Orwell’s 1984 in Pekić’s 1999: Intertextual Relations

Abstract

This paper examines intertextual relations between two dystopian novels – Borislav Pekić’s anthropological account entitled 1999 and George Orwell’s 1984. In postmodernism, the literary movement which Pekić’s oeuvre belongs to in terms of poetic principles, intertextual dialogue is very active and dominant. I argue that Orwell’s novel serves as a proto-text or an inspiration for Pekić in constructing his own narrative. This is particularly reflected in the conceptual organization of key elements of the narrative structure such as chronotope and characters. The dominant spatial structure taken over from Orwell is the Golden Country, a pasture where all important events in the novel take place. Similarly, the prominent temporal determinant, i.e. the year 1999, becomes a symbol just as it is the case with 1984. As regards the constructs of the plot, i.e. the characters, it is proposed that Pekić’s Arno and the mole emerge as counterparts to Orwell’s Winston and O’Brien. The chronotope of meeting, along with the resonant sentences “We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness” and “We shall meet when flowers bloom again,” is a constant in both narrative structures. Regarding personality traits, Pekić’s last man in the world, i.e. Arno, is well-matched with Winston, Orwell’s last man. Both are modelled as aloof, lonely in their lives and ideas, and as individuals juxtaposed with the group. Furthermore, Pekić treats the motifs of love, history and rats similarly to the way Orwell does. Love fails to ensure the survival of humankind, historical facts are misrepresented, while the motif of rats metaphorically represents danger inboth texts.