Milorad Pavić (Serbian Cyrillic: Милорад Павић; 15 October 1929 – 30 November 2009) was a Serbian novelist, poet, short story writer, and literary historian. Born in Belgrade in 1929, he published a number of poems, short stories and novels during his lifetime, the most famous of which was the Dictionary of the Khazars (1984). Upon its release, it was hailed as "the first novel of the 21st century." Pavić's works have been translated into more than thirty languages. He was vastly popular in Europe and in South America, and was deemed "one of the most intriguing writers from the beginning of the 21st century." He won numerous prizes in Serbia and in the former Yugoslavia, and was mentioned several times as a potential candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature. He died in Belgrade in 2009.

Milorad Pavić was born in Belgrade, Kingdom of Yugoslavia on 15 October 1929 to a distinguished family of intellectuals and writers "that has produced well-known writers for six generations, since the 18th century". He received a Bachelor of Arts in literature from the University of Belgrade, and later obtained a PhD in literary history at the University of Zagreb.

Pavić entered the literary scene with two collections of poetry titled Palimpsests (Palimpsesti), and Moon Stone (Mesečev kamen), published in 1969 and 1971, respectively. Pavić's poems were soon translated into English, and included in the anthology titled Contemporary Yugoslav Poems. Soon after, Pavić dedicated himself to writing prose and several short story collections were published. Pavić's first and most famous novel, Dictionary of the Khazars (Hazarski rečnik), was published in 1984. It received widespread critical acclaim upon release, and was hailed as "the first novel of the 21st century." Written as a poetic dictionary, the book has been described as "a quasi-historical account of the semi-imaginary tribe of the Khazars."

Pavić's second novel was titled Landscape Painted with Tea, and was published in 1988. Organized as a crossword puzzle, it follows a failed architect from Belgrade as he travels to Greece to trace the fate of his father who disappeared there during World War II. Pavić wrote many more novels, including The Inner Side of the Wind, or A Novel of Hero and Leander and Last Love in Constantinople: A Tarot Novel of Divination. Described as "highly imaginative", Pavić is said to have "[done] everything to disrupt the traditional models of fiction writing such as the development of story and the notions of beginning and end." He was described as being "one of the most intriguing writers from the beginning of the 21st century." As a result, he was mentioned several times as a potential candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Apart from writing, Pavić taught philosophy at the University of Novi Sad before joining the University of Belgrade. In 1991, he became a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU). During this time, he translated a number of works of Russian fiction into the Serbian language. In 1993, he published his first and only play, titled Theatre Menu For Ever and a Day. ...

Source: Article "Milorad Pavić" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Milorad Pavić (en serbe cyrillique: Милорад Павић; né le 15 octobre 1929 à Belgrade et mort le 30 novembre 2009 à Belgrade) est un écrivain serbe. Il a principalement écrit des romans dont le plus connu est Le Dictionnaire Khazar et des nouvelles. Il a été membre de l'Académie serbe des sciences et des arts.

Milorad Pavić est professeur d'université, spécialiste de la littérature serbe des XVIIe , XVIIIe et XIXe siècles.

C'est un auteur prolifique qui publie des nouvelles, des recueils poétiques, des études historiques, ainsi que des romans atypiques dont Le Dictionnaire Khazar, publié à Belgrade en 1984, et avec lequel il accède à la notoriété. Cet ouvrage composite rassemble, sur un mode encyclopédique, tous les récits et connaissances concernant les Khazars pour en faire un chef-d’œuvre borgésien.

Ses romans et nouvelles, empreints de détails mystérieux et de connotations ésotériques, plongent le lecteur dans un univers où rêve et réalité se croisent sans cesse.

La construction de chacun de ses romans est singulière: Le Dictionnaire Khazar prend la forme de trois dictionnaires, reflétant chacun un point de vue. Peu importe l'ordre dans lequel on en lit les articles. Il existe deux versions de ce livre: les exemplaires masculin et féminin, qui ne diffèrent que par un paragraphe; Paysage peint avec du thé s'appuie sur une grille de mots croisés; L'Envers du vent, qui relate la légende de Héro et Léandre, est réversible: chaque côté raconte l'histoire du point de vue d'un des deux personnages principaux; Les chapitres de Dernier amour à Constantinople représentent les vingt-deux arcanes majeurs d'un jeu de tarot.

Ses romans ont été traduits à ce jour dans une trentaine de langues et comptent plus de soixante-dix éditions.

Source: Article "Milorad Pavić" de Wikipédia en français, soumis à la licence CC-BY-SA 3.0.