Dževad Karahasan (born 25 January 1953) is a Bosnian writer, essayist and philosopher. Karahasan was awarded with

Herder Prize The Herder Prize (german: Gottfried-von-Herder-Preis), named after the German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803), was a prestigious international prize awarded every year from 1964 to 2006 to scholars and artists from Central and Sout ...

and

Goethe Medal The Goethe Medal, also known as the Goethe-Medaille, is a yearly prize given by the Goethe-Institut honoring non-Germans "who have performed outstanding service for the German language and for international cultural relations". It is an offici ...

for his writings. In 2020, the city of

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

awarded him the

Goethe Prize The Goethe Prize of the City of Frankfurt (german: Goethe-Preis der Stadt Frankfurt am Main, links=no) is an award for achievement "worthy of honour in memory of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe" made by the city of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was u ...

Early life

Karahasan was born in

Tomislavgrad Tomislavgrad (), also known by its former name Duvno (), is a town and municipality located in Canton 10 of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It mainly covers an area of the historical and geographica ...

into a

Bosnian Muslim The Bosniaks ( bs, Bošnjaci, Cyrillic: Бошњаци, ; , ) are a South Slavic ethnic group native to the Southeast European historical region of Bosnia, which is today part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who share a common Bosnian ancestry, cu ...

family. He described his father as a "religious communist" and mother as a devoted Muslim. He himself often spent time with

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...

friars in the local monastery.

Education

He studied literature and theatre at the

University of Sarajevo The University of Sarajevo ( Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian: ''Univerzitet u Sarajevu'' / Sveučilište u Sarajevu / Универзитет у Сарајеву) is a public university located in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is the larges ...

. He received his Ph.D. from the

Faculty of Philosophy A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject areas, possibly also delimited by level (e.g. undergraduate). In American usage such divisions are generally referred to as colleges ...

at the

University of Zagreb The University of Zagreb ( hr, Sveučilište u Zagrebu, ; la, Universitas Studiorum Zagrabiensis) is the largest Croatian university and the oldest continuously operating university in the area covering Central Europe south of Vienna and all of ...

Life

In 1993 Karahasan fled the war in Sarajevo, a city that plays a central role in his work. From 1986 to 1993, Karahasan was a lecturer in drama and drama theory and the dean of the Academy for Performing Arts at the University of Sarajevo, since 1993 he has been a guest lecturer at various European universities, including Salzburg, Berlin and Göttingen.

Works

Theatre

Since 1993 Karahasan works as a dramatist for ARBOS – Company for Music and Theatre. His plays have been performed in Austria (

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, Krems, Hallein, Eisenstadt, Salzburg, Villach, Klagenfurt), Germany (Gera, Erfurt, Berlin, Leipzig), Bosnia-Herzegovina (Sarajevo), Ukraine (Odessa), Czech Republic (Prague, Hradec Králové, Brno), Kosovo (Pristina), Poland (Szczecin), Singapore (Singapore Arts Festival) and USA (Washington DC).

Literature and essays

In addition to his dramas and novel Karahasan published numerous essays in various European newspapers.

Prizes

*Charles Veillon European Essay Prize (1994)Kulturserver Graz: Dževad Karahasan
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Bruno Kreisky Bruno Kreisky (; 22 January 1911 – 29 July 1990) was an Austrian social democratic politician who served as Foreign Minister from 1959 to 1966 and as Chancellor from 1970 to 1983. Aged 72 at the end of his chancellorship, he was the oldest Ch ...

Prize for Political Books (1995) *

(1999) *

Leipzig Book Award for European Understanding The City of Leipzig awards the Leipzig Book Award for European Understanding () which has been given since 1994. The award is endowed with prize money of 20,000 Euro and is presented every year during the official opening of Leipzig Book Fair. Rec ...

(2004) *

Vilenica Prize Vilenica International Literary Festival ( sl, Mednarodni literarni festival Vilenica) is a festival dedicated to literature that was founded in 1986 in Slovenia. It takes place annually in several locations on the Karst Plateau in the Slovene Lit ...

(2010) *

(2012) *

(2020)

Publications

Novels and essays

* "The Eastern Divan", 1993 * "Sarajevo, Exodus of a City," 1993 * "About the exile in the open society" 1994 * "King's legends," 1996 * "Citizen Handke, Serbs people" in "The anxiety of the poet from reality," 1996 * "Should 'Faust' be saved?" in "Freedom.Equality.Fraternity."

Bregenzer Festspiele Bregenzer Festspiele (; Bregenz Festival) is a performing arts festival which is held every July and August in Bregenz in Vorarlberg (Austria). It features a large floating stage which is situated on Lake Constance. History The Festival becam ...

1996 * "The Shahriyar's Ring" 1997 * "Forms of life" (about theatre together with

Herbert Gantschacher Herbert Gantschacher (born December 2, 1956, at Waiern in Feldkirchen in Kärnten, Carinthia, Austria) is an Austrian director and producer and writer. Education 1976 Gantschacher graduated on the second school in Klagenfurt. From 1977 to 198 ...

) 1999 * "The questions to the calendar" 1999 * "Sara and Serafina" 2000 * "The book of Gardens" 2002 * "Poetics at the Border" (together with Markus Jaroschka) 2003 * "The Night Council" 2006 * "Reports from The Dark World" 2007 * "The Shadows of The Cities" 2010 * "The Solace of the Night Sky" 2015

Theatre

* "The Wheel of St. Catherine," National Theatre Sarajevo 1990 *

Abdullah Ibn al-Muqaffa Abū Muhammad ʿAbd Allāh Rūzbih ibn Dādūya ( ar, ابو محمد عبدالله روزبه ابن دادويه), born Rōzbih pūr-i Dādōē ( fa, روزبه پور دادویه), more commonly known as Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ ( ar, ابن الم� ...

" Theatre Akzent Vienna by ARBOS – Company for Music and Theatre 1994 * "The Song of Fools of Europe" Literary installation of a libretto, together with Herbert Gantschacher, Künstlerhaus Salzburg by ARBOS – Company for Music and Theatre 1994 * "Povuceni Andjeo" Danube Festival in Krems by

ARBOS - Company for Music and Theatre ARBOS is an Italian agricultural machinery company located in Migliarina di Carpi, Modena, Italy. It was founded in 1954 in Piacenza, Italy. ARBOS manufactures Tractor, tractors, fertilizer equipment, Seed drill, seeding equipment and Sprayer, spr ...

1995 * "The Concert of Birds" Künstlerhaus Salzburg by ARBOS – Company for Music and Theatre 1997 * "The Atlas of Feelings" Frankfurt/Oder 1999 * "Woyzeck" adopted from the fragment of Georg Büchner, National Theatre Sarajevo 1999 * "Babylon or The Trip of The Beautiful Jutte" European Cultural Centre Erfurt by ARBOS – Company for Music and Theatre 1999 * "The Strangers" ARBOS – Company for Music and Theatre Vienna 2001 * "UROBOS: Project Time" together with Herbert Gantschacher, Singapore Arts Festival by ARBOS – Company for Music and Theater 2001 * "Snow and death" (adopted by Herbert Gantschacher) ARBOS – Company for Music and Theatre 2002 * "On the edge of the desert" neuebuehnevillach by ARBOS – Company for Music and Theatre 2003 * "An old Oriental Fable" ARBOS – Company for Music and Theatre 2004 * "The Death of Empedocles" adopted from the fragment of Friedrich Hölderlin together with Herbert Gantschacher, ARBOS – Company for Music and Theatre 2005 * "The One and The Other" ARBOS – Company for Music and Theatre 2005 * "Banquet" neuebuehnevillach by ARBOS – Company for Music and Theatre 2005 * "The Maps of The Shadows" ARBOS – Companpy for Music and Theatre 2009 * "Principle Gabriel" ARBOS – Company for Music and Theatre 2014

Radiodrama

* "AL-Mukaffa" ORF Vienna 1994 * "The Delighted Angel" ORF Vienna 1995

Audio CDs

* "Al-Mukaffa" ARBOS 1996 * "The Singing of The Fools of Europe" ORF ARBOS 1998 * "UROBOS : Project Time" Singapore Arts Festival 2001 * "Banquet" Tonstudio Weikert ARBOS 2006

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Karahasan, Dzevad 1953 births Living people People from Tomislavgrad Bosniaks of Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina writers Bosnia and Herzegovina poets Bosniak writers Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb alumni Herder Prize recipients