FACE OR MASK IN THE LIFE AND WORKS OF LAZA KOSTIĆ

Text topic: Mask and Masking

Text author: Миливоје Млађеновић

The paper analyses the phenomena of masking, costuming, disguising and discovering identities in the personality and the works of Laza Kostić. These features, strongly or less strongly expressed, are contemplated on different levels and in different forms: in their character, behaviour, dressing, speech. Also, the phenomenon is observed on a metalanguage level: the mask and its derivatives (disguise, hiding, and grotesque) have also been the topics of his poetry (Beseda, Gavrilu Egrešiji, Na parastos Jelene Bozdine...) and his theatrical pieces (Gordana, Maksim Crnojević). Since the appearance of tragedy, the mask has been connected with the theatre as a sign of metamorphosis of the individual-actor, who by using it, becomes a herald of (higher) forces, emphasising that the man is lost behind the role, i.e. behind a figure. This is why, in this paper, having in mind a passionate preoccupation of Laza Kostić with the theatre (with due caution towards the methods of positivist biographism), different forms of masking, mimicry, disguise and unmasking will be subjected to analysis as elements pointing to some of the inner genesis factors in his poems, including his magnificent penitential poem Santa Maria della Salute.