Dubravka Ugrešić

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Dubravka Ugrešić, Warsaw (Poland), September 25, 2006
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Dubravka Ugrešić, Warsaw (Poland), September 25, 2006

Dubravka Ugrešić is a noted Yugoslavian/Croatian writer who lives in the Netherlands.

Dubravka Ugrešić was born in Zagreb in 1949 in what was then Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, now Croatia. She was a professor of Russian language and literature at Institute of Theory of Literature at the University of Zagreb when she started a writing career.

Her best known novel is "Štefica Cvek u raljama života"/In the jaws of life- an ironic postmodernist fiction freely playing with clichés and stereotypes of trivial literature and culture. The novel was an immediate success and made into movie.

Ugrešić emigrated in 1993 for political reasons. After the outbreak of Yugoslav wars in 1991, Ugrešić tried to take a neutral position between the Serbs and the Croats, but this was deemed unacceptable by many of her Croatian compatriots. Even the essayist and novelist Antun Šoljan, a literary figure known for restraint with regard to ethnic disputes, reacted negatively to such a stance from Ugrešić. Others even perceived it as an act of national treason. A 1992 Globus article by Slaven Letica accused five Croatian female writers, Ugrešić included, of being "witches" and of "raping" Croatia. Subsequently, Ugrešić left Croatia for the United States of America, and later the Netherlands.

Her writing has been described as accessible, intelligent, innovative, and politically and emotionally charged.

Ugrešić lives in Amsterdam. Her first public appearance in Croatia after her self-imposed exile in the early 1990s happened in 2004 (during the promotion of her book "The Ministry of Pain"). Ugrešić regularly visits Croatia, but has not declared intent to return to live and work in Croatia.

[edit] Awards

Ugrešić received numerous awards and international recognition for her writing.

In former Yugoslavia, she was the recipient of the Gjalski Award, the Meša Selimović Award, NIN Award and the Award of the City of Zagreb.

She also received:

She was also nominated for the Strega Award in Italy.

[edit] Bibliography in English

  • In the Jaws of Life (Štefica Cvek u raljama života)
  • The Culture of Lies
  • The Museum of Unconditional Surrender
  • Fording the Stream of Consciousness (Forsiranje romana reke)
  • Thank You for Not Reading
  • Lend Me Your Character
  • The Ministry of Pain (Ministarstvo boli)
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