A STORY ABOUT MISFORTUNE, KINDNESS, AND CULTURE
A STORY ABOUT MISFORTUNE, KINDNESS, AND CULTURE

Summary/Abstract: The Panel gave a brief rationale for selecting the novel Tamna pučina (Dark Open Waters) by Dragan Stojanović for the Award, pointing out some of the main reasons for the decision: The award-winning novel follows the fate of the main character Stojan V. Lazarević and his family from the fall of 1913 until the beginning of the war in 1941. The narrative flow is comprised of intersecting images of the social and political life in the Serbian capital, the characters, and destinies of women, and an analysis of the effects of good and evil in turbulent times in the form of a kind of internal monologue, and everything is strongly hued by an open or hidden literary and cultural background. The structure of Stojanović’s book is complex, due also to leitmotifs that raise questions about history and suggest faith in art. The intention of the rationale, even if only in three sentences, was to emphasize some of the important features of Stojanović’s novel: appreciation of the story, its seductiveness, but also obscurity, a narrative in which time, space, and events are embedded in our historical and national fate, an image of the world imbued with numerous levels of meaning.

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