ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF THE CHARACTERS’ IDENTITY IN A NOVEL “IMPURE BLOOD“ BY BORA STANKOVIĆ

Abstract

In light that the novel "Impure Blood" by Borisav Stanković covers the events, family and social relations, in the defined area, a small-town in the south of Serbia, at specific time, from 1850 to 1900, so make it possibly to research the aspects of human life as the central point of the turmoil of that time and that space. In interpretations of the parts from the novel "Impure Blood", the writer’s attitude towards individual human fates in social situations in Vranje, after liberation from the Turks, can be seen. The anthropological aspect of the problem issue is addressed to the main figures (Effendi-Mita and Landlord /“Gazda“/ Marko) of the social communities given in the novel, urban and rural, but also to their descendants. In this novel, Bora Stanković described a series of tragic fates of the characters who were often in disgrace of unwritten rules of their background and inherited patterns of manners. Bora's characters experienced a drama of identity due to the collapse of merchant families that had a prominent and privileged place in the small-town, but also because of the collision with new times that spreading rural families into town. This led to the mixing of two worlds in which money began to determine social relations and to disrupt self-reliance of personality. Therefore, all these circumstances further complicate the role of an unfinished man looking for his identity, confirming or denying the personal need and experience of ancestors. Stanković's characters are in deep discord with themselves and others, and as such they proved incapable and weak to struggle for their own identity. The paper is also dealing with possible reasons for such choice of the characters.