How Pilate`s hand-washing washed away collective and individual memory – the motif of Pontius Pilate in the literary endeavour of Ivan Aralica

Abstract

The philological analysis of several literary works of Ivan Aralica (novellas and novels) focuses on using motifs related to Pontius Pilate. These motifs are observed within the oral literary tradition as a substrate widely represented in the overall literary endeavour of Ivan Aralica. While Pontius Pilate does not significantly deviate from his usual Biblical image in oral literary forms (re-establishing thus the collective “author” as the intertextual narrator insusceptible to significant conceptual interventions with respect to the original text), Aralica uses different intertextual techniques to build his own attitude towards the motif of Pontius Pilate. Contrary to the common portrayal of Pontius Pilate as a literary figure in fiction, Aralica used his Biblical position which is dominant in the oral literary tradition and upgraded it with a vast spectrum of meanings. By using a network of attributed meanings, he tried to tackle the issue of the interrelation of personal and collective responsibility. He leans on the concept of history defined by his historical novels (although the analysis included works beyond his novels), namely history as a(n) (un)prolific source of memory. He, advocates, sometimes vaguely, personal responsibility as the (potentially) right way for collective responsibility.