Jasmina Tešanović ( sr-cyr, Јасмина Тешановић; born March 7, 1954) is a

Serbian-American Serbian Americans () or American Serbs (), are Americans of ethnic Serb ancestry. As of 2023, there were slightly more than 181,000 American citizens who identified as having Serb ancestry. However, the number may be significantly higher, as ...

author,

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

, political activist (

Women in Black Women in Black () is a women's anti-war movement with an estimated 10,000 activists around the world. The first group was formed by Israeli women in Jerusalem in 1988, following the outbreak of the First Intifada. History Responding to what ...

Code Pink Code Pink: Women for Peace (often stylized as CODEPINK) is a left-wing, anti-war organization registered in the United States as a 501(c)(3) organization. It focuses on issues such as drone strikes, the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, Palestini ...

), translator, and filmmaker.

Early life

Tešanović was born in March 7, 1954 in

Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

. Her family later moved to

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

with her parents where she attended the primary

Port Said Port Said ( , , ) is a port city that lies in the northeast Egypt extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, straddling the west bank of the northern mouth of the Suez Canal. The city is the capital city, capital of the Port S ...

School in English. In Cairo she took piano lessons with

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

n pianist Melita Lorkovic. In 1966 her parents transferred to

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

where she attended the international School of Milan (British School). In 1971 she enrolled at

University of Milan The University of Milan (; ), officially abbreviated as UNIMI, or colloquially referred to as La Statale ("the State niversity), is a public university, public research university in Milan, Italy. It is one of the largest universities in Eu ...

and studied Law School for two years which she abandoned to study Art and Cinema. In 1976 she graduated Lettere Moderne at the University of Milan with a thesis on

Andrei Tarkovsky Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky (, ; 4 April 1932 – 29 December 1986) was a Soviet film director and screenwriter of Russian origin. He is widely considered one of the greatest directors in cinema history. Works by Andrei Tarkovsky, His films e ...

with Prof. Adelio Ferrero.

Early work

In 1975 she went to live in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

after assisting

Miklós Jancsó Miklós Jancsó (; 27 September 192131 January 2014) was a Hungarian people, Hungarian film director and screenwriter. Jancsó achieved international prominence starting in the mid-1960s with works including ''Szegénylegények, The Round-Up'' ...

's movie '' Private Vices, Public Pleasures'', shot in Ormož, Slovenia. She lived with actress

Laura Betti Laura Betti ( Trombetti; May 1 1934 – 31 July 2004) was an Italian actress known particularly for her work with directors Federico Fellini, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and Bernardo Bertolucci. She had a long friendship with Pasolini and made a docume ...

where she met and befriended director

Pier Paolo Pasolini Pier Paolo Pasolini (; 5 March 1922 – 2 November 1975) was an Italian poet, film director, writer, actor and playwright. He is considered one of the defining public intellectuals in 20th-century Italian history, influential both as an artist ...

. In 1977, she collaborated with

Umberto Silva Umberto is a masculine Italian given name. It is the Italian form of Humbert. People with the name include: * King Umberto I of Italy (1844–1900) * King Umberto II of Italy (1904–1983) * Prince Umberto, Count of Salemi (1889–1918) * Umberto I ...

on the movie ''Difficile morire''. She did conceptual video performances at the student cultural center of Belgrade SKC ("Love is only a Matter of Words", "An Unedited Being", etc.) and shot short films together with Radoslav Vladić.

Transition to an author and as an activist

She translated Italian authors such as

Italo Calvino Italo Calvino (, ; ;. RAI (circa 1970), retrieved 25 October 2012. 15 October 1923 – 19 September 1985) was an Italian novelist and short story writer. His best-known works include the ''Our Ancestors'' trilogy (1952–1959), the '' Cosm ...

Elsa Morante Elsa Morante (; 18 August 1912 – 25 November 1985) was an Italian novelist, poet, translator and children's books author. Her novel '' La storia'' (''History'') is included in the Bokklubben World Library List of 100 Best Books of All Time. L ...

Alberto Moravia Alberto Pincherle (; 28 November 1907 – 26 September 1990), known by his pseudonym Alberto Moravia ( , ), was an Italian novelist and journalist. His novels explored matters of modern sexuality, social alienation and existentialism. Moravia i ...

, Sandro Veronesi, Andrea de Carlo, and Aldo Busi, and published an anthology of contemporary Italian literature within Yugoslavia. After the

fall of communism The revolutions of 1989, also known as the Fall of Communism, were a revolutionary wave of liberal democracy movements that resulted in the collapse of most Marxist–Leninist governments in the Eastern Bloc and other parts of the world. Th ...

East Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountains, and i ...

, together with Slavica Stojanović, she founded the feminist publishing house "Feminist 94". Her first book of essays "The Invisible Book" became a manifesto for alternative

Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

n feminist/pacifist culture. Since then she published several other fiction and essays books translated in several languages. She is the author of ''Diary of a Political Idiot,'' a war diary written during the

NATO bombing of Yugoslavia The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) carried out an aerial bombing campaign against the Serbia and Montenegro, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War. The air strikes lasted from 24 March 1999 to 10 June 1999. The bombing ...

and widely distributed on the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

. In 2004 the Hiroshima Prize for Peace and Culture was awarded to Borka Pavićević, founder of the

Centre for Cultural Decontamination The Centre for Cultural Decontamination (, ''Centar za kulturnu dekontaminaciju'') is an independent cultural institution located at 21 Birčaninova Street in Belgrade, Serbia. The centre was established in 1994 as a response to the political and ...

in Belgrade, with additional prizes to Biljana Srbljanović and Jasmina Tešanović, Serbian authors and peace activists. She is the member of the Norwegian PEN center. Jasmina Tešanović is also an internationally known

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles, genres and techniques to communicate ideas, to inspire feelings and emotions, or to entertain. Writers may develop different forms of writing such as novels, short sto ...

, feminist and

political activist A political movement is a collective attempt by a group of people to change government policy or social values. Political movements are usually in opposition to an element of the status quo, and are often associated with a certain ideology. Some ...

. She was one of the key figures on the feminist scene in the former

and

Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

. Jasmina Tešanović was the co-organizer of the first international feminist

conference A conference is a meeting, often lasting a few days, which is organized on a particular subject, or to bring together people who have a common interest. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always d ...

in the former Yugoslavia in 1978. She was extremely involved in numerous

women A woman is an adult female human. Before adulthood, a female child or adolescent is referred to as a girl. Typically, women are of the female sex and inherit a pair of X chromosomes, one from each parent, and women with functional u ...

's and

peace Peace is a state of harmony in the absence of hostility and violence, and everything that discusses achieving human welfare through justice and peaceful conditions. In a societal sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (suc ...

initiatives in the early nineties (

, Center for Women's Studies) that opposed

Slobodan Milošević Slobodan Milošević ( sr-Cyrl, Слободан Милошевић, ; 20 August 1941 – 11 March 2006) was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician who was the President of Serbia between 1989 and 1997 and President of the Federal Republic of Yugos ...

's policies. She is the

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

of several

book A book is a structured presentation of recorded information, primarily verbal and graphical, through a medium. Originally physical, electronic books and audiobooks are now existent. Physical books are objects that contain printed material, ...

s in the field of

non-fiction Non-fiction (or nonfiction) is any document or content (media), media content that attempts, in good faith, to convey information only about the real life, real world, rather than being grounded in imagination. Non-fiction typically aims to pre ...

and

fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying character (arts), individuals, events, or setting (narrative), places that are imagination, imaginary or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent ...

, as well as

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

Later work

With her

husband A husband is a man involved in a marital relationship, commonly referred to as a spouse. The specific rights, responsibilities, and societal status attributed to a husband can vary significantly across different cultures and historical perio ...

Bruce Sterling Michael Bruce Sterling (born April 14, 1954) is an American science fiction author known for his novels and short fiction and editorship of the ''Mirrorshades'' anthology. In particular, he is linked to the cyberpunk subgenre. Sterling's first ...

, she started the Casa Jasmina project - the first "

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

house A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air c ...

, aimed at exploring the potential of

electronically Electronics is a scientific and engineering discipline that studies and applies the principles of physics to design, create, and operate devices that manipulate electrons and other electrically charged particles. It is a subfield of physics and ...

networked objects in the

household A household consists of one or more persons who live in the same dwelling. It may be of a single family or another type of person group. The household is the basic unit of analysis in many social, microeconomic and government models, and is im ...

Personal life

She has a daughter. In 2005, she married American

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

writer

Bibliography

Non-fiction

*''Mai più senza Torino'' (with Bruce Sterling) Espress Edizioni, Torino 2012 *''The Scorpions: Genocide in Srebrenica'', (blog Jasmina Tesanovic, Virtual Vita Nuova, 2012) *''Dizajn Zlocina, Sudjenje skorpionima'' (VBZ Sarajevo, Zagreb, Beograd 2009) *''Processo agli Scorpioni'' (Edizioni XII, 2008, Stampa Alternativa, 2009, Italy) * *''Me and My Multicultural Street'' (Feminist Publisher 94, Belgrade, Serbia, 2001) *''Diary of a Political Idiot'' ( Cleis Press, San Francisco, California, 2000) — published in 12 languages *''The Suitcase: Refugee Voices from Bosnia and Croatia'' (University of California Press, Berkeley, San Francisco, California, 1997)

Fiction

La Clandestina, Editkit editore, 2023, Italia Klandestina, Rende, Beograd, Serbia,2022 *''La mia vita senza di me'', Infinito edizioni, Italy 2014 *''Moj život bez mene'', Rende, Belgrade, 2013 *''Nefertiti'' (Stampa Alternativa, Italy 2009) *''The Necromancers/Nekromanti'' (play, 2007) *''Nefertiti Was Here/Nefertiti je bila ovde'' (Belgrade Women's Studies, Centar za Zenske Studije, Beograd 2007) *''They just do it'' (play, Feminist Notebooks, Belgrade, Serbia 1998) *''The Mermaids'' (Publisher 94, Belgrade, Serbia 1997) —

Borislav Pekić Borislav Pekić ( sr-Cyrl, Борислав Пекић, ; 4 February 1930 – 2 July 1992) was a Serbian writer and political activist. He was born in 1930, to a prominent family in Montenegro, at that time part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. From ...

Award recipient *''A Women's Book '' (Publisher 94, Belgrade, Serbia 1996) *''In Exile'' (Publisher 94, Belgrade, Serbia 1994) *''The Invisible Book'' (KOV, Vrsac, Yugoslavia 1992)

Essays and short stories

*''Mothering in War'' ("Mothers of Adult children", edited by Marguerite Bouvard, Lexington Books, 2013) *"All Patients are Refugees" (''Stories of Illness and Healing: Women Write their Bodies'', edited by Sayantani Das Gupta and Marsha Hurst, The Kent State University Press, 2007) *"Baghdad/Belgrade Correspondence" (''Writing the World: On Globalization'', editors Wandee Pryor and Rothenberg, MIT Press, Boston Massachusetts 2005) *"Letter to My Imaginary American Friend" (''Stop the Next War'', editors Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans, Inner Ocean, San Francisco, California 2005) *"We Are All Women In Black" (''Women on War'', edited by Daniela Gioseffi, Feminist Press, New York, New York, 2003) *"Mermaids, Ljubica" (short stories) (''Casablanca Serbia'', editor Nicole Janigro, Feltrinelli, Milan, Italy 2003) *''The Diary of a Political Idiot'' (Granta 67, Autumn, London, UK 1999) *"Lies and Secrets" (''Index on Censorship'', London, UK 1999) *Many short essays published on the blog ''

Boing Boing ''Boing Boing'' is a website, first established as a zine in 1988, later becoming a group blog. Common topics and themes include technology, futurism, science fiction, gadgets, intellectual property, Disney, and left-wing politics. It twice wo ...

'', including "The Long Goodbye", concerning the funeral of

Slobodan Milosevic Slobodan ( sr-Cyrl, Слободан) is a Serbo-Croatian masculine given name which means "free" (''sloboda'' / meaning "freedom, liberty") used among other South Slavs as well. It was coined by Serbian liberal politician Vladimir Jovanović w ...

*"Ja i moja multikulturalna ulica" (Feminist 94, Belgrade, 2001; translated into English as "Me and my multicultural street" in Bojana Kovačević's Master's thesis, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Facultat de Traducció i d'Interpretació, Bellaterra, Barcelona, 2008) *Other writings for newspapers and TV including Serbian weekly '' NIN''; Serbian daily ''Nasa Borba''; ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

''; ''

The Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', often referred to simply as ''The Inquirer'', is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded on June 1, 1829, ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is the third-longest continuously operating da ...

''; L'Espresso; Panorama; ABC TV; ''

El País (; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA. It is the second-most circulated daily newspaper in Spain . is the most read newspaper in ...

'';

Al Jazeera Al Jazeera Media Network (AJMN; , ) is a private-media conglomerate headquartered in Wadi Al Sail, Doha, funded in part by the government of Qatar. The network's flagship channels include Al Jazeera Arabic and Al Jazeera English, which pro ...

; Flair; Grazia. She has a column in La Stampa, Italy, "I Globalisti" (together with her husband

) and Yellow Cab, Belgrade, Boing Boing.

Filmography

*''Difficile Morire'', artistic collaboration on Umberto Silva's film, (Rome 1977) *''Mother and Sinner'', with Rade Vladic (Belgrade 1978) *''Morning Midday Evening'', with Rade Vladic, film based on a short story by David Albahari (Belgrade 1978) *''Nefertiti Was Here'' (Belgrade 1978) *''Nefertiti Was Here in Belgrade'' (Belgrade 2003) *''Jasmina's Diary'', with Dinko Tucakovic (Belgrade 1999).The film "Jasmina Diary" based on her diary of a political idiot, produced by SWR TV was distributed in many languages: ARTE TV, Italian TV, German TV, Serbian TV (B92). It was screened in various film festival, Venezia film festival 1999 among others, Leipzig film festival etc *''Stencil Art in Serbia'' (Belgrade 2007) *''A Minute to Twelve'' (Belgrade 2007) *''Invisible Cities'' (Belgrade 2008) *''Rafts'' (Belgrade 2008) *''Participation'' (Belgrade 2008) *''Blogs'' (Belgrade 2008) *''Recycling Romany'' (Belgrade 2008)

Footnotes

References

Source for this article

External links

Jasmina Tesanovic weblog on b92 Women in Black (international) websiteCode Pink
* ttp://jasminatesanovic.wordpress.com/ Jasmina Tesanovic personal weblog.*
Jasmina Tesanovic Vimeo

Jasmina Tesanovic Soundcloud Audio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tesanovic, Jasmina 1954 births Living people Feminist writers Serbian feminists Serbian non-fiction writers Serbian women short story writers Serbian short story writers Serbian dramatists and playwrights Translators from Italian Translators to Serbian Serbian women dramatists and playwrights International Writing Program alumni 20th-century Serbian women writers 20th-century Serbian writers 20th-century Serbian women 21st-century Serbian women writers 21st-century Serbian women 21st-century Serbian writers