SIVA: KLIMA FIKCIONOG SVETA „GROBNICE ZA BORISA DAVIDOVIČA“ DANILA KIŠA

Abstract

The question of whether, how, and what can be thought about gray, as prompted by Peter Sloterdijk’s study on the theory of colors, served as the starting point in exploring the values that shape the climate of the fictional world of Danilo Kiš’s A Tomb for Boris Davidovich. A glanceat the novel Garden, Ashes enabled us to notice how gray carries an important atmospheric and symbolic function in Kiš’s narration. In A Tomb, we singled out some characteristically gray phenomena, such as flags, houses, eyes, metal (iron, steel), and stone. We observed them not only in their symbolic function, but also in the meaning they carry for Kiš’s poetics. Since gray is most often recognized through its resistance to stabilization processes and symbolic positioning, we demonstrated the different connotations of gray in Kiš’s book. The reflection on doubt as a constructive component of Kiš’s poetics provided the framework within which we sought to demonstrate the entirety of that poetics as an expression of gray painting.