SOURCE: Van der Eng, Jan. “Babel's Short Story ‘Zamost'e.’”¹ In Signs of Friendship: To Honour A. G. F. van Holk, edited by J. J. van Baak, pp. 419-30. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1984.

In the following essay, van der Eng examines narrative aspects of “Zamost'e,” particularly the interrelationship of the story's thematic concerns.

The object of this article is twofold. In the first place it will deal with the erratic thematic pattern of “Zamost'e”: the striking metaphors, the suggestive variations on certain themes and combinations of themes, the wide range of the dramatic events and experiences which may create the impression of several interwoven stories (cf. Terras: 149). Of considerable significance in this respect are the various intertextual and extratextual relations: the allusive play with literary motifs, devices and tradition, with different rituals. The fragmentary and cryptic way in which this is done sometimes leads to discordant notes in the text and...