Slobodan Šnajder
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Slobodan Šnajder (; born 8 July 1948) is a
Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...
n
writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...
and
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. Šnajder was born in 1948 in
Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slop ...
, where he graduated in philosophy and English studies 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 ...
. He was co-founder and editor of the theatre journal ''Prolog'' as well as the editor of the editions published by Cekade. His short stories, essays and plays were published since 1966. From January to June 1993, he was a columnist in daily newspaper ''
Glas Slavonije ''Glas Slavonije'' () is a Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = ...
'', Osijek, ''(Reader for the Melancholics)'', and, since January 1994 till 2013, in a daily newspaper '' Novi list'', Rijeka, ''(Dangerous Connections)''. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the left-wing magazine ''
Novi Plamen ''Novi Plamen'' ( en, New Flame) was a left-wing journal for political, social and cultural issues primarily aimed at intellectual audiences in the former Yugoslavia and the related diaspora. It was a leading publication of its kind in the region, ...
''. His columns and his plays have supporters and opposers. Although Šnajder has been writing prose since ever, his first full-length novel ''Morendo'' was issued in 2012.


Works

The very first professional production of Šnajder was his early play ''Minigolf'' – Drama Theatre Gavella, Zagreb, directed by Dino Radojević. The Croatian National Theatre of
Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slop ...
(HNK) has staged three of his plays, ''Kamov, smrtopis'' (Kamov, the Necrography) (1978), ''Držićev san'' (Dream of Držić) (1980), both produced by Ljubiša Ristić, and “Nevjesta od vjetra” (Bride of the Wind), staged by Ivica Boban. ''Kamov, smrtopis'' was staged in March 2003 by the Zagreb Youths' Theatre (ZKM) in the production of Branko Brezovec. ''Dumanske tišine'' (Silences of a nun) is a play that was staged all over what was Yugoslavia. Another play of him, “Zmijin svlak” (The Snakeskin), about mass-rapings in Bosnian war, was played all over Europe, from Tübingen, Oslo, Warsaw, Kraków, Veroli near Rome (Festival Dionysia), Frankfurt/Main, Dublin, Wien, Kopenhagen, till Belgrade. This happens to be his mostly played text abroad, but not in Croatia. But there is another play that seems to be much more controversial right from the date it was issued till today: ''Hrvatski Faust'' (Croatian Faust). There are certain similarities between debates in the context of Ralph Hochhut’s play “Stellvertreter” and this play of Šnajder. The opening night was in Split, 1982, directed by Dino Radojević. Very soon the play was staged in Varaždin (Petar Veček) and Belgrade (Slobodan Unkovski). But all the ideas to make it in Zagreb, where the events described in the play took place in 1942, under regime of ustaša (Croatian “quislings”), were made impossible from the very first moment. Actually, the play takes into consideration the history of the very theatre itself that in the seventies played two Šnajder's plays. Šnajder’s Faust-play has something to do with what Germans call ''“Aufarbeitung der Geschichte”'' (workup of the history). Something like this is never an easy task, not for Germans, neither for many Croats. “Croatian Faust” was the first Šnajder’s play of many that was played abroad: in 1987 Roberto Ciulli staged right this play in his Theater a.d. Ruhr. This production was shown everywhere in Germany, in several European countries, and in the USA (Chicago). SAT1 made a special movie-version. The last production of Šnajder in relative normal circumstances used to be “Bauhaus” (ZKM, directed by Paolo Magelli, at the beginning of 1990). For the next decade Šnajder was excluded from any repertoire and theatre in his native town and land. At the end of 1999 Petar Veček staged Šnajder’s postsocialist grand-guignol “Kod Bijelog labuda” (At the White Swan), again in Varaždin. But Šnajder was played in Europe, because that sort of proscribed censorship could not work outside Croatia. Some productions in Europe, besides “Snakeskin”: “Hrvatski Faust” (Croatian Faust, Burgtheater, Wien, directed by Hans Hollmann), “Utjeha sjevernih mora” (Comfort of the Northern Seas in Frankfurt/Oder, directed by Michael Funke), “Nevjesta od vjetra” (Bride of the Wind, directed by film-maker Werner Schroeter). Miloš Lazin produced Šnajder’s play “Ines & Denise” in French, first in Sarajevo, then his theatre played this title in many French towns. French opening night took place in Villeneuve-les-Avignon in 1997. A play about
Josip Broz Tito Josip Broz ( sh-Cyrl, Јосип Броз, ; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980), commonly known as Tito (; sh-Cyrl, Тито, links=no, ), was a Yugoslav communist revolutionary and statesman, serving in various positions from 1943 until his deat ...
, ''The Bones in Stone'', was staged in March 2007 at the National Theatre of
Bitola Bitola (; mk, Битола ) is a city in the southwestern part of North Macedonia. It is located in the southern part of the Pelagonia valley, surrounded by the Baba, Nidže, and Kajmakčalan mountain ranges, north of the Medžitlija-Níki ...
,
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, directed by Branko Brezovec. In the year 2010 Kruna Tarle made his play written for puppets – ''Moja draga Tilla!'' ("My dear Tilla!”. Tilla stays here for the German actress Tilla Durieux who emigrated to Kingdom of Yugoslavia between the wars). That was a coproduction of Zagreb Puppet Theatre and Hfs Ernst Busch, German Academy for puppet-theatre from Berlin. German team made their own version, the opening nights took place in Leverkusen, after that in Berlin. His most recent plays are: ''Enciklopedija izgubljenog vremena'' (Encyclopaedia of the Wasted Time, which is some sort of post-socialist '' Jedermann'' (Everyman), that is to say a sort of ‘transitional’ miracle-play), and ''Kako je Dunda spasila domovinu'' (How Dunda Managed to Save Her Country), based on motives of Maupassant. ''Encyclopaedia of the Waisted Time'' was awarded by The Royal Theatre in Cetinje, Montenegro, 2009. For more than eighteen years Šnajder has been writing weekly political columns, first in ''Glas Slavonije'', daily newspaper issued in Osijek, Croatia, under the title “Početnica za melankolike” (Reader for Melancholics), further on in “Novi list”, issued in Rijeka. These are symbolically entitled ''Opasne veze'' (
Les Liaisons dangereuses ''Les Liaisons dangereuses'' (; English: ''Dangerous Liaisons'') is a French epistolary novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, first published in four volumes by Durand Neveu from March 23, 1782. It is the story of the Marquise de Merteuil and ...
, after de Laclos). The selection covering the columns written until 1999 was published in the book ''Kardinalna greška'' (Cardinal Mistake), while the ones published from 1999 to mid-2004 are collected in another book - ''Umrijeti pod zvijezdom'' (To Die Under the Star). Slobodan Šnajder is signatory of the
Declaration on the Common Language The Declaration on the Common Language ( sh, Deklaracija o zajedničkom jeziku / ) was issued in 2017 by a group of intellectuals and NGOs from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia who were working under the banner of a projec ...
of the
Croats The Croats (; hr, Hrvati ) are a South Slavic ethnic group who share a common Croatian ancestry, culture, history and language. They are also a recognized minority in a number of neighboring countries, namely Austria, the Czech Republic, G ...
,
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,
Bosniaks 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 ...
and
Montenegrins Montenegrins ( cnr, Црногорци, Crnogorci, or ; lit. "Black Mountain People") are a South Slavic ethnic group that share a common Montenegrin culture, history, and language, identified with the country of Montenegro. Genetics Accordin ...
within the project ''Languages and Nationalisms'' (Jezici i nacionalizmi). The declaration is against political separation of four
Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and ...
standard variants that leads to a series of negative social, cultural and political phenomena in which linguistic expression is enforced as a criterion of ethno-national affiliation and as a means of political loyalty in successor states of former Yugoslavia.


Bibliography

* Kamov (Cekade, Zagreb 1978) * Hrvatski Faust (Cekade, Zagreb 1981) * Glasi iz Dubrave (Cekade, Zagreb 1986) * Der kroatische Faust (Theater heute, 6), Berlin 1987 * Radosna apokalipsa (IC Rijeka, Rijeka 1988) * Kroatischer Faust (Burgtheater, Vienna 1993) * Utjeha sjevernih mora (Durieux, Zagreb 1996) * Knjiga o sitnom (Konzor, Zagreb 1996) * Skora weza (Dialog, 9) Warszawa 1997 * Snakeskin, Performing Arts Journal, Cambridge, Massachusetts, vol. XX. No 3/1998 * Schlangenhaut (Theater heute, 12), Berlin 1999 * Kardinalna greška (Novi list – Adamić, Rijeka 1999) * La dépouille du serpent, (L'espace d'un instant, Paris 2002) * Umrijeti pod zvijezdom (Novi list – Adamić, Rijeka 2005) * Knjiga o sitnom - proza i dramoleti (Prometej, Zagreb 2005) * Kaspariana – eseji (Prometej, Zagreb 2005) * Smrtopis – drame (Prometej, Zagreb 2005) * Početnica za melankolike – proza (Prometej, Zagreb 2006) * Radosna apokalipsa - eseji i kritike (Prometej, Zagreb 2006) * Bosanske drame (Prometej, Zagreb 2006) ** Боснійські драми (Bosniysky dramy, in Ukrainian, translated by Alla Tatarenko, Видавництво Анетти Антоненко, Lviv 2021) * 505 sa crtom (Profil International, Zagreb 2007) * San o mostu (Prometej, Zagreb 2007) * Neka gospođica B. (Prometej, Zagreb 2007) * Faustova oklada (Prometej, Zagreb 2007) * Morendo, novel (Profil International, Zagreb 2011) * Hrvatski Faust i drugi drami (in Macedonian, selected and translated by Jelena Lužina), Blesok, Skopje 2011) * Le Cinquième évangile (L'espace d'un instant, Pariz 2012) * Tri pjesi (in Russian, selected by Larisa Saveljeva, translated by Natalija Vagapova and Larisa Saveljeva, Tri kvadrata, Moscow, 2012) * Umrijeti u Hrvatskoj : pet eseja (Fraktura, Zagreb 2019), * Doba mjedi (TIM press, Zagreb 2015) ** 2nd edition(TIM press, Zagreb 2016) ** 3rd edition (TIM press, Zagreb 2018) ** 4th Croatian and 1st Serbian edition (Akademska knjiga, Novi Sad 2021) ** 5 th edition (Fraktura, Zagreb 2022) ** Doba brona (in Slovenian, translated by Sonja Polanc, V.B.Z. Ljubljana, Ljubljana 2017) ** Исцелување на светот (Isceluvanje na svetot - in Macedonian, translated by Vladimir Jankovski, Antolog, Skopje 2018) ** Reparatur der Welt (in German, translated by Mirjana Wittmann and Klaus Wittmann, Paul Zsolnay Verlag, Wien 2019) ** La riparazione del mondo (in Italian, translated by Alice Parmeggiani, Solferino, *Milano 2019) ** De reparatie van de wereld (in Dutch, translated by Roel Schuyt, Uitgeverij Wereldbibliotheek, Amsterdam 2020) ** Мідна доба (Mydna doba, in Ukrainian, translated by
Andriy Lyubka , native_name_lang = , pseudonym = , birth_name = , birth_date = , birth_place = Riga, Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic , death_date = , death_place = , resting_place = , occupation = prose writer, poet, essayist, translator , ...
, НОРА-ДРУК, Kyiv 2021) ** Rézkorszak (in Hungarian, translated by Csordás Gábor, Vince Kiadó, Budapest 2022)


Literary awards

* How Dunda saved Her Country (2008) - Croatian National Award for Plays "Marin Držić" * The Encyclopaedia of the Wasted Time (2009) - Award of the Royal Theatre, Cetinje, Montenegro; Croatian National Award for Plays "Marin Držić" * Doba mjedi (2016)- Meša Selimović Literary Award * Doba mjedi (2016) - Radomir Konstantinović Literary Award * Doba mjedi (2016) - Mirko Kovač Literary Award * Doba mjedi (2016) - roman@tportal.hr Literary Award * Doba mjedi (2016) - “Kočić's feather“ Literary Award * Umrijeti u Hrvatskoj : pet eseja (2019) - Višnja Machiedo Literary Award


See also

*'' Novi list'' *''
Novi Plamen ''Novi Plamen'' ( en, New Flame) was a left-wing journal for political, social and cultural issues primarily aimed at intellectual audiences in the former Yugoslavia and the related diaspora. It was a leading publication of its kind in the region, ...
''


References


External link

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Snajder, Slobodan 1948 births Living people Writers from Zagreb Croatian dramatists and playwrights Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb alumni Croatian novelists Signatories of the Declaration on the Common Language