Goldsmiths - University of London

Literary Transitions in Post-War Yugoslavia: A Serbian writer's perspective.

Igor Marojevic in conversation with Dejan Djokic and Andrea Pisac

Igor Marojevic, a leading contemporary Serbian novelist, will talk about his work which is inspired both by historical and contemporary reality,
and by the relationship between historical and fictional. He will address the issues of how transition as a socio-cultural process features in his
prose as a topic, and also how this specific change has influenced the literary production in post-war Yugoslavia.

Wednesday 14 October 5:30pm
Richard Hoggart Building 143
Goldsmiths, University of London

ALL WELCOME! Refreshments will be served afterwards.

About the speakers:

With seven books published, IGOR MAROJEVIC is one of Serbia's most important contemporary writers. His prose is a rich combination of
narrative viewpoints and topics: he depicts Serbian reality from a detached outsider's point of view, yet at the same time offering a
meticulous understanding of his immediate cultural habitus. Many of his characters are individuals who are in conflict with the outside world:
either as immigrants in a foreign country or everyday people fighting a battle against societal pressure. With his novel "Žega" (Heat, 2004),
Marojevic started a five-part project called 'ethnofictions' through which he examines the 20th century Balkan history in the form of fiction.
"Parter" (2009), his most recent novel, has been dubbed the first real post-war novel in Serbia. On the surface a love story, the novel is a
moving yet grim picture of today's Serbia, struggling under two conflicting influences: capitalist moral ethics and Orthodox
retraditionalization of values. Similar ideological diversification is present in the range of literary topics and trends in the contemporary
Serbian literature today, while the book market itself has suffered parochialization following the disintegration of the joint Yugoslav
market.

ANDREA PISAC is a British-Croatian writer and a PhD student in the Department of Anthropology at Goldsmiths, University of London.

DEJAN DJOKIC is Director of the Centre for the Study of the Balkans at Goldsmiths, University of London.