STIGMATOLOGIJA: CRTA KAO INTERPUNKCIJSKI ZNAK U „ROMANU O LONDONU“ MILOŠA CRNJANSKOG

Abstract

The paper presents some of the more recent theoretical insights into the functions of punctuation in literary texts. Considering that the selected research corpus – the prose discourse of Miloš Crnjanski – has already been examined in the context of his specific use of commas as one of the means of constructing his authorial poetics, this study aims to draw attention to another mark that is also characteristic of Crnjanski’s prose expression: the dash. Its pronounced presence in Crnjanski’s post–World War II novels testifies to the author’s need for the dash itself to acquire a poetic function. Focusing on several examples from A Novel of London, we have sought to propose a reading not only of what is written between the dashes – in white space – but also of what exists within the dashes themselves, as silent signs bearing a mute but exposed meaning, which, in the encounter with Crnjanski’s poetics, must not be overlooked.