- Dubravka Ugrešić
-
Dubravka Ugrešić 
Born 3 March 1949
Kutina, SR Croatia, SFR YugoslaviaOccupation writer Nationality Croatian Notable award(s) Austrian State Prize for European Literature (1999) Dubravka Ugrešić pronounced [dǔbraːʋka ǔgre̞ʃit͡ɕ] (born 27 March 1949) is a Croatian writer who lives in the Netherlands.
Contents
Background and education
Ugrešić was born in 1949 in Kutina, SR Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia.,[1] She studied Comparative Literature and Russian Language and Literature at the University of Zagreb, pursuing parallel careers as a scholar of the humanities and as a writer.[2]
Writing
Her best-known novel in former Yugoslavia was Štefica Cvek u raljama života (Steffie in the Jaws of Life), an ironic postmodernist novel freely playing with clichés and stereotypes of trivial literature and culture. It follows a young typist named Steffie Speck, whose name was taken from a Dear Abby column, as she searches for love, both parodying and being compelled by the kitschy elements of romance.[3] Ugrešić called the novel her "biggest literary achievement... because of the way in which the hero of the novel defeats its author."[3] The novel was an immediate success[citation needed] and made into a 1984 movie U raljama života directed by Rajko Grlić.
Ugrešić's writing has been described as accessible, intelligent, innovative and politically and emotionally charged.[citation needed] She calls her highly referential style "patchwork."[3] In her view,
...great literary pieces are great because, among other things, they are in permanent polemics with their readers, some of whom are writers, and who are able to themselves express creatively their sense of this literary affair. Great literary pieces have that specific magical quality of provoking readers to rewrite them, to make a new literary project out of them. That could be the Borgesian idea that each book should have its counterpart, but also a Modernist idea of literature which is in constant dialogue with its literary, historical past.[3]
Politics and exile
In 1989, Ugrešić joined the Association for a Democratic Yugoslav Initiative. After the outbreak of the war in 1991 in former Yugoslavia, Ugrešić took a firm anti-war and anti-nationalistic stand. She wrote critically about nationalism, the stupidity and criminality of war, and soon became a target of state controled media. She was proclaimed a “traitor”, a “public enemy” and a “witch”.[4] She left Croatia in 1993 after a series of public media attacks.[2]
Ugrešić lives in Amsterdam as a freelance writer.[2] She occasionally teaches at American and European Universities and writes for some European newspapers and literary journals.
Awards
Ugresic has received several literary awards and international recognition for her writing.
In the former Yugoslavia she was awarded the NIN Prize in 1988 for Forsiranje romana reke,[2] being the first female writer (out of four in total, as of 2010[update]) to win this prize since it was established in 1954.
Other regional awards are the Meša Selimović award, the K.Š. Gjalski award, etc.[citation needed]
International Literary Awards
- 2010 Tiptree Award for Baba Yaga Laid an Egg[5]
- 2006 Short listed for Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. UK.
- 2004 Premio Feronia – Citta di Fiano. Italy.
- 2000 Heinrich Mann Preis (Heinrich Mann Prize). Akademie Der Kunste Berlin. Germany.[2]
- 1999 Osterreichischen Staatspreis fur Europaische Literatur 1998 (Austrian State Prize for European Literature). Vienna, Austria.
- 1998 SWF-Bestenliste Literaturpreis (Sud-West-Funk Bestlist Literary Award). Germany.
- 1997 Versetsprijs 1997, Stichting Kunstenaarsverzet 1942–1945 (Artists in Resistance Prize). Netherlands.
- 1996 Prix Europeen de l’ Essai Charles Veillon (Annual prize for the best European book of essays). Switzerland.
Bibliography
- Napad na minibar (2010)
- Baba Yaga Laid an Egg (2009)
- Nobody’s Home (2007)
- The Ministry of Pain (2005)
- Lend Me Your Character (2004)
- Thank You For Not Reading (2003)
- The Museum of Unconditional Surrender (1998)
- The Culture of Lies (1998)
- Have A Nice Day: From the Balkan War to the American Dream (1994)
- In the Jaws of Life (1992)
- Fording the Stream of Consciousness (1991)
References
- ^ University of Oklahoma (2001). World Literature Today, Vol. 74. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 99.
- ^ a b c d e Keller, Ursula (2004). Writing Europe: What Is European About the Literatures of Europe? Essays from 33 European Countries. Central European University Press. p. 326.
- ^ a b c d Boym, Svetlana. "Dubravka Ugrešić", BOMB Magazine, Summer 2002. Retrieved on 3/9/11.
- ^ Ugrešić, Dubravka (1998). The Culture of Lies: Antipolitical Essays. Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN 027101847X.
- ^ Strock, Ian Randall (March 21, 2011). "2010 Tiptree Award Winner". SFScope.com. Archived from the original on March 26, 2011. http://www.webcitation.org/5xTiErozN. Retrieved March 26, 2011.
External links
- Official Homepage
- Dubravka Ugrešić at the complete review
- Dubravka Ugrešić interview by Svetlana Boym in BOMB Magazine, 2002
- Ugrešić at Open Letter Books
Categories:- 1949 births
- Living people
- People from Kutina
- Croatian novelists
- Croatian women writers
- Croatian feminists
- Croatian dissidents
- Dutch people of Croatian descent
- Croatian pacifists
- Croatian expatriates in the Netherlands
- Heinrich Mann Prize winners
- Postmodern writers
- Austrian State Prize for European Literature winners
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