Svetlana Velmar-Janković ( sr-cyr, Светлана Велмар-Јанковић, , 1 February 1933 – 9 April 2014) was a
Serbian novelist, essayist, chronicler of
Belgrade, and first female laureate of the
Isidora Sekulić Award
The Isidora Sekulić Award ( sr, Nagrada Isidora Sekulić, italics=yes, sr-cyr, Награда Исидора Секулић) is a Serbian, and former Yugoslav, literary prize established by the Belgrade municipality of Savski venac in 1967 and ...
. She was considered to be one of the most important Serbian female authors of her time. In 2001, the
French President
Jacques Chirac honored her with the Chevalier medal of
Legion of Honor because ''she always took care to preserve the
humanist
Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry.
The meaning of the term "human ...
values which unite her and her country with the rest of Europe''.
Life and work
Svetlana Velmar-Janković was born in
Belgrade, in the city which should remain the center of life for her whole life until death.
She grew up in city quarter
Dorćol
Dorćol ( sr-cyr, Дорћол; ) is an affluent urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Stari Grad.
Located along the right bank of the Danube, Dorćol is oldest surviving neighborhood ...
and was one of two daughters of
Vladimir Velmar-Janković, appointed deputy minister of education of the
Government of National Salvation
The Government of National Salvation ( sr, Влада народног спаса, Vlada narodnog spasa, (VNS); german: Regierung der nationalen Rettung), also referred to as Nedić's government (, ) and Nedić's regime (, ), was the colloquial na ...
in the
German Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia, who escaped from
Yugoslavia in September 1944. He left his wife and children behind. They had to accept serious social consequences because of that in
communist Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Yugo ...
, and that was not easy to endure for the remained family members. At the beginning of the 3rd millennium, late efforts of his daughters to get him officially rehabilitated, ran into opposition. A brief statement by his famous daughter gives an idea of the long-term suffering of the family, and a question asked at the beginning of this millennium by a contemporary witness and representative of the post-war state, who was nobody else than
Tito
Tito may refer to:
People Mononyms
* Josip Broz Tito (1892–1980), commonly known mononymously as Tito, Yugoslav communist revolutionary and statesman
* Roberto Arias (1918–1989), aka Tito, Panamanian international lawyer, diplomat, and journ ...
's official German language interpreter during state visits and receptions, brings up this issue to the point.
After completion of her
secondary school education, she graduated with
maturity diploma at IV
gymnasium for girls in 1951, she began studying
French language and
literature
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...
at the
Philological Faculty of Belgrade's University, and completed with diploma in 1963. In 1953, still while her education at university, she became journalist and wrote contributions to the youth magazines ''Dečje štampe'' and ''
Pioniri''. From 1959 to 1975, she was editor of the
literary journal ''Književnost'' of Prosveta publishing house, and in 1971 she became member of the editorial board of this company, where she worked until 1989. In the meantime, she edited Prosveta's publication series ''Baština'' (Heritage) which consists of
prose
Prose is a form of written or spoken language that follows the natural flow of speech, uses a language's ordinary grammatical structures, or follows the conventions of formal academic writing. It differs from most traditional poetry, where the ...
and
essays
An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...
of numerous Serbian authors.
She was elected corresponding member of the
Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
The Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts ( la, Academia Scientiarum et Artium Serbica, sr-Cyr, Српска академија наука и уметности, САНУ, Srpska akademija nauka i umetnosti, SANU) is a national academy and the ...
since 2006, and became a full member three years later. From 2007 to 2013, she was chairwoman of the board of directors of the
National Library of Serbia
The National Library of Serbia ( sr, Народна библиотека Србије, Narodna biblioteka Srbije) is the national library of Serbia, located in the capital city of Belgrade. It is the biggest library, and oldest institution in Ser ...
.
Svetlana Velmar-Janković was married twice, her first marriage to journalist Miodrag Protić ended with his death in 1974, after twenty one years of wedlock, and her son Đorđe (born in 1966) comes from this relationship, he emigrated to the
United States of America
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...
. She is interred in an honorary grave of the
Belgrade New Cemetery
The New Cemetery ( sr, Ново гробље, ''Novo groblje'') is a cemetery complex in Belgrade, Serbia, with a distinct history. It is located in Ruzveltova street in Zvezdara municipality. The cemetery was built in 1886 as the third Christia ...
. Her second husband was Žarko Rošulj (born in 1940), who worked at Nolit publishing as a graphic editor from 1978 to 1996 and died in 2018.
In its obituary, the newspaper
Politika
''Politika'' ( sr-Cyrl, Политика; ''Politics'') is a Serbian daily newspaper, published in Belgrade. Founded in 1904 by Vladislav F. Ribnikar, it is the oldest daily newspaper still in circulation in the Balkans.
Publishing and owners ...
cites the deceased lady once again who will never be passed away in collective memory and lives on in her books about places, people and generations.
Her complete work is already including one or several editions in
Bulgarian
Bulgarian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria
* Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group
* Bulgarian language, a Slavic language
* Bulgarian alphabet
* A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria
* Bul ...
,
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
,
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
, French,
Hungarian,
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
,
Korean
Korean may refer to:
People and culture
* Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula
* Korean cuisine
* Korean culture
* Korean language
**Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl
**Korean dialects and the Jeju language
** ...
,
Macedonian and
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
translation, most of all published in
French.
Internationally best known book from her complete work is the novel ''Lagum'', which has also been published in Bulgarian, English (two editions in 1996 and 2002), French, German, Italian and Spanish translation. ''Lagum'', a term of Turkish origin, refers to a dark dungeon-like underground passage, in which no light falls, as are numerous under the
Kalemegdan fortress
The Belgrade Fortress ( sr-Cyrl, Београдска тврђава, Beogradska tvrđava), consists of the old citadel (Upper and Lower Town) and Kalemegdan Park (Large and Little Kalemegdan) on the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, in ...
, and scene of the plot is the city of Belgrade, written from the perspective of the wife of a professor of Belgrade University.
Protagonist Milica Pavlović,
first-person narrator
A first-person narrative is a mode of storytelling in which a storyteller recounts events from their own point of view using the first person It may be narrated by a first-person protagonist (or other focal character), first-person re-teller ...
, tells life events from her time period between 1928 and 1984. When her husband, the well-respected Dušan Pavlović, tried to save as many people as possible from the
Ustashe extermination camps in the
Independent State of Croatia
The Independent State of Croatia ( sh, Nezavisna Država Hrvatska, NDH; german: Unabhängiger Staat Kroatien; it, Stato indipendente di Croazia) was a World War II-era puppet state of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. It was established in p ...
during the war and therefore co-operated with Serbian Quisling government, the couple became increasingly estranged. Above that, Milica hides a wounded
partisan in the servant room of her apartment without her husband's knowledge and children. The takeover of power by the communist resistance fighters become the fate of the family: Dušan is executed as a collaborator, the apartment is ransacked by neighbors who hastily turned into zealous and cruel henchmen of the new regime. Milica is reviled as a traitor by people whom she and her husband had saved years ago. So also from that partisan who recovered hidden in family's flat. It is a sensitive but relentless portrait of society, a profound analysis of human contradictions, character weaknesses and political
opportunism
Opportunism is the practice of taking advantage of circumstances – with little regard for principles or with what the consequences are for others. Opportunist actions are expedient actions guided primarily by self-interested motives. The term ...
.
Celia Hawkesworth, English translator of the novel ''Lagum'', describes this work as follows:
For the past three decades of her life, Svetlana Velmar-Janković was not only a recognized ''Grande Dame'' of Serbian literature, but also a loud voice of conscience who courageously and unequivocally advocated
democracy
Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which people, the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation ("direct democracy"), or to choo ...
and
human rights
Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...
, based on
humanism
Humanism is a philosophy, philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and Agency (philosophy), agency of Human, human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical in ...
and
European values
European values are the norms and values that Europeans are said to have in common, and which transcend national or state identity. In addition to helping promote European integration, this doctrine also provides the basis for analyses that char ...
of the
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to the various nations and states in the regions of Europe, North America, and Oceania. . Many possible examples could illustrate this, but only two are briefly presented here: an excerpt from her speech during the
1991 protests including the beginning of the
Yugoslav wars
The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related Naimark (2003), p. xvii. ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and insurgencies that took place in the SFR Yugoslavia from 1991 to 2001. The conflicts both led up to and resulted from ...
and her statement about the Serbian declaration on
Srebrenica massacre
The Srebrenica massacre ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Masakr u Srebrenici, Масакр у Сребреници), also known as the Srebrenica genocide ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Genocid u Srebrenici, Геноцид у Сребрен ...
. She was also a member of the ''
Truth and Reconciliation Commission
A truth commission, also known as a truth and reconciliation commission or truth and justice commission, is an official body tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a government (or, depending on the circumstances, non-state act ...
'' (Komisija za istinu i pomirenje).
Bibliography
Novels
*''Ožiljak'' (Scar), 1956
*''Lagum'' (Dungeon), 1990
*''Bezdno'' (Bottomless), 1995
*''Nigdina'' (Nowhere), 2000
*''Vostanije'' (Uprising), 2004
Essays
*''Savremenici'' (Contemporaries), 1967
*''Ukletnici'' (Cursed Ones), 1993
*''Izabranici'' (Chosen Ones), 2005
*''Srodnici'' (Kinfolk), 2013
Memoirs
*''Prozraci'' (Ventilation), 2003 and 2015 (second volume, posthumous)
Short Stories, Narrations
*''
Dorćol
Dorćol ( sr-cyr, Дорћол; ) is an affluent urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Stari Grad.
Located along the right bank of the Danube, Dorćol is oldest surviving neighborhood ...
'', 1981
*''
Vračar
Vračar ( sr-Cyrl, Врачар, ) is an affluent urban area and municipality of the city of Belgrade known as the location of many embassies and museums. According to the 2011 census results, the municipality has a population of 56,333 inhabitant ...
'', 1994
*''Glasovi'' (Voices), 1997
*''Knjiga za Marka'' (Book for Marko),
children's literature
Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader.
Children's ...
, 1998
*''Očarane naočare: priče o Beogradu'' (Spellbound Spectacles: Stories About Belgrade), 2006
*''Sedam mojih drugara'' (Seven of my Friends), 2007
*''Zapisi sa dunavskog peska'' (
Danube
The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , p ...
Sand Records), 2016 (posthumous)
Monograph
*''Kapija Balkana: brzi vodič kroz prošlost Beograda'' (Gate of the
Balkans
The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...
: Quick Guide Through Belgrade's History), 2011
Theatre Plays
*''Žezlo'' (Sceptre, contains ''
Stefan Dečanski
Stefan Uroš III ( sr-Cyrl, Стефан Урош III, ), known as Stefan Dečanski ( sr-Cyrl, Стефан Дечански, ; 1276 – 11 November 1331), was the King of Serbia from 6 January 1322 to 8 September 1331. Dečanski was the son of ...
'' and ''
Knez Mihailo
Mihailo ( sr-cyr, Михаило) or Mihajlo () is a Serbian masculine given name, a variant of the Hebrew name ''Michael''. Common as a given name among Serbs, it is an uncommon surname. It may refer to:
* Mihailo Vojislavljević (fl. 1050–d. 1 ...
''), 2011
*''Knez Mihailo'', Premiere at
Yugoslav Drama Theatre
Yugoslav Drama Theatre ( sr-cyrl, Југословенско драмско позориште, Jugoslovensko dramsko pozorište; abbr. JDP or ''Jugodrp'') is a theatre located in Belgrade, Serbia.
It was founded in 1947 as the representative th ...
, 1996
*''Lagum'', dramatized by Gordana Gocić, Premiere at
Atelje 212
Atelje 212 ( sr-Cyrl, Атеље 212) is a theatre located in Belgrade, Serbia.
Established in 1956 on the premises of the '' Borba'' building in front of 212 chairs, its opening play was the staging of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's ''Faust'' dire ...
, 1995
English editions
*''Dungeon'' (Lagum), translated by Celia Hawkesworth,
Dereta and
UCL, Belgrade and London 1996, .
Honors
*
Isidora Sekulić Award
The Isidora Sekulić Award ( sr, Nagrada Isidora Sekulić, italics=yes, sr-cyr, Награда Исидора Секулић) is a Serbian, and former Yugoslav, literary prize established by the Belgrade municipality of Savski venac in 1967 and ...
1967 for ''Savreminici''
*
Andrić Award 1981 for ''Dorćol''
*
Meša Selimović
Mehmed "Meša" Selimović (; ; 26 April 1910 – 11 July 1982) was a Yugoslav writer, whose novel '' Death and the Dervish'' is one of the most important literary works in post-World War II Yugoslavia. Some of the main themes in his works are the ...
Award 1990 for ''Lagum''
*Award for ''the most read book'' of the
National Library of Serbia
The National Library of Serbia ( sr, Народна библиотека Србије, Narodna biblioteka Srbije) is the national library of Serbia, located in the capital city of Belgrade. It is the biggest library, and oldest institution in Ser ...
1991: ''Lagum''
*
Borisav Stanković Award 1994 for ''Vračar''
*Đorđe Jovanović Award 1994 for ''Vračar''
*
NIN Award
The ''NIN'' Award ( sr, Ninova nagrada, italics=yes, Нинова награда), officially the Award for Best Novel of the Year, is a prestigious Serbian (and previously Yugoslavian) literary award established in 1954 by the ''NIN'' weekly a ...
1995 for ''Bezdno''
*Neven Award 1998 for ''Knjiga za Marka''
*
Politikin Zabavnik Award 1998 for ''Knjiga za Marka''
*''
Mišićev dukat'' 2001 for life achievement
*
Legion of Honor (Chevalier medal) 2001
*
Ramonda Serbika Award 2002 of Književna kolonija „Sićevo“
*
Stefan Mitrov Ljubiša Award 2002 for literary life achievement
*Award of ''Udruženje Beogradjana “
6. april 1941”'' for her complete literary work about Belgrade, 2007
*
Gordana Todorović Award for life work of women writers 2008
Kroz lagume duše
Sve Vesti, retrieved 2020-01-10.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Velmar-Jankovic, Svetlana
1933 births
2014 deaths
University of Belgrade Faculty of Philology alumni
Writers from Belgrade
Eastern Orthodox Christians from Serbia
Serbian non-fiction writers
Members of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
Serbian women novelists
20th-century Serbian novelists
20th-century Serbian women writers
Serbian women essayists
Serbian women journalists
Serbian children's writers
Serbian women children's writers
Serbian dramatists and playwrights
Serbian women short story writers
Serbian short story writers
21st-century Serbian women writers
Serbian book publishers (people)
Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur
Yugoslav women writers
Yugoslav journalists
Yugoslav essayists
Burials at Belgrade New Cemetery