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The Paradox of Dobrica Cosic’s Defeat

Saša Ilić - 21/03/2012

 Let me be clear on one point: Dobria Cosic was never a tragic figure,nor has he ever been defeated in the past, in spite of his unceasing

flirting with fate, un-history,[1] tragedy, defeat and misery, both inliterature, as well as in politics. Unfortunate are his readers,followers of his political ideas, and tragic are only those on whomthis mechanism of manipulation was tried in vivo. In Kosovo andBosnia and Herzegovina, in particular. Dobrica Cosic himself made

sure things were even clearer – he recently published the umpteenthbook in a row, titled: The Bosnian War. I remember well how hewithdrew from the public scene at least a dozen times, hiscomplaints about tiredness, old age, sickness, lack of understandingamongst the youth and similar issues. And yet, after eachwithdrawal, he would return rejuvenated, stronger, and publishingmore copies than ever before. The Bosnian War confirms this onceagain (at least by its thirty thousand copies in the first print).

Constructing a paradox

War is his natural state. If there is no war, Cosic produces one.Furthermore, he never abandons his paradoxes. In war, he keepstalking about the peace, and in peace, about the war. We could saythat paradox is exploited the most both in his political work, as wellas in his writing. It is a well known fact that paradox is an importantrhetorical tool to achieve higher persuasiveness of the speaker.From the very start of his career, Cosic worked on paradox,

developing it to unimaginable heights. He is the paradoxicalfriend/overseer of the group of intellectuals from Simina street n.7a, paradoxical writer/agent in Budapest in 1956, ambivalent visitorto the prison of Goli otok, paradoxical dissident, present/absentspirit of the Memorandum, paradoxical president (without power) of SRY, the most paradoxical member of Otpor (Resistance),

paradoxically the bestselling author in an alien (to him) 20th

century, almost in an alien world, which, it appears, he neverunderstood well. However, this also hides a paradox, because it is

precisely his century and his world – it is only in his books that it isrepresented as something alien to the author. The book The BosnianWar is grounded in Cosic’s paradox. The tit le includes “war”, but isallegedly dedicated to his peacekeeping ambitions, from the LondonConference, to Geneva, Vance-Owen peace plan, all the way to the

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Dayton Agreement (“Milosevic’s capitulation”). Cosic’s mostfundamental intention is to show the entire war period through theprism of his superhuman efforts, naturally, to establish peace. Of course, he never seems to be able to achieve this, but,nevertheless, his discursive narcissistic attempts to create theimage of a peacemaker are doing their work. How does Cosicachieve paradox in The Bosnian War? From the first sentence he

introduces us to a clash of the worlds and religions. The book,consisting of diary entries (assembled and modified at a later time),begins as a Hollywood movie, without a minute wasted. The trailer,unlike the one launched by his publisher, The Official Gazette, couldlook as follows: End of the XX century. The dissolution of 

Yugoslavia is bathed in blood. For no reason, the rights of one

nation have been taken away. This nation has been proclaimed the

culprit in advance. America and Europe are against this nation, with

Germany in the fore. Russia, distanced from its own people, is

 powerless to help. But one man has the strength to fight. He,Dobrica Cosic, at the urging of his closest friends, begins a war to

conquer peace and introduce law and order in this part of the world.

Lives of hundreds of thousands of people will never be the same…

The dialogue with the creator

The image is being painted in broad strokes. Muslims are Ustashas,Croats – are also Ustashas, while Serbs are the victims. The

participants of the Bosnian war have been marked in this way. Theentire ambiance is painted with dark colors, and the only bright spotin this dark place is Cosic himself – cast in the light of hope thatpeace is possible, after all. This is what should draw the reader’s

attention. However, if he goes down this suggested road, the readercan suffer a terrible fate. Why? For a simple reason, deriving fromthe paradoxically constructed image of the world. In the ray of shining hope we do not find Cosic. Where is he then? – the readerwill wonder. Actually, he is everywhere around, in that dark

environment which he has represented as adverse to him at the verybeginning. If we overcome the initial confusion, we can read thebook outside the paradoxical register of the defeated peacemaker .Only if we lift the burden of false drama, which is being constantlyintensified by Cosic, can we find out what he is actually writingabout. He is writing about the architecture of the war in Bosnia. Henegates any type of war crime committed by Serbs in that war. VasaMiskin street, Markale, Strpci, Srebrenica… The people he trusts themost are actually Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic. He does nothave much in common with Milosevic, in whom he lost faith veryquickly. He shares everything with Karadzic. He is his advisor, hismentor, his lawyer. He gives him orders. For Cosic, Mladic is thegreatest general in contemporary Serbian history, a man of  “beautiful intell igence”. Vance and Owen are the evil topographers

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of the new world order, and Bosnia is “the country of endemichatred”. When Bosnia is concerned, he often shares the samestandpoint as Tudjman: life together is not possible, and division isthe most acceptable political solution. Here, Cosic frequently createsa distance, and writes in the third person, talking about himself asthe creator of the hero of his books A time of Death and A time of Reign. He sometimes identifies himself with this hero in dramatic

historical circumstances. Faced with the dialectics of fate whichleads him to defeat , Cosic rests, in the middle of the war, on hiscomfy sofa in a posh Belgrade suburb and reads Montaigne. (Ibelieve he was very pleased with this scene). He believes this to bethe image of a humanist . While some unidentified “maskedcriminals” snatch Bosniaks from a train, he searches for the justification of events in the field, within the highest spheres of literature. All the great writers are on his side. This line of thoughtis characteristic of the new Serbian right. The absolute lack of the

ethics of responsibility. The Bosnian War is a good example.

Opening the will

What he did not say in his book, in order not to violate hisobsessive concept, Cosic said in the conclusion of his speech duringthe big promotion in Youth Center in Belgrade. The meaning of theparadox of all his defeats in the Bosnian war lies in the creation of the Republic of Srpska, this “much too expensive, but the one and

only political and war victory of the Serbian nation in the second half of the XX century”. With this book, Cosic became part of thestruggle against redefining the Dayton order established in Bosniaand Herzegovina, once again raising his voice to support the conceptof life within highly built walls and in a “constant war by othermeans”, which, according to him, is still going on in Bosnia.However, what concerns me the most is the fact that the state-owned publisher, Official Gazette, is behind this entire publishingfeat. By publishing this book in so many copies, the Official Gazette

obviously wanted to send a clear message to the public. And themessage is that the paradox no longer exists. Dobrica Cosic is a

happy man, who finally declared his (Serbian) victory in Bosnia, afterseventeen years. Furthermore, we should bear in mind that thosewho do not applaud this victory with enough enthusiasm could endup on the ash heap of Cosic`s un-history. Or at least in itsbasement.

 Translated by Bojana Obradovic

Peščanik.net, 21.03.2012.

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1. Cosic`s term razistorija, undone history. ↑

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