Due volti dell'esilio nella letteratura serba: Crnjanski - Albahari

Faces of exile in Serbian Literature: Crnjanski and Albahari Summary The article deals with some of the theoretical and cultural-historical aspects of emigration, expatriation and exile, a theme present in Serbian literature, albeit marginally. Althought the outcome may sometimes be positive, leaving one’s country, national literature and native language behind is a traumatic experience, as is reflected in the work of two authors, Miloš Crnjanski and David Albahari. The narrative in their novels centres on problems such as identity, encountering the other, reflection on the past and future. Crnjanski’s Roman o Londonu (Novel on London), is the first cosmopolitan novel in Serbian literature. Originally written in English in 1947-48, it is a transference of the writer’s experience as an exile to a Russian émigré couple living in London in the years immediately after the end of the Second Worlds War. In Albahari’s autobiographical novels Snežni čovek (Snow Man) and Mamac (Bait), it is the main character that chooses exile, fleeing life in Yugoslavia in the 1990s to settle in Canada. Physical distance does not enable the hero to free himself of his past yet keeps him from becoming part of his new country, a world which he therefore finds hostile. Differing in terms of historical period and life experiences, Crnjanski’s and Albahari’s heroes share a sense of disorientation and existential unease caused by their loss of country. Exile is productive universal topos, as is shown by these two examples of twentieth-century Serbian literature.