Lecture by Prof. Dr. Tatjana Đurišić entitled "Necrophilic Discourse in the Narration of Mirko Kovač" was held yesterday on the occasion of World Book and Copyright Day, as part of a program dedicated to marking 60 years of postmodernism in South Slavic literatures, organized by the Public Institution "Njegoš" National Library from Nikšić.
As Đurišić pointed out, necrophilic discourse, which is officially unclassified in literary theory, is fundamentally a subversive mechanism by which Kovač dismantles dominant narratives, established patterns, the literary canon, and tradition.
The term necrophilia, she said, does not refer exclusively to sexual deviation, but rather denotes a deep psychological orientation and a specific relationship to life and the world. It is a concept based on the theory of sociologists and psychologists. Elisha Froma, who described the necrophilic character in the monograph "Anatomy of Human Destructiveness".
"From defines a necrophiliac character as one who is prone to tearing apart living structures, destroying for the sake of destroying, and worshipping technology. Necrophilic writers, like Kovač, are extremely rare in literature. Few readers will dare to go through his labyrinths and the darkness of his narrative. Necrophilia, understood in From's sense, is an extremely powerful tool in the hands of good writers," said Đurišić.
Necrophilic elements in Kovač's novel "My Sister Elida" can already be seen, while in the cycle of short stories "The Wounds of Luka Meštrević" from 1971, necrophilic processes are recognized as a tendency towards the destruction of living structures, which comes from power and order.
"Thanks to necrophonic discourse, he managed to dismantle a cultural model towards which he was extremely aggressive, that is, the model of socialism and its ideological basis – communist dogma and the violence of the Udba. There are few writers who have so well understood the mechanisms of coercion and coercion that come from the top and make every order, to a greater or lesser extent, necrophilic. This is the source of necrophilia that Mirko Kovač deals with," said Đurišić.
Although he did not know Fromm's definition of necrophilia and wrote guided by his own creative impulses, it was in necrophilic discourse, according to her, that he found his recognizable expression, his trademark.
“Necrophilia as a mechanism is deeply repressed and belongs to what Freud called the subconscious. Mirko Kovač, like Miodrag Bulatović, likes to reveal the other side. The face is not very interesting to him. The face is always beautiful, made up, but turning things from the front to the back is a stylistic mechanism of the grotesque. For both of these writers, this is supreme art. That is what art is for, showing anomalies, showing a person in illicit acts, because the more you scratch the surface, the deeper you have gone into art. Necrophilic mechanisms are rarely found in literature, but they are so destructive and subversive.”
Speaking about Kovač's boldness to speak out about forbidden topics, such as Goli Otok, which caused significant controversy in the society of the time, but also about the strict censorship that was present at the time, Đurišić pointed out that "whenever measures against rebels and critics of the government are tightened, necrophilic measures come into play."
"Literary critics have assessed that it is a valuable text that reveals the secrets of Goli Otok. Such a large and obscured topic was very challenging for Kovač. He brought all the victims of that casemate, which was organized and controlled by UDBA, to the stage."
For his book of short stories "The Early Years of Luka Meštrević", he received the "Milovan Glišić" award, which was taken away from him, and the book was withdrawn from bookstores and libraries. An updated edition of the collection of the same name was published in 1980, and a new short story from that book, "Pictures from Meštrević's Family Album", won the Andrić Award.
According to Đurišić, Kovač dealt with all strictly forbidden topics, he had no reservations about them, and that is why he is a great, European writer. He had an affirmative attitude towards the Bible, because for him, as Đurišić said, the biblical text was a way of fighting against communist dogma. He managed, as she said, to recognize everything that was anti-life, everything that aimed to destroy life.
Mirko Kovač's work, Đurišić pointed out, cannot be separated from the cultural and political traumas that shaped the former Yugoslavia in the second half of the 20th century. It, she said, represents the very pinnacle of European and Yugoslav postmodern literature.
The lecture was organized as part of the April repertoire of the Nikšić cultural scene.
Bonus video:
