‘The Assassination of Đinđić is a Pivotal Point in Our History’: Svetislav Basara Publishes Novel Minority Report, Filled with Many Bitter Questions
Svetislav Basara, a columnist and prominent figure on Kurir Television, is a two-time winner of the prestigious NIN Award for his novels The Rise and Fall of Parkinson's Disease (2006) and Counter-endorphin (2020). With around twenty books to his name, Basara recently received the inaugural Ćamil Sijarić Regional Literary Award
Svetislav Basara’s latest novel, Minority Report – Podcast, published by Dereta, will be presented on 5 December at 6 PM at CS Parobrod, according to a press release.
“De Maistre was correct in observing that the decline of a nation begins with the degradation of its language, piling up possessive pronouns without substance. A nation that turns possessive pronouns like our, ours, and us into a state ideology is destined to collapse. And collapse it has,” Basara writes in his new novel.
A Profound Analysis
The novel includes photographs from Belgrade’s Novo Groblje Cemetery and the SASA Gallery, as well as reflections on last year’s funeral of writer, translator, and academic David Albahari at Belgrade’s Jewish Cemetery. According to literary critic Petar V. Arbutina, Basara’s work is an existential etymology of the era we live in, defining the framework of abstract moralism and the hypocrisy of this epoch, along with its mythological and historical sources.
“The eternal historical clash with paradox is not a position of knowledge but a source of many questions. Only the brave can see these questions, and only writers can attempt to provide answers. Intellectuals and the so-called ‘creative intelligentsia’ have taken up an unassailable position of accusing without being accused, of judging without being judged. Svetislav Basara refuses to play this dark role. He delves deeply, analysing and questioning himself and others with a truth that transcends the shallow facts of reality, knowing that the ultimate judgement lies in someone else’s hands and will. This is why words are merely the acoustic frame of what is spoken, the echo of the hidden, and understanding requires much more. This is why the language of this book serves as an existential etymology of our time, a definition of the framework of abstract moralism and the hypocrisy of the epoch, alongside its mythological and historical origins.” Arbutina notes.
According to Arbutina, Basara establishes the assassination of Zoran Đinđić as a “pivotal point in modern (and even older!) history, to which not only preceding events but also subsequent ones—perhaps even more so—are connected.”
“Through narrative contours and ideas that transcend the plot of a costumed historical reconstruction, Minority Report forms a compact, linguistically and stylistically composed meditative whole, consisting of numerous bitter questions and uncomfortable answers,” Arbutina writes..
This work, recently published, will be presented at Parobrod by the author, Svetislav Basara, as well as the book’s editor and literary critic Petar V. Arbutina. The discussion will be moderated by Katarina Lazić, editor of the CSP literary programme.
Acclaimed Works
Svetislav Basara, a columnist and prominent Kurir TV figure, is a two-time NIN Award laureate. His novels The Rise and Fall of Parkinson's Disease (2006) and Counter-endorphin (2020) have been recognised as some of his best works. With around twenty books to his name, before Minority Report, Basara published several acclaimed books with Dereta, including On the Edge, The Rise and Fall of Parkinson’s Disease, The Cyclists’ Legend, Lost in the Supermarket, Martha Cohen’s Diary, New Stradija, In Search of the Grail, and The Start of the Rebellion Against the Dahijas. Recently, Basara was announced as the first recipient of the newly established Regional Ćamil Sijarić Award, presented by The Vojislav Bulatović Strunjo Cultural Centre, for his novel Recapitulation.
Basara o Zemunskom klanu i Đinđiću