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Nemanja Dević, PhD
Institute for Contemporary History
Belgrade, Republic of Serbia

 

HISTORICAL IN DOBRICA ĆOSIĆ’S NOVEL “THE SUN IS FAR AWAY”

Vol. XL, 2/2022, pp. 383–404
https://doi.org/10.29362/ist20veka.2022.2.dev.383-404

 

ABSTRACT/RESUME:

The plot of Dobrica Ćosić’s novel The Sun is Far Away is deeply rooted in the events of 1942-1943, with reference to other war and post-war years. The second layer consists of the writer’s subsequent political ideas and thoughts, which were then attributed to his literary heroes. Ćosić’s early work, with an emphasis on the novel The Sun is Far Away, cannot be viewed as dissident; according to his motives and conclusions, he is politically engaged and completely “on the Party line”. However, the then open dilemma (whether to fight for freedom at all costs) will follow the author in the following period, and his conclusions presented in 1951 will change in the future. The number of identified historical contents in the novel exceeds the initial expectations and it could be said that for all the basic ideas presented in the book, the author had as inspiration specific historical events and personalities. He shaped them through artistic freedoms, but also in accordance with the ideology of the movement to which he belonged. In our opinion, the motives for the creation of the novel in the early post-war years were also political: to present the Partisan Movement to the Serbian people as part of its historical epic vertical; to make a departure from the USSR and present the Partisan struggle as an independently executed, authentic revolution; to point out the betrayal and crimes of the counter-revolution and the Ravna gora Movement (presented in a politically constructed symmetry as “Serbian Ustashas”), and thus to contribute to the war propaganda that was waged against them even then. In that sense, the novel The Sun is Far Away should not be viewed only as a literary fiction, but as a part of engaged literature which had far-reaching consequences in the formation of the historical consciousness of post-war generations.

 

KEYWORDS: Dobrica Ćosić, Literature, Revolution, Partisan Movement, Civil War

 

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