Texts

CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE CLARIFICATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN JOURNALIST AND PR: ACCROSS THE BARRICADE

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Journalistic involvement in the media in general, unfortunately, decreases on a daily basis. If journalism is sinking into depression, seems to be the main question. The inertia of the press has opened big doors to the “novice” PR experts who are always ready to forward large quantities of information. The objective is to reflect on what has unfortunately become a new (fictional) journalistic genre i.e. the form of press release. In the post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina it was possible for a new bulletin to last for 70 minutes, 55 of which were received press releases. These press releases have been sent by parties, representatives of women’s associations, unions of veterans and various OCSs. These usually offer one-sided information, accusations against others, while the right to hear the other side, in this case, does not exist. The question is how to separate their communications (press releases sent from certain public institutions or organizations) from releases which mostly offer accusations against another political party or reactions to an event or events that have nothing to do with our activities. How to wake the journalists from their lethargy, which they seem to enjoy to a certain extent? Many things have changed in recent decades as we have arrived at a point where 60% of all published information is nothing more than a mere PR product. The next question would be – Where did journalism disappear? Or better said – where have the responsibility of journalists and their commitment gone? The education system is important. In our region, only the first steps are taken towards an institutionalized education of the PR experts, and as for the education of journalists, a good analysis is definitely required. Journalism does not have to be endangered. It can go forward, but with a little more effort and professional responsibility. And with a more evident desire to cooperate with “those across the barricade”.

PERJURY AS THE CURSE OF CONFESSION: TRUTH PROBLEM IN LITERATURE FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF POSTMODERN CONFESSION

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The paper deals with the problem of truth in literature from the perspective of the postmodern confession. It tries to analyse the authenticity model of truth in literature, that is, to show the problem of the honesty category in the genre that takes honesty as its basic assumption. The postmodern process of making the truth in literature relative has not bypassed sincerity as the pledge of truth in literature; therefore the attention has been given particularly to the postmodern insights into these questions. Although the theory and the literary-artistic practice in the postmodern period do not offer definite solutions, they clearly show, due to its nature, all the weaknesses of the model of truth in literature, like this one. On the other hand, what is more important here, they resist any attempt to establish the completeness of meaning and the monopoly over the truth in literature. Postmodern attitude towards the truth in the confession is viewed in relation to the theory of deconstruction by Jacques Derrida and in relation to the story Otisak srca na zidu (Heart Print on the Wall) by Borislav Pekić, from his story collection Novi Jerusalim (New Jerusalem), as well as in relation to explicit attitudes of these authors towards the truth in the genre of confession.

WORLD AND TRUTH OF LITERATURE: CAMUS URGING RECONCILIATION

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The article seeks to situate motivationally Camus’ vision of “corrected creation” in literary and ideological controversies of his time. Relying on systematically unrepresented but numerous and explicit reflections on the status of literary and the role of artistic practice, it also intends to point to the theoretical argumenation and aesthetic justification of such a vision. Conclusion is that the seemingly reluctant Camus’ position is the product of a conscious decision – and its implementation – that the task of the artist is primarily to understand and, contrary to the subversive doctrines of the salvation, with his rebellious announcement of considerate revival in the name of justice and beauty, to creatively testify contradictions of his own time and advocate perhaps unconceivable comprehensive reconciliation.

DON DELILLO: THE CLOUD OF KNOWING

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The paper considers an issue of recognising the truth in the novels of Don DeLillo in an attempt to show that works of this author never offer recognition of the truth through recognition of facts, historical documents and stories, but unveil the truth in inexplicable, mystical ways. The truth is mainly recognised collectively, while it seems that broad masses of people are connected by an invisible force that suddenly enables them to access a pool of knowlege; an extended hand of this invisible force are the media that hold the power to bring DeLillo’s characters to a state similar to religious trance. The paper will also try to define the role of an artist and art production, which, as it seems, hold the key role in moving the bounderies to truth recognition in DeLilo’s opus.

LITERATURE, TRUTH AND CENSORSHIP

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The paper deals with the relationship between literature and truth, taking as a point of departure an assumption that the relationship is to a great extent determined by the current interest of the public in certain work, interest of literary critics and marketing promotion. The example of the 2013 list of bestsellers shows an extent to which a self-presented truth of a work has an impact on the interest of the public, as well as to what extent the expectations as to the truthfulness shape works of literature. In the conclusion of the paper a view is taken that the truth assumes upon itself a kind of a role both of censorship and auto-censorship of the work that is being written.

WHY DID YOU LIE TO ME – LIE AND TRAUMA IN KRISTIAN NOVAK’S ČRNA MATI ZEMLA

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The paper focuses on the concept of lies and lying as an auto therapeutic act, as represented in Kristian Novak’s novel Črna mati zemla. Novak illustrates the complexity of the philosophical and literary concept of truth (and lie) by means of a heterogeneous narrative structure. The novel consist of five non-chronologically arranged chapters which deal with different versions of truth, or rather, which point to the fact that the truth about the protagonist’s life changes depending on who perceives and interprets it, and when. The elaborate relationship between the truth and lie is additionally complicated by the author’s play with different genres or forms of narrative, which includes the representation of scientific research, fictional representation of the protagonist’s adult life and an autobiographical story of the protagonist’s childhood. Lying is simultaneously represented as a creative and a destructive act because inventing stories is the very basis of literary creativity (both Novak and his literary protagonist are writers, which establishes a metatextual relationship between the novel as a fictional creation and the reality) and it helps the protagonist cope with the trauma of his father’s death. However, at the same time, lying and believing in imaginary people and situations serve to psychologically destabilize the protagonist, both as a boy and as an adult.

CONSENSUS OF COMPETENT DISCUSSANTS – MEDIA INTERPRETATION OF THE TRUTH

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Starting from the linguistic-analytical philosophy which emphasizes the truth of “a consensus reached within the circle of competent panelists” in a certain context and a certain period of time, through a sort of a dialogue in which the sender of the message is not only willing to tell the truth but also to disprove the opposed statement, which indicates that there is no absolute but only partial truth, to a media interpretation that emphasizes the veracity of the message, reaching the truth as a standard of profession seems to be yet another unfulfilled ambition. Interpretation of reality which, together with the media spectacle, has fully occupied the leisure time of the media audiences, has expanded its offer of the media-shaped manipulative forms in a global environment. Although it seemed that the media performances which abolished dialogue would falter due to the Internet communication, it turned out that interaction became an illusion of dialogue without the opportunity of reaching the truth. The paper deals with the reexamination of the method of media interpretation of truth in the media-mediated reality of the society of spectacle and the civilization of the image in the entertainment and dream industry

ANTI-SEMITIC DISCOURSE AND ABANDONMENT OF THE PURSUIT OF TRUTH

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In his text with a cynical title ‘A contribution to the critique of antisemitism’, Zoran Kinđić actually tries to defend classic anti-semitic attitudes. He accuses me of adopting the ideology of political correctness, claiming that my understanding of anti-semitism is too broad and that animosity and hatred toward the Jews are not present in his texts. However, he also asserts that the majority of Jewish people have agreed on the crucifixion of Jesus. He demanded that I should provide the argument that will prove that his attitudes are self-evidently anti-semitic and presented the arguments that were supposed to demonstrate the contradiction between my belief that Jesus from Nazareth is the Messiah and my critique of the christian anti-semitism. After I have provided the demanded argument, he reprimands in his next text with a title ‘On incorrectness of the exponent of political correctness’ that I have focused solely on providing the arguments that his attitudes are anti-semitic and that I have not considered his critique of my position. In this way, Kinđić supposes, all his arguments are practically justified. He has also claimed that I have no right to consider them afterwards. However, in this paper I do precisely that. I demonstrate that his arguments on the contradiction of my position do not prove anything, because in the final instance, they are based on his own opinion. The claim that I have no right to analyze them, I denote as the rejection of the pursuit of truth.

THE CRITICAL REFERENCE TO DISTINCTION BEETWEN KNOWL EDGE AND FAITH

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In connection with the polemics between Mihailo Marković and Aleksandar Prnjat the author puts into question the usual distinction beetwen knowledge and faith. He adduces the phenomenon of mystical knowledge as an agument that religion cannot be reduced to faith. Although the suprarational knowledge is very hard to attain because it implies the overcoming of ego, its possibility refutes narrowing of knowledge to mere understanding.