Time and Timelessness in the Balkans (Everything I Know about Time from Goran Petrovich)

Abstract

The article focuses on the idea of the transitory and indefinite character of the Balkans, perceived as marginal in many works written in Western Europe, as the "unfinished" Other of Europe. Through the story of Goran Petrovic, the idea of the timelessness of the Balkans, the idea of the completeness of an existence, is made meaningful. Although the story presents us with only a fragment of human existence, it conveys a sense of completeness and serves as an aphorism. But an aphorism that depicts the hiatus of the human, the zero, the emptiness that time carries. Because it is also in the swallows that disappear into the sky, and in the man who measures time through his shadow, and in the severed human parts. "All I Know About Time" sees writing - reading as an escape from the limitations of external existence, a transformation of reality, a way for the gloomy life to be transformed into something meaningful and significant, into a refuge from the outside world, by transforming it into a work of art. This is a text about the meaning of staying, about the gift that we receive, but also that we leave as a legacy to our children, here, in the Balkans.