Scientific Discourse in Borislav Pekic’s Rabies

This paper analyzes scientific and science fiction discourse in the genre-novel Rabies (1983) written by Borislav Pekić (1930-1922), one of the most important authors of the former Yugoslavia. Rabies is part of the dystopian trilogy that also includes 1999 (1984) and Atlantis (1988). The novel focuses on the outbreak of the Rabhdovirus in London’s Heathrow airport (the Rabies virus is genetically engineered with a double envelope protein and it becomes extremely easy to transmit). In the novel a number of scientists (microbiologists) appear who are on a quest for the ‘holy grail’ of microbiology: the creation, through genetic reorganization, of general immunity to bacterial, viral and oncological diseases. In the same way that he combines ‘high and low’ styles, Pekić also artfully combines the scientific and science fiction discourse in his novel confirming his particular narrative technique that connects and contaminates reality with fiction.