The saga of the beginnings of civic consciousness

The latest novel Balša Brković, Aurora, implicitly continues the (geographical) topography of his previous novels Private gallery i Paranoia in Podgorica. It is about Podgorica, but this time through the historical aura of the events of the thirties of the last century, which ranks this novel among the rare titles in Montenegrin literature that dealt with the urban-citizen environment and the creation of the first contemporary institutional forms of cultural, historical, political and educational life at that time Montenegrin society. This kind of excursion into the past, no matter how much it carries with it admixtures of nostalgic-romantic sensibility, we see that soon, after we delve deeper into the structure of the novel reading, it takes on a research-sobering accent that will largely determine the broader dimensions of Brković's prose.

On the one hand, it is a sociological-cultural saga about the beginnings of the newly established institutional forms of civil life, within which, on the other hand, we meet several families, seen precisely from the civil point of view, whose representatives are at the same time the main promoters of the then advanced ideas - national freedom, women's rights, educational and pedagogical innovations... Then there are the advocates of the new social wave, communism and workers' associations; then, a group of professors and artists - Russians, who escaped from the then Russia before the impact of the proletarian revolution. In addition to them, there is another narrative flow of the novel which, for the circumstances of the time, represents a very sensitive block - the voice of a woman, which the author presents as a very sober, thoughtful approach to life. Their voice is the voice of aesthetic spirituality and healthy activism in the fight for a more advanced public life, symbolized through the establishment and work of the women's section at the Chess Club. Another narrative arm of the novel should be highlighted - a local crime story that focused on the mysterious death of a woman, whose identity, as in all good crime stories, is revealed only at the end, after many assumptions, guesswork, searches, doubts, wrong parallels and conclusions.

Each of these pillars, which at the same time represent an analytical cross-section of socio-political and cultural events in the Podgorica milieu of the 1930s, is accompanied by a multitude of real and imaginative images, characters, artifacts, ideas and imaginations, which, with the euphony of their own voices, imperceptibly draw the reader into their very dynamic, complex and turbulent cosmogony. It was not easy to keep the thread firmly in such a disjointed story, in which every dialogue spark has its own motivation, where the simultaneity of events requires mathematical precision, which, again, is maintained by the logic of the author's conceptual conception. This, first of all, required a strategy of the narrative sequence elaborated to the smallest detail, in which the sensibility of the details, as well as the motivation of the dialogue, should not be violated if the integrity of the experience was to be established, and a clear compositional model on such a branched narrative scene. And the author impeccably respected that until the end of the novel. In addition, the plot itself developed with such dynamism that it did not give the reader opportunities for subsequent observation of the "traveled path", but, entering the author's perceptive matrix, followed the events together with him and measured their effect.

Regardless of the fact that, as was noted on one occasion, immediately after the book was published, it can be described as a "family novel, social chronicle, or prose with political and criminal elements", it seems that the focus of Brković's story rests primarily on a historical basis. But not historical in terms of dates, movements, upheavals, revolutionary measures and important turning points, but rather a silent sequence of certain tendencies of a political, sports, cultural character, which kept pace with the then, in the institutional sense, more strongly established social order, not only in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, but also in the surrounding area - Bosnia, Croatia...

When, from today's point of view, one looks at, for example, only the community of Russians - professors, engineers, artists (Abaša, Rogov, Zaremba and others) - who in those years formed a kind of spiritual and enclave and vertical of the Podgorica environment, with their life and work gave are an indelible historical seal of a new, more modern, more open life, which Podgorica then heartily, but also cautiously strove for. On the other hand, their part in the opening of the chess club (including the women's chess section) and the initiation of new civil forms of social life represented the much-desired and hitherto missing quantum of energy, and so necessary in order to form the matrix of life at that time, from status quo necessarily initiated and turned into the status of a historical fact. In particular, the establishment of a women's chess section, with the knowledge that at that time, even in more advanced environments, a similar idea was lacking, represents a revolutionary step. And the continuation of the story about its members, their enthusiasm, competition, starting a chess school for young people - is a kind of tribute to the woman. Homage as both historical context and subtext. Starting from this fact, the author's thought went to meet the times, which will subsequently, regardless of many inconsistencies and limitations, point to this and similar potential, to creative abilities and intelligent leadership and management of social potential.

In the rather branched compositional scheme of the novel, Brković managed to establish another associative pillar, through which, with his engaged approach to the topic, he will connect the then and present advocates of the Russian idea, its attachment, that is, its marginalization, then the issues of Slavism, Yugoslavism, as well as Montenegrin identity. In this context, we can indirectly interpret the formation and operation of football clubs (Balšić, Zora, Radnički). Brković will, also, through imaginative dialogue lines Milovan Đilas i Radovan Zogović accompany the revolutionary ideas already visibly brought to life, which will soon, with the stormy flow of time, outline a new vision of post-war Podgorica.

Signals of civic life, the new urban milieu, family traditions (the families of the Tijović brothers, Nester, for example), complicated by the freer and free-spirited behavior of young people (Zorka, Ana, Edin, Mladen, Judita...) are given in a benevolent narrative script, where every gesture is , thought, action, idea given enough space to show itself in full form. Even then, when a possible negative connotative trace follows one of the characters, the author, in "collaboration" with nearby or distant events, "tames" him, thus giving him the chance to continue to remain in his environment, vividly painted by Brković. with the light of understanding and nostalgic listening.

Such a side of everyday life, which is inevitably exercised in every environment and every time, does not spend its charm and philosophy on unraveling world historical topics, but on direct, tangible ones, the scope of which is measured according to the register of the famous saying Carpe Diem! Zi Ervan's monologues and conversations in his tavern, retellings of police actions related to the murder of an unknown woman, football matches, guest appearances on the sidelines, comments by the city's originals Jefta and Pulo and similar moments went through a certain emotional level of Brković's interpretation, which we have not known until now. Which is to say that, regardless of the collective synergism that, at first glance, emerges from the novel's narrative aura, ideas are still driven by individuals, and individuals by their vision and the curiosity of their spirit. Hence, individuals and their destinies, as a rule, await a symbolic but inexorable transfer - from their own to the general drama of life! Many pages sparkle with rapture, melodramatic affection, love for Podgorica. Did the reader, precisely because of such presence of empathy, which, as it was more emotional, leveled almost the largest part of the novel, remain deprived of the author's more critical presence, at least when it comes to some characters and scenes? Frankly speaking, the author, despite his analytical gift, keenness of perception, far-reaching imagination and avant-garde approach to the text in general, most likely, due to fictional fragmentation, could not maximally scan some general phenomenological data. However, when Brković gives his characters more space, when he lets them (self) examine themselves in it, when they begin to shift the algorithm of daily life towards the causes of the wider historical scene or, on the other hand, towards the unknowns of their own being, their psyche and emotional inscrutability, the narrative becomes more condensed, more meaningfully associative, metaphorically richer (Jevgeni Zaremba's monologue, for example). Or, on the other hand, the conversations between Radovan Zogović and Milovan Đilas then develop into a problem point that will signal, not only the seriousness of the moment, but will also suggest its possible projections in the future.

As the novel is, more or less, all in dialogue cascades, sometimes faster, sometimes slower, the author often has the opportunity to maneuver stylistically more often in such circumstances, and to ensure, through inserted monologue sequences, a deeper flow to the story (Zi Ervan's reflections, evaluations metropolitan It's coming etc.). But, Aurora is a story about Podgorica, about a city which in the minds of its inhabitants is a first-class documentary image, which was connected to toponyms in a wide emotional arc, even today with a living, full historical-nostalgic sign, and which a priori colored Brković's testimony and immersion in the life of that time.

In those parts of the novel in which the author's analytical edge is directly manifested, and his suggestive insight into the phenomenological links of Being and Time (and by which, by the way, we have recognized the author for some time now through his impeccably worded literary and problematic columns, as well as two , in the very top European quoted poetry collection), Brković directly suggested to himself and the reader that his novel Aurora is not only a story about the charm, ambient wit and romantic-humorous seduction of the former Podgorica, but also a guideline for confronting the many life challenges that are thrown in our faces today.