Ars Non Scribendi as Artwork of the Absent: The Art of Not Writing in Ivan Vladislavić's The Loss Library. Issue 2 (2nd July 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Swanepoel, Rilette
• Is Part Of: English studies in Africa. Volume 59:Issue 2(2016)
• Page Start: 41
• Page End: 53
• Publication Date: 2016-07-02
• Subjects: Ivan Vladislavić -- The Loss Library -- genre -- ars poetica -- loss -- absence; English literature -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; English language -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; English language -- Africa -- Periodicals; English literature -- Periodicals; American literature -- Periodicals; American literature; English language; English language -- Study and teaching; English literature; Africa; Criticism, interpretation, etc; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 420
• DOI: 10.1080/00138398.2016.1239417
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0013-8398

Abstract

Abstract : In The Loss Library and Other Unfinished Stories (2011), Ivan Vladislavić takes his characteristic genre experimentation to a new extreme. Presenting story ideas, bits of research and anecdotes, he interrogates several literary genres, but the volume as a whole has few obvious generic antecedents. Here I briefly consider the established literary genres that the author explores, and argue that the text is closer to a type of fine arts and artefacts that has always fascinated Vladislavić: those that commemorate loss. To refer to what he does in The Loss Library, I coin the term ars non scribendi – the art of not writing – as the inverse of ars poetica, the closest genre to (almost) accommodate the text. Encouraged by Vladislavić calling Micha Ullman an artist of the absent, I call the genre of The Loss Library and these other works 'art of the absent'. Aligning Vladislavić's ars non scribendi with artworks that he has written about in non-fiction or invented in his fiction, I show that the book represents and mourns loss, and conclude that The Loss Library 's genre-transcendence gives form to loss and absence.