THE MOTIF OF THE EYES IN PEKIĆ'S THE MIRACLE AT SILOAM

Abstract

Borislav Pekić's debut novel The Time of Miracles, based on the polemic with the Gospel narrative of the life and mission of Jesus Christ, is one of the literary works that are based on a dense intertextual network that connects centuries and cultures. In this paper, I have analyzed the story Miracle at Siloam and elaborated on how Pekić interacts with the tradition of the reading of the Bible and how his work is not only a direct reaction to the prototext, but also to its dominant interpretation. I have compared Miracle at Siloam with Camblak's The Life of Stefan Decanski and pointed out numerous similarities between medieval hagiography and Pekić's story, concluding that he has formed his story according to the hagiography model. Finally, I established parallels between Pekić and his predecessor Leonid Andreyev, whose stories Lazarus, Judas Iscariot and Ben-Tobit set a pattern by which Borislav Pekić built The Time of Miracles.