Fragment of a fragment - ‘‘Dialogues in Paris’’

Here comes the literary analysis essay about the book Dialogues in Paris. The author of the essay is Jovanka Vukanović, literary critic. English translation of the essay: Ljubica Slavković.

The book Dialogues in Paris by Tijana Zivaljevic is truly a great and pleasant surprise for the local and, I dare say, the regional contemporary literary practice. There reasons for this surprise are at least twofold. 

Firstly, from the poetic perspective, Dialogues can hardly be reduced to one particular literary form, as they seem to convey characteristics of meditative and lyrical medallions, while featuring as a dramaturgical croquis of sorts. Ultimately, the variety of forms is combined into a carefully chosen lexical corpus, i.e. into a literary form, which, despite its reduced outline, offers numerous perspectives on the indisputably intensive intellectual and philosophical ruminations of the author.

Secondly, despite the fact that Dialogues are the author’s first book, they do not suffer from a beginner writer’s stylistic shortcomings – including inconsistency and insecurity in the structure, dissolutions in composition, vagueness in ideas, thematic generalisation, implausibility of motives, etc. Quite the contrary, they seem to convey the totality of experiences of the world. And what better image of the world than the city of Paris, as the world’s epicentre. A place where, for centuries, philosophical studies have been intercepted, have merged, integrated and synchronized with religious ideas, artistic visions, methodological innovations, political ideas and constitutional experiences. In short, she intertwines the fates of the common people with great ones, the known with the unknown.  She portrays human life in all its complexity, contradictions, beauty and cosmic dimension. 

And it is all nicely tucked in just a couple of lines, in a replica, or in an Aesopic narrative, phrased as a single question, or an unfinished sentence, deliberately inclining toward the enigmatic, the brevity of the current moment, the illusion of the reality.

And life is nothing but a fragment. Life as seen in its general, conceptual form. Our own little, short, quotidian, ephemeral lives are but a fragment of a fragment. Tijana Zivaljevic is aware of these truths, which she collected in her book, thereby not letting them wane. Bound together, they will voice a stronger message, their trace will be harder to erase, and we will therefore leave something behind for those who are to follow in our footsteps. They will be on the trail of our spirituality as well as our experiences. Whatever happens thereafter, whether it all stays as is, transforms or falls into oblivion is beyond our control.

What is surprising, above all, is the freedom and the courage of this literary endeavour of Tijana Zivaljevic. All that she “recorded” during her daily chats with friends in coffee shops, or with work colleagues during her stay in Paris was delicately filtered through a prism of dialogue, and then presented to the reader as either a profound matrix of life, or a word of advice, or even as refined wisdom from the ancient books, where we look to find the meaning of life. 

Throughout her Dialogues, Tijana Zivaljevic demonstrates a realistic and diverse perception of life phenomena such as optimism, love, faith, disappointment, loneliness, alienation, fear, desire, longing for the unknown, and the need for the intimacy... 

At the end of such an elaborate kaleidoscope of life, the author presents a maxim, as the inevitable expression of her creative vision: “There is always a question that does not allow completion”.

 Jovanka Vukanović, literary critic

Dialogues in Paris, the first edition.