| Vidosav Stevanović | |
|---|---|
| Born | June 27, 1942 Cvetojevac (village near Kragujevac), Serbia |
| Occupation | Writer and Publicist |
| Nationality | French and Serbian |
Vidosav Stevanović (Serbian: Видосав Стевановић) born June 27, 1942 in Cvetojevac village near Kragujevac, Serbia is a Serbian writer.
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Vidosav Stevanović, novelist, story-writer, poet, playwright and publicist. He has signed over thirty literary pieces of art, a political biography of Slobodan Milošević,[1] numerous essays and various pieces of writing. Stevanović used to write for European newspapers such as Le Monde, Liberation, El Pais and Expressen. After having completed primary and secondary education in Kragujevac he went to study in Belgrade in 1961. Initially he studied dental medicine and then literature. But he left quickly the academic world in order to dedicate himself completely to the real literature. I did not consider it as a profession but as a vocation, a skill that replaces religion, politics and real life.
After the publication of his first collection of stories (The scum of death, Prosveta, 1969), Vidosav Stevanović becomes, in the esthetical, intellectual and stylistic sense one of the most important and prominent creatures on the Yugoslav literary scene. At the same time, he wins, in the eyes of the Belgrade gossipers, a reputation of the enfant terrible and the politicians started to persecute the insolent dark-waver. Given that the young writer destroyed the myth about the carefree life in the country of self-management, he was brought in the court trial which lasted six years. He was neither released nor condemned: the trial simply expired. During those six years the young writer lived in isolation from the public.
Vidosav Stevanović is the founder of a new literary movement known as fantastic realism. He was persecuted, denied but at the same time appreciated, adored and occasionally rewarded. In the early eighties Vidosav ruled the famous Belgrade publishing houses BIGZ and Prosveta. In the later eighties and in the beginning of nighttimes, when the communism closing stages were replaced by the nationalism, unlike the majority of Serbian writers, Vidosav Stevanović refused to join Milosevic and his program. Gathering a small group of supporters, he founded Independent Yugoslav Writers (1989), Liberal Forum (1990) and The Belgrade Circle (1991). He was soon forced to leave Serbia, to run away via Greece and find exile in France. While being a constant target of Belgrade propaganda in Serbia under Milošević’s regime – his works nowhere to be found, either one looked for them in bookstores, libraries or school curricula – he was becoming a popular writer in France. His books have been reprinted and translated, and the fact that he was given a knighthood medal in the order of arts and literature (Chevalier de L'ordre des Arts et des Lettres) accounts for the popularity of his literary work. Vidosav interrupted his exile in France for a few months to work as a director of the Radio-Television Kragujevac, conquered during the massive demonstrations in Serbian cities in 1996 and 1997. In 2004 he left France and moved to Sarajevo, where he worked as culture adviser in the town governorship. Since 2007. Vidosav Stevanović has been living and working in his house in the village of Botunje, near Kragujevac . The City of Kragujevac and Koraci Press are publishing his Complete Works in 15 volumes, thus ending the tradition of censorship that was in force for over twenty years. Last year. together with a group of his readers and students of his creative writing school, he opened the Club Vidosav, an association of citizens which aim is to promote various media activities (organizing literary evenings, exhibitions, concerts, book promotions, creative writing school and musical school).[2]
Vidosav Stevanović published his first and unique collection of poems, intitled Trublje in 1967, in Belgrade. His second book is a collection of stories The scum of death, 1969. Two year later a young writer brings out his first novel Nišći and two years later his second novel Konstantin Gorča. This was followed by two collection of stories Suburban dragons (1978) and The Cesarean section, 1984, which was awarded by The Andrić Prize. Perhaps the Stevanović s most popular work is the novel The Will for which he got in 1987 the famous Serbian Nin Literary Award.
After this he published the following novels:
Vidosav Stevanović also has three unpublished works:: the novels What a bird says About sad places, deep at night and a satire Stradia and comments. In addition, two books of his journal (1988–1993) The second diary of solitude are expected to come out soon.
He also published the following plays:
He wrote two screenplays : My Lazar! and The Balkan Island, with Lordan Zafranović. He is the author of fifteen radio dramas, numerous literary critics, essays and newspaper articles. The fiftieth anniversary of his literary work will be accompanied by a book dedicated to his life and writings and an international conference taking place at the University of Kragujevac in march 2011.[4]
A dazzling success of his first book of stories made Vidosav Stevanović ideologically suspicious, and afterwards, politically condemned and accused. Moreover, a public ban was put on him. As one of the editors in the publishing house Prosveta he earned a small salary but he could not sign the books he edited. He felt many times the pangs of hatred of his ill-tempered Belgrade cultural environment.
He stopped working on the second book of his novel Nišči. The gloomy atmosphere of that period is transposed in his novel Konstantin Gorča which ended the Kragujevac s cycle. Vidosav turned to his family life, started working on his Belgrade stories and collecting material for his novel The Will. The first book of Belgrade stories appeared in 1978, attracted lots of attention and provoked a few moderate attacks but could not enter any award – selection: their writer had been blacklisted. Upset by the premature death of his wife Gordana, Vidosav did not pay attention to all that. Fighting with depression he worked industriously as editor, gaining respect in his second job. During that period the assaults on him on him lessened. He became a member of the management of the Writers Society and play an important role in the process of liberation of the poet G. Đogo. At the beginning of 1982. He accepted the position of the chief editor and then of the director in BIGZ, a publishing house which was about to collapse. Vidosav changed its programs, activated marketing, reanimated pocketbooks, introduced modern commerce conformed to the principle of the new Japanese business philosophy: do not produce for storehouses! In the next five years BIGZ turned into the most active and most successful publishing house in Serbia and among the best in Yugoslavia. It publishes books and authors that other don t or dare not publish. It becomes the main publisher of dissidents.
This time of great expectation and free minds, that gave vigor and colors to the cultural life of Belgrade and Serbia, was interrupted by a mere political putsch: Slobodan Milošević reached the power first in the Communist party and then in the whole Serbia. The main topic and mission of the new government and its associates was the solving of the national question – that is how new Serbian politician called it, inspired by the ideas of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts and the Serbian Orthodox Church.
Just before this events Vidosav Stevanović moved to the publishing house Prosveta, trying to save this ineffective company. But Mirjana Marković, Milošević s spouse, wanted Prosveta for herself. Refusing to work under the supervision of Mirjana s execturos, Vidosav Stevanović submitted his resignation. All of a sudden, at the end of 1988, Vidosav, who has to sustain his family of five, is jobless and expelled. All the cultural institutions, artistic societies and colleagues keep silent. The persecution starts and will end thee years later by Stevanović s exile.[6]
At the beginning of 1989. Vidosav Stevanović accepts the position of an advisor in the publishing house Svjetlost, Sarajevo which publishes the second edition of his collected works. The two years he spends in the multiethnic city of Sarajevo are relatively peaceful. With a few like-minded people, Stevanović establishes literary association Independent Yugoslav writers. One of the constitutive documents proposes foundation of the professional trade union Svjetlost, which exists up to date, while the other requires that the political parties which are set up at the time reveal to the public archives of secret services: this initiative is supported only by reformists from Serbia; however, these archives remain undisclosed even at the beginning of the 21st century. Stevanović founds Liberal Forum in Belgrade, together with a couple of independent intellectuals. Forum aims to act as an intermediary between various political options, but with no success. At the first free elections held towards the end of the 1990s, he supports and participates in campaigns of the presidential candidate Ivan Djuric. Except the primary liberal and pro-western orientation, we had in our political platform three important aims for Serbia: peace with itself, peace with its neighbors, peace with the world. Still, we couldn’t do much in the middle of the hellish media blitz of Milosevic and the other frenzied nationalists who were everywhere preparing for the war and rapine . (Vidosav Stevanović: Notes ). In Decembar of the same year he resigns from the position of the advisor in Svjetlost and withdraws to his home village near Kragujevac. In the first year of democracy Vidosav Stevanović and the other people holding the same attitudes as his, can’t find publishers for their works. It happened in the same year that I lost my job and couldn’t have my works published, so I was unable to support my family. Nobody noticed this in the city which was caught up in war fever and nationalistic fanaticism. We had to leave. After a physical assault in the street, he flees to Greece with his wife and sons , and going through the experiences described in his writing, starts trilogy The Snow and the Dogs. His first book The Snow in Athens is published in Greek, and later on, in Serbian. With the help from PEN and his French friends he manages to get to France for the promotion of his book and , following the invitation from the publisher, decides to stay in France which is traditionally known as the country offering asylum. Stevanović gives a number of interviews, appears in many TV programs , participates in public debates and visits French towns : in all places he severely criticizes the regime of Slobodan Milosevic. He joins Ivan Djuric, also an asylum seeker, and his Movement of Democratic Forces; they try to convince the European public and politicians of how necessary it is to stop the war in former Yugoslavia. They also try to help Sarajevo, the city being bombed at the time. After the Dayton Agreement, the two of them justifiably criticise the delayed halt of war, division of Bosnia and nationalism of the politicians leading the three constitutive nations. Towards the end of 1995. Stevanović stays in his house near Kragujevac. Appalled by the atmosphere in which war criminals are celebrated while peacemakers attacked, he leaves the place again, this time heading for , first Prague in order to write the screenplay for The Balkan Island, and then Paris. He publicly opposes the positions held by western governments claiming that Milosevic is a guarantee of stability in the Balkans. Over a span of just two years he loses two of his close friends: Dragisa Pavlovic dies in Belgrade, Ivan Djuric in Paris. For the sake of his sons he returns to Serbia during the big demonstrations in 1996-97, joins the opposition in Kragujevac and soon they win the favour of the city radio-television, the first free one in Serbia. Six months later, Stevanović resigns from the position of the director and leaves for Paris. In his diary from that period Thieves of Their Own Freedom, published in French , there is a sentence saying: The opposition is the final line of defense against the regime of Slobodan Milosevic. His wife and younger son join him, and the three of them demand and are granted political asylum as a clear case of the triple breach of the Geneva Convention. Stevanović prepares and finishes political biography Milosevic, an epitaph which is published before he is ousted from power. New democratic powers in Serbia do not invite him to come back. The next years are the most prolific in the turbulent life of this cursed writer. He writes with great intensity, publishes in various languages, feels well in the French cultural surrounding, wins two court cases against a big publisher along with being given a highly respectable French award and French citizenship. But, being homesick, especially concerning his mother tongue, he ever frequently visits former Yugoslav republics. Stevanović accepts the position of the culture advisor in the Sarajevo city council and spends the next three years in his favorite city. Having retired, he returns to his village near Kragujevac, travels less and less, avoids the public and does not participate in the literary life of Serbia. With the help from his friends and the publishing house Koraci, he spends the major part of 2008 trying to break the wall of silence and media censorship surrounding his name and works. He sends a direct letter to the president of the Republic of Serbia Boris Tadić, and gets no reply.[7]
For a complete list of published works, reviews and biography visit:
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