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Cover to Cover: Paratextual play in Milorad Pavic’s Dictionary of the Khazars – electronic book review

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It is difficult to speak of dictionaries without recalling the notorious definition for lexicographer in Dr. Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755): "A writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge... " Johnson's definition is disingenuous, a statement rendered piquant by its inapplicability to himself. Beyond but also because of its over-quotedness, and certainly as a result of its complex tonality and the effect of ambiguous self-irony, Johnson's dictum serves as a useful point of access to issues which concern me in this essay: the evolving role of dictionaries and lexicographers; dictionaries' formal properties; the character of the lexicon novel; and, most importantly, how these issues impinge on Milorad Pavic's novel, Dictionary of the Khazars (1984). Restricting myself to some very specific formal aspects of Pavic's novel, I shall make reference to classics of the lexicographer's art, such as Johnson's Dictionary, Charles Lemprière's Classical Dictionary (1788), and the

essay Cover to Cover: Paratextual play in Milorad Pavic's Dictionary of the Khazars by Ivan Callus Friday, January 1st 1999 Ivan Callus skims the surface of Pavic's print hypertext. Ivan Callus skims the surface of Pavic’s print hypertext. It is difficult to speak of dictionaries without recalling the notorious definition for lexicographer in Dr. Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language (1755): “A writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge… ” Johnson’s definition is disingenuous, a statement rendered piquant by its inapplicability to himself. Beyond but also because of its over-quotedness,

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