Translator, literary critic and essayist, Zoran Paunović teaches English literature at the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad and the Faculty of Philology in Belgrade. He is the author of several collections of essays, studies, scientific and professional works, as well as thirty literary translations from English, among which the works Joyce, Nabokova, DeLila, After, Children... Paunović is also the vice-president of the Serbian PEN and a corresponding member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
Paunović turned his interest in rock and roll and popular culture into essays on the relationship between rock and roll and literature, translated Bob Dylan i Patti Smith, album reviews and newspaper articles. The biography of Bob Dylan, published under the significant title Bob Dylan - poetics of outlawry and published by IP Clio, rounds off Paunović's dealings with Dylan's work.
On the occasion of the presentation of the book Bob Dylan - the poetics of outlawry in Montenegro, within the Poets' Square in Budva on July 21 and the Book Square in Herceg Novi on July 23, Zoran Paunović talks to "Vijesti" about the rootedness of Dylan's poems in the literary tradition, about possible ways reading this book, about the price paid for individuality, about Dylan's ambivalent relationship to fame and to the title of protest poet and voice of a generation, about the controversies related to the Nobel Prize, about the way consumer society has commercialized rebellion, and about the cases in which literature becomes rock and roll , and rock and roll literature.
You have dealt with Bob Dylan's oeuvre as a translator, as an essayist, as a critic and now as a biographer. How and when did you get the idea to write Dylan's biography? How helpful was previous experience writing about the literary influences and references in Dylan's songs (Joyce, Shakespeare, Blake, Whitman, etc.)?
The idea of writing a book about Dylan came quite naturally from my earlier texts and translations that dealt with his work. Simply, at one point I thought that maybe it would be good if, after many decades of intense association with Dylan, I try to tell a complete story about him and his art - from a completely personal point of view, but also with the aspiration for critical objectivity. So, without any prior plan, I sat down and started writing, in order to check if this story had a beginning, and with it a reason for existence. When I wrote the first paragraph, it seemed to me that there was. And when I wrote the first page, I made a plan for the structure of the future book. In this plan, a significant place was given to efforts to show, through various literary (and not only literary) references, firstly Dylan's deep roots in the history of world literature and culture, and then also the significance of his influence on the later generations not only of creators, but of all those who found in his poetry and music the key to understanding the world, guideposts for easier navigation in the confusion called life, and ways to ennoble the sometimes insultingly banal everyday life.
Any Dylan biographer has to deal with an overabundance of material. Almost every important moment in his career has been documented, either through numerous and extremely exhaustive biographies, or through excellent documentaries (Penebejker, Scorsese), or through newspaper articles and television shows. How did you select the data for this book?
I'm glad you asked me that and gave me the opportunity to explain my concept a little. It was not my desire to write some kind of "standard" biography of Bob Dylan, no matter how eventful his life was and in many ways exciting; I aspired to write a creative biography, and in his life story I focused primarily on those segments that influenced his artistic development and determined his creative path, and then on some of those that seemed to me to contribute to a more complete illuminating his complex and enigmatic personality. Everything that did not fit into at least one of those two criteria, no matter how interesting it was in itself, found no place in this book.
You've opted for a relatively linear, chronological biography that traces Dylan's life and work from his birth in Duluth, Minnesota to the present day. The entries in the book consist of Dylan album reviews based on your previously published lyrics. What are the advantages of this book structure?
I created the poetics of outlawry with the desire that it would be equally interesting to those who are not overly familiar with Dylan's life and work, as well as to those who know his work very well. For the former, perhaps the safest thing to do is to read this book in a linear fashion - from the beginning, and, I humbly hope, to the end: that way, if I have done my job well, they should gain a complete insight into the character and work of this artist. Those others, who have been close to Dylan for a long time, can read the book "on the fly", depending on which period they are interested in at a certain moment; album displays in such a reading can serve as a kind of "signs on the side of the road", intended to make it easier for readers to find their way in time and space, but also to reconsider attitudes towards well-known albums from Dylan's rich oeuvre. Therefore, some alternative title of this book could read "Dylan for beginners and those who haven't for a long time". Of course, only if I managed to achieve my initial intention - but let the readers judge that.
Your previous book on rock and roll was a collection of essays called "The Age of Heroes", in which several essays were dedicated to Dylan. Why are there no more great heroes of popular music, although there are still authors releasing great albums? How did rock rebellion become commercialized and pacified in a consumer society?
We live in a time that is not favorable to heroes, in which they are usually met with indifference or ridicule. For the majority, who are inclined to selfishly satisfy their own immediate needs, it is easier to heartlessly mock those who are still guided by noble ideals that have long since become obsolete, than to admit their own lowliness and nothingness. Therefore, there are heroes: these are all those who uncompromisingly follow their life and creative path, not caring about whether someone will like them, that is, how many "likes" they will collect. Because of this, they very often consciously remain on the sidelines or in the background - but they last longer, much longer. Dylan is a good example of such incorruptibility: over the years, he too was often pushed to the brink of extinction, but always came back stronger. The consumer society - to touch on the final part of your question - as a rule liked him more when he delivered what was expected of him, with the fact that he only did so when it was in accordance with his inner artistic voice, so was able to be an equally convincing protest singer and performer of old hits or Christmas songs. This, however, did not kill the rebel in him; his rebellion today is not reflected in the desire to fix the world (greater idealists have long since given up on this futile work) but rather in the determination to remain steadfast - to use the sharp words of the poet Zoran Kostić Canet - the same, special, free and only his own.
Despite being active in the fight for human rights in the sixties, Dylan knew that songs cannot be reduced to messages and slogans. He deliberately gave absurd and contradictory answers to questions about the messages of his songs and played with the clichés that intellectually lazy journalists wanted to impose on him. To what extent were the titles of voice of the generation, prophet, fighter for the oppressed, etc. still justified despite his opposition?
An artist can hardly predict in which ways his work will affect his devotees and followers. Therefore, I believe that Dylan's aversion to the mentioned titles was and remains completely sincere, especially when it comes to his fame as a "protest poet" from the first half of the sixties. His verses became slogans and his songs grew into anthems without his wanting it to happen. The individual and outlaw that he had always been, he never felt comfortable in the crowd, even when he walked among its leaders. Especially not then. And the titles were justified, among other things, because he acquired them quite spontaneously, but above all because of the timeless power of his musical and poetic expression: the questions and answers he sowed are still howling in the wind around us.
All the honors he received, Dylan accepted in his own unique way, on his own terms, and did not allow them to shape him. One of the best chapters of this book deals with the controversy surrounding Dylan's Nobel Prize. Can you explain to the readers why you think Dylan deserves the Nobel Prize?
He earned it first of all as a complete artistic personality, as a precise seismograph and merciless diagnostician of the dramatic changes that marked his and our time, as an artist through whose work the entire history of spiritual and moral ups and downs of man and humanity is reflected in eternally current themes. The decision made by the Nobel Committee in 2016 was a small step for Dylan, but a big one for the Nobel Prize.
Your book will be presented in Montenegro. Do you expect a large number of visitors interested in Dylan? Can you compare the audiences at the promotions of your books dealing with English literature and those dealing with rock and roll? Is Dylan mostly interested in the baby boomer generation in Montenegro and Serbia today, or is he equally important to the younger generations?
I never expect a large number of visitors: it's easier and safer that way. If there are enough of them, we will give the credit for it exclusively to Bob Dylan, and that would also be a nice answer to your question about who he is interested in today and who is important to him. It is certain that he is more important to us who remember him from the time when he was young (and we are even younger), but it is equally certain that even today he has something to say to anyone who is ready to listen to him, regardless of generational affiliation. Otherwise, there is no visible difference between the audience at "rock and roll literary promotions" and the "ordinary" ones: essentially, it is the same audience, connected by the same interests. Because rock and roll is literature, and literature is rock and roll. Bob Dylan is perhaps the best witness to this.
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