Biography Essay

Danilo Kis, Dragoslav Mihailovic, and Borislav Pekic—the leading trio of probably the most talented generation of Serbian writers after World War II— radically changed the course of Serbian literature almost immediately after they made their debut in the mid 1960s. Pekic stands out even in this company, however, because his reputation is not based solely upon the aesthetic quality of his works. Not even erudite novelists such as Kis or Milorad Pavic roam with such ease through an enormous variety of cultures—Judaic, Byzantine, Ottoman, Greek, Serbian, Central and West European—and the most important historical periods from the early Christian era and the Middle Ages to the present, with occasional excursions even into the future. At the same time, Pekic's thorough knowledge of the long tradition of European thought from Plato to Sigmund Freud and Martin Heidegger, together with his...