IMPOSSIBLE, YET NECESSARY: APHORISMS AND SUBVERSION OF THE SYSTEM OF VALUES

Abstract

This article aimed at elucidating one aspect of aphorisms, the shortest literary form with arguably the longest history. It is the subversive potential of aphorisms, which may be capable of criticising and undermining the dominant system of values imposed by the ruling ideology. The article opens with the long-lasting dilemma whether aphorisms as a genre belong to literature at all. Igor Damnjanovic’s aphorism “Aphorism is in literature like a minister without portfolio” is an apt illustration of this dilemma. After a brief outline of the history of aphorism, mainly drawing on the work of German scholars, the author focuses on the views on aphorism expressed by Serbian leading aphorists: Predrag Markovic, Vitomir Teofilovic, Vesna Dencic, Milan Bestic, Ratko Bozovic, Aleksandar Baljak, etc. The central part of the text is taken by the exploration of the idea that aphorisms fall into the category of memes, defined by Richard Dawkins in his Selfish Gene (1976) as the new cultural replicator, a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation. Taking their most prominent characteristic, rapid spreading, along with an often corrosive edge that political aphorisms usually have, aphorisms reach a wide audience and have an appeal to the critical mind. The corpus for the illustration of the subversive potential of such satirical aphorisms is the collection I Never Have What I Need by the Belgrade professor Miodrag Lazarevic. His aphorisms are divided into ten groups, out of which only those dealing with power structures and their ideology are analysed in the context of their subversive potential. The conclusion is in line with the famous aphorism of Stanislaw Jerzy Lec, “Thoughts, like fleas, jump from man to man, but they don’t bite everybody.” Namely, although aphorisms as part of art in general have the subversive power, their effect in practical terms is marginal due to intellectual inertia of the masses.