POSTMODERN ETHICS OF DARKO CVIJETIC

Abstract

Following those aspects of Zygmunt Bauman’s theory of postmodern ethics that point to differences between modern “history”, which brings only what has already happened, and postmodern literature, which “corrects” the past by confabulating what could have happened, the paper interprets the work of Bosnian writer Darko Cvijetić, whose (re) presentation of the reality of Bosnia and Herzegovina offers a literary truth about the experiences of crimes against the innocent and a possible new ethical idea of humanity.By starting from the hypothesis that the ethical side of a literary text calls for critical thinking stronger and more effective than facts and documents, we read Cvijetić’s works as testimonies of traumas thatcan be overpassed only if we are aware and willing to accept them. As a testimony to real events and their consequences, which are mostly kept silent, Cvijetić’s literary text deepens consciousness. The paper will examine the ethical dimension (individual and collective) of Cvijetić ‘s opus between factography, literary representation, protagonists, lyrical subjects, writers and recipients.