaginings. Pavic is a lecturer at a number of renowned European universites: New Sorbonne, Vienna, Novi Sad, Freiburg, Regensburg, Belgrade. Pavic is not affiliated with any political party.
Pavic's work has been translated over 80 times in different languages through the world. Nominated for the Nobel prize in literature. His wife is Jasmina Mihajlovic, writer and literary critic.
Pavic is well-respected not only for his historical research and expertise on Serbian literature, but also for his finely-crafted fiction and the postmodernist poetics employed in many of his texts. Pavic is a favorite of American hypertext theorists including Robert Coover and Michael Joyce. His texts weave in and out of plot lines and sequential narratives, thereby disrupting the classical flow of narrative structure. Coover names Pavic in that counter-class of writers who have sought, in one way or another, to deconstruct classical notions about the text (advanced by literary critics such as T. S. Eliot, Northrop Frye, Plato, and even the Russian structuralists. These writers want to replace printed text with hypertext, nonlinear hyperfiction. Coover writes,
Of course, through print's long history, there have been countless strategies to counter the line's power, from marginalia and footnotes to the creative innovations of novelists like Laurence Sterne, James Joyce, Raymond Queneau, Julio Cortázar, Italo Calvino and Milorad Pavic, not to exclude the form's father, Cervantes himself." (The New York Times, June 21, 1992)
Coover, and others, have suggested that Pavic's well-known The Dictionary of the Khazars lends itself well to the hypertext form. Pavic's wife wrote,
What would a possible hypertext version of the Dictionary of the Khazars look like? The entries would form a movable net in the hyperspace, and the signs-leaders, i.e. the crucial points, the spots of junction, that would be the reader's choice in his creation of the path of reading, would enable moving with various entries and exits, beginnings and ends. For instance: according to the alphabetic system, temporal segments, religious triads or by the way of any given word-signs. It is possible to follow up only referential signs themselves given in the printed version of the Dictionary of the Khazars (the cross, the star, the moon and the triangle) that already make possible leaps as regards sense and the creation of reader's forking. This is to say that by means of a computer version of the novel it would be easier to carry out the system of linking the stories-entries
Although I have not seen it, apparently the Center Group in Belgrade has published a CD-ROM versions of The Dictionary and some of Pavic's shorter can be found in electronic format across the web.
Here is a complete bibliography of Pavic's works stolen from http://www.khazars.com/books.html
- Palimpsesti / Palimpsests, poems, Beograd 1967, 63 p.
- Istorija srpske knjizevnosti baroknog doba / History of Serbian Literature in the Age of the Baroque (17th - 18th century), Beograd 1970, 527 p.
- Mesecev kamen / Moon Stone, poems, Beograd 1971, 118 p.
- Vojislav Ilic i evropsko pesnistvo / Vojislav Ilic and European Poetry, Novi Sad 1971, 367 p.
- Gavril Stefanovic Venclovic / Gavril Stefanovic Venclovic, Beograd 1972, 326 p.
- Vojislav Ilic, njegovo vreme i delo / Vojislav Ilic, His Times and Work (Chronicle of a Family of Poets), Beograd 1972, 346 p.
- Gvozdena zavesa / The Iron Curtain, stories, Novi Sad 1973, 222 p.
- Jezicko pamcenje i pesnicki oblik / The Memory in Language and the Poetic Form, essays, Novi Sad 1976, 429 p.
- Konji svetoga Marka / The Horses of Saint Mark's, stories, Beograd 1976,
- Istorija srpske knjizevnosti klasicizma i predromantizma / History of Serbian Literature in Age of Classicism and Pre-Romanticism, Beograd1979, 571 p.
- Ruski hrt / Borzoi, stories, Beograd 1979, 215 p.
- Nove beogradske price / New Belgrade Stories, Beograd 1981, 360 p.
- Duse se kupaju poslednji put / Souls Bathe for the Last Time, poems and prose, Novi Sad 1982, 145 p.
- Radjanje nove srpske knjizevnosti / The Birth of New Serbian Literature, Beograd 1983, 631 p.
- Hazarski recnik. Roman-leksikon u 100.000 reci / The Dictionary of the Khazars, a novel-lexicon in 100.000 words, Beograd 1984, 242 p.
- Istorija, stalez i stil / History, Class and Style, essays, Novi Sad 1985, 281 p.
- Predeo slikan cajem / Landscape Painted with Tea, novel, Beograd, 1988, 375 (525)p.
- Izvrnuta rukavica / The Inverted Glove, stories, Novi Sad 1989, 180 p.
- Kratka istorija Beograda / A Short History of Belgrade, Beograd 1990, 68 p.
- Unutrasnja strana vetra ili roman o Heri i Leandru / Inner Side of the Wind or A Novel of Hero and Leander, Beograd 1991, 115+98 p.
- Istorija srpske knjizevnosti / History of Serbian Literature 2,3,4. (Baroque, Classicism, Pre-Romanticism), Beograd ,1991, 225 + 181 +181 p.
- Pozorisni jelovnik za uvek i dan vise / Theatre Menu For Ever and a Day, Beograd 1993, 134 p.
- Poslednja ljubav u Carigradu. Prirucnik za gatanje / Last Love in Constantinople. Tarot-Novel, Beograd 1994, 195 p.
- Sesir od riblje koze. Ljubavna prica /The Fish Skin Hat. A Love Story, Belgrade,1996, 80 p.
- Stakleni puz. Price sa Interneta / Snail of Glass. Short stories for Internet, Beograd, 1998, 154 + 12 p.
- Milorad Pavic, Jasmina Mihajlovic. Dve kotorske price / Two tales from Kotor, Beograd, Dereta, 1998, 52 + 71 p.
- Glinena armija / China's Underground Army, Beograd, Interpres, 1999.
- Kutija za pisanje / Writing Box, novel, Beograd, Dereta, 1999, 171 p.
- Zvezdani plast. Astroloski vodic za neupucene / Star Cape. An astrologic guide for amateurs, Beograd, Dereta, 2000, 186 p.
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