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The Knife

Author	Vuk Drašković
Original title	Nož
Translator	Milo Yelesiyevich
Language	Serbian
Genre	Historical fiction
Publisher	Nova knjiga
Publication date	1982
Publication place	Yugoslavia
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	413 (English translation)
ISBN	978-0967889368
OCLC	45293621
Dewey Decimal	891.8/2354
LC Class	PG1419.14.R28 N6913 2000

The Knife ([Nož] Error: {{Langx}}: text has italic markup (help)) is a 1982 novel by Serbian writer Vuk Drašković. Written between 1979 and 1982, it explores ethnic identity and the legacy of the World War II Ustaše genocide of Serbs in 1960s Yugoslavia. The novel created much controversy upon its release, mainly because it dealt with inter-ethnic massacres at a time when discussion of wartime atrocities was considered divisive and the official emphasis in literature was placed on the Titoist policy of Brotherhood and Unity. It was banned soon after release by the League of Communists of Yugoslavia. Drašković himself was expelled from the party and lost his job. He was unable to find work for years and went on to become a prominent nationalist leader in the 1990s. The novel was very well received in the Serbian diaspora and was translated into English in 2000. Modern analyses of it have offered a range of interpretations, and Drašković has sometimes been accused of writing an overtly anti-Muslim work. He denies such claims.

Plot

The novel begins with the Bosnian Muslim Osmanović family surrounding the home of their Orthodox Christian neighbours, the Jugović family, on the evening of 7 January 1942. The two families were kumovi (lit. blood brothers) in the interwar period, but their friendship disintegrated following the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941. Inside the Jugović home, one of the Osmanović men, Hussein, attacks Ljubica Jugović and attempts to rape her. She takes hold of his dagger as the rape begins and disembowels him, leaving him to die. The men murder her and all the remaining members of the Jugović family, except for a newborn boy. As the men are about to kill him, the hodža says that the boy should be taken back to the village and raised as a Muslim. On their way back to the village, the men are met by a party of Muslim raiders carrying a Muslim newborn whose family was killed by the Chetniks. The two newborns are given to Hussein's widow, Rabija, who is told that both are Muslim orphans. She names the Christian boy Alija and names the Muslim boy Selim. The following day, the Chetniks raid the village and kill almost all the male villagers. Rabija conceals herself but is only able to save her son Farudin and the orphan Alija. The other orphan, Selim, is taken by the Chetniks as they withdraw from the village. Alija is raised by Rabija in their all-Muslim village following the war. She tells him that he is an orphan from an unknown Muslim family and is taught to hate all Serbs. As a college student in 1960s Sarajevo, Alija attempts to learn more about his true identity and asks Rabija to tell him more about the night in which his family was killed. She again tells him that he is a Muslim orphan and is confused as to why he is curious to know more.

The story cuts to a Muslim shopkeeper in Trieste going by the pseudonym Atif Tanović. Before 1941, he was a Sarajevo shopkeeper named Sabahudin Muratović. After Bosnia is occupied by the Axis powers, the Ustaše—Croatian fascists who controlled Bosnia and Croatia at the time—inform him that he is to acquire a shop owned by his Serbian friend, Đorđe Viłenjak. What they fail to tell him is that in order to receive the shop he has to slit the throats of Đorđe and his family, which he does. Atif attempts to escape Yugoslavia with the Ustaše as World War II comes to a close. Near the Italian–Yugoslavian border, he comes across the sole surviving member of the Osmanović band that massacred the Jugović family. They share their life stories and later that day the Osmanović is killed. Muratović manages to reach the border that evening, but is injured in a fire and loses all of his documents before he can cross. He then bribes a pair of Ustaše officers for new identity papers and, using money he had stashed away, he opens a small store in Trieste. In 1963, a young man Muslim man named Hamdija appears at the store and tells the aged Tanović that he needs help travelling to West Germany to work as a gastarbeiter. Tanović discourages him from going to Germany and decides to employ him in his store.

At the urging of his Serb girlfriend, Alija places an advertisement in a Sarajevo newspaper in the hope of finding someone who might know about his birth parents. The newspaper refuses to print the advertisement and instead publishes an article about him. A copy of the newspaper finds its way into Trieste, where Tanović sees it. He tells Hamdija the story that the Osmanović told him, but urges him not to tell anyone else. Hamdija travels to Switzerland and sends Alija a cryptic note in which he recounts some of what Tanović says. Alija receives the note and brings it to Sikter Efendij, a local villager who was one of the few that refused to collaborate with the Ustaše. Efendij examines the note and tells Alija about the Osmanović family, which he says was once an Orthodox Christian one. He explains that the wife of one of the Osmanović ancestors was threatened by a Muslim and so the ancestor travelled to Constantinople, converted to Islam and returned. He goes on to say that not only had the Osmanović and Jugović families been blood brothers during the interwar period, but that they were in fact two branches of the same family that had been separated years prior due to religious differences. Efendij tells Alija not to hate Serbs and instructs him to find if any historical documents were preserved in the Osmanović village. When these are retrieved, Efendij concludes that Alija is the Jugović boy. He tries to explain to him that all Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina were at one point Christian Serbs and that ethnic identity and religion are two different things. Alija is devastated and one night he dreams of murdering the entire Osmanović family, though he is still in disbelief as to his Christian identity. When he returns to his village, he realizes that it is teeming with Ustaše collaborators who have gone unpunished for the wartime atrocities they committed.

The story shifts back to Trieste, where two of Hamdija's friends appear. Hamdija and the two go inside Tanović's shop to confront him about his past. It is revealed that Hamdija is actually a Serb named Milan Viłenjak who disguised himself as a Muslim for the purpose of deceiving Tanović and avenging the murder of his family. His uncle, an emigrant to Australia, was one of the British officers present when Tanović entered Italy from Yugoslavia. Milan confronts Tanović, who confesses to his wrongdoing and commits suicide. As he leaves, Milan realizes that some murderers can experience sincere remorse for their actions and that those that committed horrific crimes at one point in their life are not the same individuals many decades later as they were then. Back in Yugoslavia, Alija comes to understand the need for ethnic tolerance between Serbs and Muslims, who share the same language and origin but are divided only by hatred and prejudice.

Composition

Vuk Drašković is a Serbian nationalist politician and novelist. He was born in the north-eastern Serbian village of Međa on 26 November 1946. He studied at the University of Belgrade and led student protests in Yugoslavia in 1968. During the 1970s, he was stationed in Africa as an international radio journalist for Tanjug. Between 1978 and 1980, he served as advisor to the Yugoslav Trade Union Federation. His family traced its origins back to eastern Herzegovina. Drašković drew on his Herzegovinian heritage for inspiration while writing The Knife and based the story on historical massacres of Serbs that had occurred in the region at the hands of the Ustaše during World War II. In particular, the novel was based on accounts he had heard as a child of the killing of a Serb family by Herzegovinian Muslims on 7 January 1942. It was written in the Serbian language between 1979 and 1982. Drašković was very careful not to write a book that was overly offensive or inflammatory and attempted to balance a pro-Serbian message while showing the perspective of non-Serbs.

The Knife has a somewhat complicated narrative fabric. The narration of the main text is written in regular type and is set in 1963, while lengthy flashback sections are written in italic type and are set mostly in wartime Herzegovina. The title of the novel refers to the Ustaše practice of forcing their victims to kiss the knife with which they were going to be slaughtered.

Themes

Petar II Petrović-Njegoš, c. 1851. Several authors have noted similarities between The Knife and Njegoš's epic poem The Mountain Wreath.

The wartime genocide of Serbs by the Ustaše is the primary theme in The Knife. Professor David Bruce MacDonald explains that "[Drašković's] work describes the legacy of the death-camps in Croatia, how two-thirds of all Serbian families had lost relatives to the Ustaše, and how many more were sentenced to lengthy prison terms under the Communists for trying to keep the memory of their tragedy alive." Historian Jozo Tomasevich notes that it dwells on "outspokenly macabre themes". Cultural anthropologist Branimir Anžulović writes that, thematically, the novel revolves largely around the so-called "cult of the knife", whose purpose, he claims, is to inflame Serb hatred of non-Serbs and to encourage Serbs to use the weapon against their enemies.

Professor Andrew Baruch Wachtel notes similarities between The Knife and Petar II Petrović-Njegoš's epic poem The Mountain Wreath, although no direct reference to it is made in the novel. Wachtel states that both works revolve around ethnic massacres and the question of ethno-religious identity. He notes that the date on which the Jugović family is killed, 7 January, is significant not only because it is the Orthodox Christian Christmas Day but all because it is the same date on which the Montenegrin Christians massacred their Muslim kin in The Mountain Wreath. Furthermore, the surname Jugović is directly taken from The Mountain Wreath and the Kosovo epics. Its root (jug, meaning "south") indicates an allegorical connection to the concept of Yugoslavism. Anžulović also notes similarities between the two works.

Historian Tomislav Dulić states that Alija is meant to represent a modern-day janissary, alluding to views commonly held by Serbs and Croats that Bosniaks are "apostates of Christianity". Author Jasna Dragović-Soso writes:

The fate of Drašković's protagonist is clearly meant to be a symbol of the relationship between Muslims and Serbs. References to the Battle of Kosovo and the conversion of Serbs to Islam under Turkish rule pepper the novel and represent the "original sin" providing the underlying rationale of the wartime massacres. Because Muslims were Serbs who had adopted the conqueror's faith, they had turned against their brethren to eliminate all traces of their treason [...] Although the novel contains a number of sympathetic Muslim characters, who resist the persecution of Serbs during the war and deeply regret the crimes that were committed in their name, the borderline between victims and villains is clearly drawn. Symbolized by the fate of Drašković's protagonist, the only hope for redemption is for the converts to go back to their "true", Serbian, identity. The young man's discovery that he is a Serb thus meant that "there was no longer the feeling of being guilty of something, of being half-foreign in the midst of your own house."

The Knife emphasizes a collectivistic view of the Balkan ethnic groups. Croat and Muslim killers are depicted taking great pleasure inflicting pain, while Serbs are presented as fearless freedom fighters. Agreeing with the assessment of author Jasenka Trtak, Dulić concludes that the novel is ultimately about the futility of revenge when achieved through crime. Author Gerlachlus Duijzings writes that the novel, like the works of Dobrica Ćosić and Radovan Karadžić, is obsessed with death and suffering. Professor Paul Mojzes writes that The Knife uses "extraordinarily powerful images of the killings of Serbs (but also of Serb reprisals) by Herzegovinian Muslim Ustaše, in which Jasenovac appears marginally but clearly as a symbol of evil that has not been [adequately] avenged." Cultural anthropologist Marko Živković describes The Knife as being primarily about fratricide and retribution. He disagrees with Audrey Budding's assessment that it advocates reconciliation rather than revenge, and claims that it attempts to justify vengeance and ethnic hatred. Wachtel points to the character of Sikter Efendij as being the primary spokesman of Muslim tolerance and understanding in the novel, one who serves as a voice of balance and reason. Nevertheless, as the novel progresses it becomes the clear that the Serbs—although they are not the only victims of wartime atrocities—are the only ones who remain unavenged. They are repeatedly depicted as responding to attacks by non-Serbs and are never shown initiating force. Christopher Merrill concludes that the main message of The Knife is that Serbs must be delivered from their enemies.

Publication history and reception

Vuk Drašković in 2006.

The Knife marked Drašković's literary debut. It caused much controversy when it was first published in 1982, partly because of its graphic depiction of Muslim wartime atrocities against ethnic Serbs. Discussion of inter-ethnic massacres was considered a taboo subject in post-war Yugoslavia and, as such, Drašković was one of the first Yugoslav writers to write openly about them. Communist authorities at the time encouraged the concept of national unity and emphasized the need to create an inclusive Yugoslavian identity. The novel came to be seen as devisive by the communists because it openly discussed wartime atrocities. The Knife quickly became Drašković's most influential novel. Author John B. Allcock suggests that its success led to his rise as a Serbian nationalist leader in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The novel was reported to have had the effect of causing violent behaviour within some individuals. In the late 1980s, a Serbian militiamen admitted to having physically assaulted Muslims and Croats in the coastal town of Cavtat after reading it. He was quoted saying: "Reading that book, I would see red; I would get up, select the biggest fellow on the beach, and smash his teeth."

The Knife became a best-seller in Yugoslavia. It was very well received in the Serbian diaspora and Drašković often toured across Europe, North America and Australia to give readings from the novel and attend literary conferences. He was often met with frantic applause from his audiences. The Knife came to be seen by many nationalists as a classic of Serbian literature. Serbian filmmaker Dušan Makavejev recalled: "During the Serbian book celebration at Collet's on Charing Cross Road, our books were on sale. I was delighted to see books by Danilo Kiš, Slobodan Selenić and Milorad Pavić in the window. 'How are they selling?' I asked. Unfortunately, nothing had been sold except for that one in a flash, titled The Knife. 'Written by a certain Drašković.'" The success of the The Knife nuisanced the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (SKJ), of which Drašković was a member, and led to his expulsion from the party and dismissal from his job. The novel was soon banned in Yugoslavia out of fear that it would provoke ethnic hatred. Drašković was unable to find work for years.

Wachtel criticizes the novel's plot for being "exceptionally far-fetched" and "replete with an outrageous number of coincidences", but concedes that these coincidences are "necessary for Drašković to explore simultaneously the accidental nature of identity creation while still acknowledging its paradoxical strength". Živković commends it for its "bloodcurdlingly detailed account of the World War II slaughter of Serbs in Herzegovina." Historian Noel Malcolm describes the novel as "fiercely anti-Muslim". This view is shared by Tomasevich and author Jack David Eller. Bosniak journalist Kemal Kurspahić accuses Drašković of using the novel to glorify the Chetniks. Historian Marcus Tanner writes that the novel was the first to treat the Chetniks as a "largely apolitical, spontaneous and heroic movement of self-defence by the Serb nation, rather than an instrument of the pre-war Greater Serbian bourgeoisie". Art historian Pavle Levi states that The Knife is of dubious literary value and describes it as "nationalist propaganda". Furthermore, he accuses Drašković of promoting hatred against other South Slavs, particularly Bosnian Muslims, and charges that the novel is "replete with chauvinist ideas and fictional events". Anžulović criticizes Drašković for ignoring the fact that all factions in occupied Yugoslavia used knives to kill their enemies and for giving all the sadistic killers in the novel Muslim and Croat ethnic identities. He categorizes The Knife alongside the works of Ćosić and Vojislav Lubarda, deeming it a "gospel of hatred".

A French translation of the novel was published by Le Couteau in 1993. It leaves out the most graphic details from the massacre scenes. In 2000, the novel was translated into English by Milo Yelesiyevich and published by Serbian Classics Press in New York under the title Knife. The English translation is 413 pages long.

Legacy

Mojzes notes that The Knife contributed to increasing ethnic tensions within Yugoslavia in the 1980s. He writes that "[the book] could have been regarded prophetic [had] it not contributed to the enticement of the desire for revenge, despite the author's attempt to both fire up and cool down such destructive impulses between related peoples."

The character of Alija Osmanović reappears in Drašković's 1989 novel Russian Consul ([Ruski konzul, Русҡи ҡoнзул] Error: {{Langx}}: text has italic markup (help)), having converted to Orthodox Christianity and reverted to using his Serbian name. A film adaption of The Knife was made in 1999 and was released on the eve of the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. It was directed by Miroslav Lekić and starred Žarko Laušević, Bojana Maljević, Aleksandar Berček, Ljiljana Blagojević, Petar Božović, Bata Živojinović, Nikola Kojo and Svetozar Cvetković.

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