Author(s): Milica Ž. Jelenić / Language(s): Serbian
Issue: 44/2023
The paper deals with the parodic procedure in the novel "The Epic of Water" by Enes Halilović. Considering the significant share of mythical and folklore, the nature of these silts in the work was illuminated and the parodic relationship to tradition was observed. In addition to the above-mentioned elements, the share of the historical can also be seen as significant, which was observed through the prism of the postmodernist text, which results in a specific relationship with the past. The socio-historical context, the system of social and moral values and the influence of the social component, appears as a basis for parodic and satirical effects, but with the final aim of raising it to the level of the universal. Part of the historical elements appear as an inseparable creative element of the parody complex in "The Epic of Water", because it is a particular event from modern history (the emigration of the population and the submergence of fertile land due to the construction of the artificial Lake Gazivode, which Halilović clearly mentions as one of the localities in the index of terms at the end of the book) that is the undisguised inspiration for the creation of the mythological guide to the flood and after it, as the author himself defines his narrative in the subtitle. However, Halilović's historicism is seen in the work as specific, because in his critical consideration of the value of the past, he elevates the local to the level of the universal. The author's attitude that history is subordinate to fiction can be interpreted as a view of history characteristic of postmodernist art, where history figures as a kind of intertext. The postmodernist attitude towards tradition, interpreted on the basis of the material the author takes from folklore and myth, is reflected in an ambivalent attitude towards tradition, where its conventions are established only to be destabilized in a parodic way. By analyzing the storytelling technique, we see the essential procedures for creating the world of literary work. Metanarrativity, as a characteristic of postmodern metafiction, finds its place in Halilović's novel. Self-referential comments that devalue both the author of the narrative and the narrative itself have also been recognized as a postmodernist narrative strategy with parodic outcomes. Parody is subject to formulaic technique, as well as the narrative style of the folk storyteller, who speaks from the position of someone who is only transmitting an oral tradition, the veracity of which is indisputable. Normativity as an object of parody is additionally emphasized by alluding to, Milman Perry and Albert Lord, real figures who conducted the research in the area of Sandzak and established the theory of formulas. The presence of narrative procedures characteristic of Muslim epics has also been noticed, from the appearance of Muslim singers, Avdo Međedović and Hus Husović, through the appearance of messengers as one of the favorite mediating figures in Krajina epics, to the subsequent clarification of the interrupted plot lines recorded in Muslim epics, which resembles the technique of crime stories. The intertwining of genres serves as an interesting terrain for the implementation of the parody procedure. Starting with the title itself, the reader's expectations are betrayed, because instead of the expected epic, we have a novel in front of us, while the relationship that is established in the reader's mind towards the heroes’ points to an ironic genre. Admixtures of the drama genre were also noticed in the form of the prologue sequences that announce each chapter of the novel, as well as the ironic encyclopedic character at the end of the work in the form of so-called completely unnecessary appendices. The serious style of the etiological lore is also subject to parodic imitation, which aims to cause solemn chills, while in the parodied version it causes humorous effects. The presence of microstructures which are aphoristic and proverbial in character that are incorporated into the work is also ironically intoned. In the process of tripling, elements of the fairy tale genre were noticed. The intertwining of the genres of novels, epics, myths, encyclopedias, legends, proverbs, and fairy tales makes the reader constantly wonder about the genre fluidity of "The Epic of Water". The essay deciphers the mythical layer of the work and the methods of parodying the myth. At the base of the "The Epic of Water" is a parodied myth about the Argonauts, the Greek heroes who, having overcome all the challenges of sailing on the ship Argo, successfully reached Colchis and obtained the Golden Fleece. The wool that the heroes of Halilović's novel desperately want to get their hands on is also seen through folklore, as cultically impure. The heroes of the novel are associated with their mythical counterparts, in which parodic effects are recognized as a source of comedy based on the contrast of the originals with their imitations. Orpheus is recognized in the image of the player Muharem, who in the myth of the Argonauts keeps time for the rowers of the ship Argo with his song. The parodic transformations of the mythical template in the form of the figure of the misunderstood artist, as well as the grotesque portrayal and dethronement of the hero in connection with the fertilizing power of the body, are pointed out. The character of Aykuna is also seen in a parodic key and linked to Ayka, the heroine of the Muslim epic, in the image of the contrast between the Delia girl as the original and the harlot as a parodic recasting. In the character of Ajkuna's brother Musa, the hero is recognized as a person who lacks a caricature representation, since he is the only remaining bright offshoot of the lineage of the forefather Muriz. The mythological layer of folk beliefs related to the animal world plays an interesting role in the novel. In this context, the symbolism of the partridge is interpreted as a bird that in some traditions is associated with ominous symbolism. The partridge's prophecy from the hero Muriz's dream is fulfilled in the form of a fire, which is why Muriz's settlement gets the name Paljevo. The original sin of Muriz's forefather was killing a partridge in the newly established territory, and it is concluded that Muriz's descendants also suffer because of the original sin, just as in the Old Testament tradition, man is punished for his original sin to suffer forever. The symbolism of the crow is further interpreted as that of an unclean bird which, as such, brings great misfortune to the heroes of the novel. With its chthonic symbolism, the crow not only heralded the ominous, but also caused an accident in a way - if it weren't for the crow, the piper wouldn't have discovered the wool, and so the mass death of the people of Paljeva would not have occurred.. The symbolism of snakes is observed both in negative and positive terms, in accordance with the already known dual nature of its mythological symbolism: the rascal that steals milk from Paljevci is similar to the widespread beliefs about the white wolf that lives in a barn and sucks milk from a cow's udder; snakes are seen as integral parts of black magic rituals; and it is the snake that provides progeny to the heroes, in accordance with the magical snake rites associated with phallus symbolism, with the aim of ensuring conception. A parody of the belief about the danger of snakebite also appears, related to the death of the snake biting the sinful Aykuna. The chthonic symbolism of fish is recognized as corresponding to the nature of the people of Paljeva, and it is ironically intoned, in the form of the moodiness of the fish from the artificial lake, which is reciprocal to the nature of the people of Paljeva themselves. The paper interprets the reshaping of these motifs from oral tradition - by reconstructing motifs from folklore and parodying them, Halilović plays with material taken from the tradition, which results in a specific observation of the past from the perspective of modernity. The presence of magic and ritual systems is of great importance in the construction of the sacred work. The black magic activity of Zaim's wife appears interesting for interpretation, such as, for example. the ritual of throwing an egg into the river, which is in accordance with the belief that the river can take to death everything entrusted to it, while the egg is symbolically connected with rebirth, which is, therefore, transformed here into its opposite, death. Moreover, the heroine's rituals performed under a full moon carry with them a connection with natural cycles and rites of passage related to the phases of the moon. The initiation of the sorcerer in the novel was also seen as a kind of rite of passage related to magic, where along with Muriz's line, the line of Chara develops, who passes on his gift to his descendants. The cyclical nature of birth and death is also represented through ritual symbolism: the system of childbirth taboos as a rite of separation, where the men from Paljevo are not allowed to hear the screams of women in childbirth; or the system of taboos related to the afterlife, recognized in the novel's hero's relationship with the afterlife. The motive of knocking at the cemetery to announce your arrival appears to be connected with the belief that the souls of ancestors are disturbed by the presence of strangers. In this case, it is the forefather Muriz with his offspring, moved to a place where another civilization once lived, which in the world of the novel is demonstrated by the tombstones. The custom related to the period of mourning after death is also added to the ritual complex with this theme, where in the novel we encounter the violation and observance of the taboo of fifty-two days required for the ritual of separating the soul of the deceased. Traditional differences between the sexes are noticeable in the novel, where women are powerful in the sphere of the otherworld, in the magical world. However, in the sphere of everyday life, this is not the case - there the archaic consciousness of the hero of the novel dominates, where the man is dominant and the woman is subservient (for example, a musician whose name is not known physically abuses his wife). This distribution of roles is also the subject of ironic play in the novel (while Muharem plays, his wife manages the household). The symbolism of the border crossings between the other world and this world is seen in the image of the interception of the inhabitants of Paljevo in the town of Koniče, because in the mythological sense the road represents a border place. However, in accordance with the general tone of the novel, the expected angst and otherworldliness give way to comic effects that cause people to mock the intercepted and robbed Paljevos. Prague, as a liminal space where the sacred and the profane meet, also figures in the world of the works (the people of Palje are reluctant to return across the threshold when they go somewhere; Muriz's wife hides a magician under the doorstep). Dreams, as the boundary between the conscious and the unconscious, have a prominent place in the novel. They predict events in a symbolically dressed form, and a frequent procedure is to dream dreams alongside each other. The same dream is dreamed by Sabit and his wife, presenting the image of a man in green robes who we recognize as a representation of the impure force that exists in the people, with this meeting with a demonic being suggested precisely by the colour green. The presence of a force of the opposite orientation in the novel, the so-called Good, which can be any unknown traveler, is also clear, and the duty of every resident of Paljeva is to welcome him as best as possible. This act hides the motive of patience as a rite of reception and the old belief that visitors from the other world usually appear in the form of beggars and travelers, since the custom dictated that they must be given welcome and shown hospitality. The ending of the novel is interpreted in the key of the eschatological vision of the created world, in the form of an aquatic apocalypse. Such an unraveling of narratives is seen as an example of the myth of doom, but also as a necessary stage of purification. Halilović's Paljevo is condemned to complete disappearance. The rapid moral degeneration of Muriz's lineage begins with Zahit's marriage to a mute and weak-minded foreign woman of unknown origin. From such a marriage is born Zaim, the first Paljevac who collects coffins for his closest relatives and who marries a woman who practices black magic, which leads to the culminating degradation of all virtues. It is interesting that in the same generation, Char's lineage visibly deteriorates - Charovac, whom Aljo goes to in order to free himself from the magical effects of Zaim's wife, himself performs black magic rituals. Therefore, in the end, the multiplied sins of the hero of the novel are symbolically dissolved by the water, disappearing in the purifying flood. In addition to the mythic layer that can be read at the end, a satirical moment related to modern society that boldly and brazenly manages human destinies, assuming the role of a higher power that decides on the justification of the flood for the sake of representing apparently general, but actually its own interests, is also pointed out. The motif of the flood was also analyzed at a metanarrative level, as a punishment from the author himself as the creator of his personal cosmogony, but at the same time with the hope of a new beginning, a new order, the emergence of which, in truth, is not even announced yet, but which exists as a logical continuation cyclical understanding of the cosmos and history, according to which the world catastrophe marks the end of one period and the beginning of a new one. In the claim that maybe no one needs the story, but that the author needs it, the irony of the post-structuralist position that the author is not a person in the psychological sense and that the work continues to live after the author, thanks to the readers is made clear. However, the statement from the novel that the story is indestructible ultimately reveals the exact opposite - despite the aquatic apocalypse of the world it narrates, the narrative itself is indestructible, which is why "The Epic of Water" still essentially appears as a masterful apology of both story and telling. This is exactly how we saw the apocalypse of a world built from universal motifs, translated into a special postmodernist fantastic prose with an emphasized parodic relationship to myth and folklore heritage.
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