Învingători şi învinşi. Reprezentări ale războiului în romanele lui Milorad Pavić
Winners and losers. Representations of war in the novels of Milorad Pavić

Summary/Abstract: One of the most read and world-wide known Serbian writers, Milorad Pavić, could not avoid the theme of the war. Although not so present in the first novels – where the war was presented more like a background for the unfolding of the events – two of his last novels have been settled in modern Serbia, bombed by the NATO alliance in 1999. The present paper will try to follow chronologically the representation of war in the first 5 novels of the Serbian writer. We will start with his best known novel Dictionary of the Khazars, where war is impersonal, as it is presented like a simple historical fact, then we will continue with the next two novels Landscape Painted with Tea and The Inner Side of the Wind where two more themes are explored in connection with the theme of war: identity and the conflict between the generation of those who fought in the Second World War on one side and their sons on the other side. The last two novels, Last Love in Constantinopole and The Star Cloak present an alternative that could heal the plagues of war: love. However, as a true postmodernist writer, he leaves his reader decide how the stories should end. Is love all we need to end the never-ending wars, or is love another type of war, with winners and losers, just like in the real war?

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