Dodatno svjedočanstvo. Fotografije u prozi Daše Drndić

In this paper I will reflect on the role of photographs in the works of Daša Drndić. Mixing fictional and documentary modes is a characteristic feature of her texts. It is achieved among others by utilizing visual representations of the past. In my paper I aim to outline the strategies of visualization applied by the authoress (especially the traumatic, Holocaust-related experience), which materialize through photographs included in her works of literature. In the case of Drndić the visuals include for instance contemporary or archival photographs of places marked by the Holocaust and of Jewish inhabitants of Vienna as well as portraits of war criminals. Generally speaking, in her texts the photographs function as concretization (concretization) of the memory of injustice, of trauma and ultimately of the Holocaust. The photographs are by no means neutral images though they are commonly perceived as such. Interaction between the text (itself skirting the boundary between fact and fiction) and the image puts the latter in a position that is far from neutral. In Drndić’s case, the photos are often used as an inventory (archival) practice, but they constitute predominantly a way of overcoming the crisis, related to the intention of giving an account of the past, particularly a testimony of the Holocaust.U tekstu se posebna pažnja posvećuje ulozi fotografije u tekstovima Daše Drndić. -Treba istaknuti da preplitanje fikcije i fakcije je jedna od karakteristika njene proze. Jedan od načina da se to ostvari je korištenje vizualnih reprezentacija prošlosti. Razmatranja koja slijede posvećena su strategijama vizualizacije pomoću kojih autorica prikazuje traumatsko iskustvo koje je najčešće povezano s Holokaustom. Jedan od načina da se u vizualnoj formi prizove prošlost je na primjer inkorporiranja u književni tekst suvremenih ili arhivskih fotografija mjesta koja su obilježena stradanjem Židova, slika bivših stanovnika Beča ili portreta kriminalaca. Može se reći da u tekstovima Daše Drndić fotografije funkcioniraju kao konkretizacije sjećanja na nepravednost, traumu i Holokaust. Ove fotografije u kontekstu njene proze nikad nisu neutralne, što znači da ne prikazuju neutralnu sliku (kako bi se moglo pomisliti gledajući je uz odsustvo teksta). Općenito može se čak i reći da u Drndičinim knjigama fotografije se najčešće koriste u arhivskom smislu - pomoću njih autorica izlazi iz krize izazvane nemogućnošću adekvatnog prikazanja prošlosti, a posebno prošlosti koja je obilježena Holokaustom

Heritage Without Heirs: The German Legacy in Serbia. The Case of the Museum of Danube Swabians

This article focuses on the first historical museum in Serbia, established in Sombor in 2019 (the Museum of the Danube Swabians), with an exhibition devoted to the presence of Germans in Vojvodina. The artefacts presented at the exhibition, left behind by the Germans who used to live in Vojvodina, have been recognised as part of Serbia’s difficult heritage (the term coined by Sharon Macdonald). The article analyses the permanent exhibition and the museum’s efforts to involve the local residents in creating said exhibition. The article also asks whether the museum in Sombor can shape the collective identity of Serbs and undermine its ethno-nationalist character

Subwersywny potencjał śmiechu, czyli Ključ od velikih vrata Hinka Gottlieba

This paper focuses on a short work of fiction written in the 1940s by the Croatian Jew, Hinko Gottlieb. The manuscript of the book was found in one of the Jerusalem archives and,about seventy years later was, prepared for publication in Croatia in 2021.  Undermining the readers’ previous habits, the book uncharacteristically problematises the Holocaust. Gottlieb uses humour as his major aesthetic device to describe internment. the story may also be ascribed to the fantasy genre, or to speculative fiction to be more precise. The purpose of the thought experiment presented here is to examine (in prison conditions) the possibilities that the socalled space capacitor has to offer. Besides acknowledging the occurrence in the text of such categories as science fiction, grotesque and surrealism, the article endeavours to answer the question about their use in the story of the Holocaust.This paper focuses on a short work of fiction written in the 1940s by the Croatian Jew, Hinko Gottlieb. The manuscript of the book was found in one of the Jerusalem archives and,about seventy years later was, prepared for publication in Croatia in 2021.  Undermining the readers’ previous habits, the book uncharacteristically problematises the Holocaust. Gottlieb uses humour as his major aesthetic device to describe internment. the story may also be ascribed to the fantasy genre, or to speculative fiction to be more precise. The purpose of the thought experiment presented here is to examine (in prison conditions) the possibilities that the socalled space capacitor has to offer. Besides acknowledging the occurrence in the text of such categories as science fiction, grotesque and surrealism, the article endeavours to answer the question about their use in the story of the Holocaust

Wędrując śladami umarłych. Foto-teksty Dašy Drndić

The starting point for the article is the conviction that in her books, the Croatian author Daša Drndić consistently explores the themes of memory and oblivion about Holocaust and the World War II victims. The paper juxtaposes the excerpts from her two novels: April in Berlin (2009) and EEG (2016). In both of them, the author inserts peculiar photo-texts in which the visual layer mingles with the linguistic one. In the first one, this relation is obvious (photographs and text are set together here), whereas in the second one it is more ambiguous. However, I endeavor to demonstrate that using language, Drndić manages to create the unusual graphic “pictures in motion” that simultaneously envision the contemporary Zagreb as well as the same city from the 1940s. The interpretation of such fragments is additionally enhanced with the considerations on the Croatian capital city’s space which is filled with multiple signs of “difficult heritage” (Sharon Macdonald’s term).Punktem wyjścia niniejszego tekstu jest przekonanie, że chorwacka autorka Daša Drndić w kolejnych swoich książkach konsekwentnie eksploatuje tematykę pamięci i zapomnienia o Holokauście oraz o ofiarach z czasów drugiej wojny światowej. W artykule zestawione zostają fragmenty z dwóch książek April u Berlinu z 2009 r. i EEG z 2016 r. W obu autorka umieszcza rodzaj foto-tekstów, w których dochodzi do połączenia warstwy wizualnej z językową. W pierwszej z nich ten związek jest oczywisty (mamy tam bowiem zestawienie fotografii i tekstu), w drugiej zaś nie jest jednoznaczny, choć staram się wykazać, że Drndić udało się przy pomocą języka stworzyć niezwykle plastyczne „obrazy w ruchu”, w których nałożone zostają na siebie sceny z dzisiejszego Zagrzebia i z lat 40 XX w. Interpretacja tego rodzaju fragmentów zostaje ponadto uzupełniona o rozważania na temat przestrzeni chorwackiej stolicy, w której brakuje znaków świadczących o „trudnym dziedzictwie” (termin Sharon Macdonald)

Spasonosni narativ Daše Drndić

The starting point for this paper is the assumption that by obsessive revisiting the events of World War II, the Croatian writer Daša Drndić attempts to influence indirectly the present. It parallels her narrators’ declarations who - with a great dose of probability - can be simultaneously read as her alter egos. Hence, the article investigates and describes the strategy whose main aim is to retain memory about the past. In Drndić’s texts, this function is achieved through the acts of archiving, writing down, and grouping. These acts constitute non-standard ways to enhance the literary text with, for example, whole pages filled with the victims’ names (integrated within the text or acting as a peculiar supplement to the volume).Polazna osnova za ovaj rad je pretpostavka da opsesivnim osvrtom na događaje iz Drugog svetskog rata hrvatska književnica Daša Drndić pokušava da posredno utiče na sadašnjost. To je paralelno sa izjavama njenih naratora koji se sa velikom dozom verovatnoće mogu istovremeno čitati kao njen alter ego. Stoga se u članku istražuje i opisuje strategija čiji je glavni cilj zadržavanje sećanja na prošlosti. U njenim tekstovima ova funkcija se ostvaruje činovima arhiviranja, zapisivanja i grupisanja. Ova dela predstavljaju nestandardne načine da se poboljša književni tekst, na primer, celim stranicama ispunjenim imenima žrtava (integrisanim u tekst ili delujući kao svojevrsna dopuna svesci).Tema ovog broja: "Balkanske Jevrejke" (the topic of this issue: "Balkan Jewish women")

Powojenna diaspora. Kilka uwag o obrazie serbskiej i chorwackiej emigracji w najnowszej literaturze

The Post-War Diaspora: Some Remarks on the Depiction of Serbian and Croatian Emigrants in Recent Literature The essay aims to show how modern literature of both Serbia and Croatia depicts the early South Slavic emigration of the post-World War II period. Describing historical conditions before and during WWII, the author depicts Serbian and Croatian emigration groups which differ one from the other in their mental backgrounds. But the books analysed in the essay show that, when abroad, both Serbs and Croats present identical attitudes and are involved in the same rituals, exclusion and stigmatisa­tion. The analysis is based on two texts: one written by Vladimir Tasić, a Serb emigrant to Canada, the other by Daša Drndić, a Croatian woman of many years’ emigrant experience. In their books the two authors describe members of both nations who form strongly consolidated groups abroad and exhibit nationalistic viewpoints. Both Tasić and Drndić are modern literary writers, open to novelty in art. Furthermore, they openly reject the nationally oriented state models which originated after the collapse of Yugoslavia. They also criticise representatives of the post-war emigration. The author of the essay thus concludes that, after years of silence about the post-war diaspora, the contempo­rary emigrant communities emerge in two contrasting ways in Serbian and Croatian literature and in scholarly discourse. One is represented by politically and aesthetically conservative artists and schol­ars, and has a clearly apologetic character. The other, represented by Drndić and Tasić, expresses a critical approach

To seize the trauma : Aleksandar Petrov’s story about the Serbian suffering

The paper focuses on Aleksandar Petrov’s novel Kao zlato u vatri, originally published by this Serbian author in 1998. The novel’s main characters represent diverse ethnic groups inhabiting the Balkans ( Jews, Serbians, Russians), and their fortunes intertwined with the tumultuous events of 20th century history, namely WWII and the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s. The primary objective of the article is to address the question of whether it is feasible to apply Michael Rothberg’s model of multifaceted memory in a scenario involving distinct memory communities (such as Serbs, Croatians, and possibly Jews), characterized by a spe-cific proximity (primarily territorial, historical and rooted in past coexistence within one national entity) and where relations are predominantly shaped by unresolved past grievances and mutual accusations of guilt

„Największa akcja ratowania dzieci w czasie drugiej wojny światowej”. Diana Budisavljević jako obiekt praktyk pamięciowych w byłej Jugosławii i w Serbii

Przedmiotem zainteresowania artykułu są przemiany, jakim po drugiej wojnie światowej podlegała narracja o Dianie Budisavljević (1891-1978). Budisavljević była pomysłodawczynią i koordynatorką akcji ratowania serbskich dzieci z ustaszowskich obozów w czasie drugiej wojny światowej. Interesuje nas, jak kształtowała się pamięć o jej działalności, zarówno w okresie istnienia socjalistycznej Jugosławii, jak i po jej rozpadzie – w Serbii. Obecnie mamy do czynienia ze wzmożonym zainteresowaniem Budisavljević w serbskiej i chorwackiej kulturze narodowej. Przeprowadzona analiza publikacji książkowej (Boška Lomovicia, Knjiga o Dijani Budisavljević [‘Książka o Dianie Budisavljević’], 2013) oraz narracji muzealnej (wystawa Najveća akcija spašavanja dece u Drugom svetskom ratu - Dijanina deca [’Największa akcja ratowania dzieci w czasie drugiej wojny światowej – dzieci Diany’], Belgrad, 2018) prowadzi do wniosku, że we współczesnej serbskiej kulturze pamięci postać ta jest wykorzystywana instrumentalnie i używana do doraźnych celów politycznych

"The largest operation to save children during the Second World War" : Diana Budisavljević as an object of memory practices in the Former Yugoslavia and Serbia

Przedmiotem zainteresowania artykułu są przemiany, jakim po drugiej wojnie światowej podlegała narracja o Dianie Budisavljević (1891-1978). Budisavljević była pomysłodawczynią i koordynatorką akcji ratowania serbskich dzieci z ustaszowskich obozów w czasie drugiej wojny światowej. Interesuje nas, jak kształtowała się pamięć o jej działalności, zarówno w okresie istnienia socjalistycznej Jugosławii, jak i po jej rozpadzie – w Serbii. Obecnie mamy do czynienia ze wzmożonym zainteresowaniem Budisavljević w serbskiej i chorwackiej kulturze narodowej. Przeprowadzona analiza publikacji książkowej (Boška Lomovicia, Knjiga o Dijani Budisavljević [‘Książka o Dianie Budisavljević’], 2013) oraz narracji muzealnej (wystawa Najveća akcija spašavanja dece u Drugom svetskom ratu - Dijanina deca [’Największa akcja ratowania dzieci w czasie drugiej wojny światowej – dzieci Diany’], Belgrad, 2018) prowadzi do wniosku, że we współczesnej serbskiej kulturze pamięci postać ta jest wykorzystywana instrumentalnie i używana do doraźnych celów politycznych.The article considers how the narrative about Diana Budisavljević (1891–1978) was changed after the Second World War. Budisavljević was the originator and coordinator of the rescue of Serbian children from Ustashe camps during the war. The authors scrutinize how the memory of her actions was shaped first in socialist Yugoslavia and, after its collapse, in Serbia. Today, Budisavljević is the subject of increased interest in both Serbian and Croatian national culture. Our analysis of the book by Boško Lomović Knjiga o Dijani Budisavljević (Book about Diana Budisavljević, 2013) and a museum narrative devoted to Budisavljević in the exhibition Najveća akcija spašavanja dece u Drugom svetskom ratu – Dijanina deca (The Largest Operation to Save Children During the Second World War: Diana’s Children, Belgrade, 2018) lead the authors to conclude that, as a figure, Budisavljević is used instrumentally and for short-term political purposes in the modern Serbian culture of remembrance

Memory in action – Performative practices in a dispute about the past: Serbia and Croatia at the turn of the 20th and 21st century

Memory in action – Performative practices in a dispute about the past: Serbia and Croatia at the turn of the 20th and 21st century The article is an attempt to combine in one reflection the elements of two directions of critical thinking: discursive and performative. The starting point of the analysis is the assumption (derived from beliefs common in pre-performative times) that every space (including a city’s territory) can be treated as a text. This means that both static artifacts and activities in a given space communicate a certain message and can be seen as signs or symbols that refer to something outside of them. Our reflection focuses on practices in which the performative potential is fully revealed and which can be interpreted as a kind of rebellion against the present reality and official policies of memory. The analyzed activities are understood here as symbolic and cultural practices and aim to introduce changes on several levels: to change the historical consciousness of community members; to affect the nuances and expansion of national memory (in this case Serbian or Croatian); to modify the nature of memory. We are interested in interventions that are usually undertaken by persons or groups located on the outskirts of the system of power.   Pamięć w działaniu – praktyki performatywne w sporze o przeszłość. Serbia i Chorwacja na przełomie XX i XXI wieku Artykuł stanowi próbę połączenia we wspólnej refleksji elementów dwóch kierunków myślenia krytycznego: dyskursywnego i performatywnego. Punktem wyjścia rozważań jest wywodzące się z przekonań patronujących czasom przedperformatywnym założenie, że każdą przestrzeń (w tym terytorium miasta) można traktować jako tekst. Oznacza to, że zarówno statyczne artefakty, jak i odbywające się w przestrzeni aktywne działania komunikują pewien przekaz i można je rozpatrywać jako znaki bądź symbole odsyłające do czegoś, co jest poza nimi. Nasza refleksja koncentruje się na praktykach, w których z całą mocą ujawnia się potencjał performatywny i które można odczytywać jako rodzaj buntu wobec zastanej rzeczywistości i obowiązujących polityk pamięci. Analizowane działania rozumiane są tutaj jako praktyki symboliczno-kulturowe, które stawiają sobie za cel wprowadzenie przekształceń na kilku poziomach: zmianę świadomości historycznej członków społeczności; wpłynięcie na zniuansowanie i poszerzenie pamięci narodowej (w tym wypadku serbskiej czy chorwackiej); modyfikację charakteru pamięci. Interesują nas interwencje podejmowane zwykle przez osoby bądź grupy sytuujące się na obrzeżach systemu władzy