Reminder of the power of expression Branimir Šćepanović, His universal themes, existential dilemmas, and unique literary aesthetics that marked an entire direction in modern literature are brought to you by the major edition of The Collected Works of Branimir Šćepanović, an editorial endeavor by Dr. Vesna Trijic, which was presented yesterday at the 19th International Podgorica Book Fair.
The edition brings the entire oeuvre of the author whose style, thematic complexity and philosophical depth are recognized and highly appreciated, both in the domestic and international literary community. The editor of the edition and literary critic Trijić, who received her doctorate from Šćepanović and to Danilo Kish.
"I compared their poetics and, embarking on this research, I realized that it was impossible to do so before examining the literary-historical circumstances and their association, their closeness, and then what followed. That was the so-called affair, or rather the controversy that followed after 'The Tomb for Boris Davidovich' and 'Anatomy Lesson', in which an entire chapter was dedicated to Šćepanović and which symbolically marked the end of Šćepanović's literary career. My book Literature Between Politics and Culture was really well received in the academic community. And these were signs that the attitude of the cultural public towards Šćepanović was changing," said Trijić, explaining that her dissertation was the first to be defended and dedicated to Šćepanović, and she continued to talk about the presented edition.
"This collection contains all three novels, in the order in which they were published. Šćepanović's attitude towards the short story was specific and deeply considered. During his life, he rarely wrote and published them, but it was not a matter of neglecting the form, but of a deliberate choice of the moment and thematic framework. When the time came for the stories, they were chosen not only according to their artistic value, but also according to current projects and his creative vision," Trijić pointed out.
She added that this was an opportunity to symbolically complete her work on Šćepanović's work.
"While I was writing and researching, I concluded that his work really does not have a representative edition. This was a big problem for me as a scholar and interpreter of Šćepanović's work. The edition that was authoritative until this edition was Nolit's edition from 2008, and the author participated in its creation, which was very important, because he provided the final version of the text," said Trijić.
She noticed and commented on the specifics of the author's work, and pointed out that the whiteness of the paper is also important in Šćepanović's work.
"Whiteness carried meaning and is semantically important. That's not boring at all in prose... That's very important. How he symbolically uses even punctuation marks, quotation marks, the line, whether it will be indented or not, that was important to him as a storyteller," Trijić revealed.
She added that stories that were previously scattered throughout the periodical and rarely available to the reading public were also important to her, and that they make up a significant part of the edition.
"I collected these stories, which remained in various magazines and publications, and grouped them in a certain way, so that they now have their deserved place in a comprehensive overview of Šćepanović's work... Their arrangement is also important, I tried to group them in a way that makes it easier for the reader to navigate through Šćepanović's opus, not only in terms of the cycle of his prose, but also in the directions in which his artistic vision itself develops," said Trijić, emphasizing the high quality of all his manuscripts.
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