POISONOUS BOOKS
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Date
2024
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Plovdiv University Press "Paisii Hilendarski"
Abstract
Books can be poisonous in a literal, metaphorical, metonymical or symbolic sense. Literally, for protection; metonymically, in fiction, for killing; metaphorically, in metalepsis, as revealing reality as being fictitious; symbolically, as a danger to readers. The article examines examples of all four possibilities. Often metaphor, metonymy and symbols are used to convey a metapoetic message about the relationship between fiction and reality, about the political, social or psychological power of literature, about literature as temptation or a narcotic, or about the ambivalence of a literary message, and thus fundamentally different modes of reading. In particular, the article argues that David Damrosch’s reading in What is World Literature? of Pavić’s Dictionary of the Khazars, which he declares to be poisoned by Serbian nationalism, is subverted by the book itself which differentiates a poisonous from a non-poisonous copy of itself, meaning alternative modes of reading.
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Keywords
forbidden books, Milorad Pavić, Arabian Nights, Adam Mickiewicz, Walter Moers, Zoran Živković, Umberto Eco