Sublime Historical Experience, Epiphanic Moments, and Melancholic Narration in Pauls Bankovskis’ 18 and Dušan Šarotar’s Panorama
Sublime Historical Experience, Epiphanic Moments, and Melancholic Narration in Pauls Bankovskis’ 18 and Dušan Šarotar’s Panorama

Summary/Abstract: This article engages with Frank Ankersmit’s philosophy of sublime historical experience to explore how contemporary fiction challenges and deconstructs the notion of homogeneous time, thereby reshaping the relationship between the past and the present. The discussion revisits Ankersmit’s traditional distinction between narrative and experience, arguing that a sense of historical presence can be conveyed through specific formal techniques, such as epiphanic descriptions of time and space and melancholically meandering narrative structure. By situating Ankersmit’s ideas alongside those of Jean-François Lyotard and Dominick LaCapra – both of whom address the nuances of encountering intense sensations – the article serves as a unique intersection of the philosophy of history and literary analysis, supplementing perspectives from trauma and memory studies. Focusing on Pauls Bankovskis’ 18 and Dušan Šarotar’s Panorama, the article examines how these works of contemporary European fiction approach painful historical experiences, developing new conceptions of history that transcend a strictly chronological and sequential understanding of time.

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