I met Slavenka Drakulić about fifteen years in the past, whereas writing my PhD on on a regular basis life in ladies’s autobiographical texts. I requested my PhD supervisor, the Croatian literary scholar Andrea Zlatar, whether or not she may advocate any texts by ladies on growing old. She couldn’t off the highest of her head, however talked about that the author Slavenka Drakulić had not too long ago requested her the exact same query. Slavenka would go on to put in writing in regards to the topic in her lengthy essay ‘Flirting with the stranger’ and the gathering Invisible Girl and Different Tales. Our discussions about ladies’s growing old had been solely the start of an intense and interesting relationship.
Slavenka and I shared an curiosity in literature and girls’s on a regular basis lives. For a very long time, a quote from her e book How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed was pinned to my wall: ‘Girls’s lives, in no way spectacular, banal the truth is, say as a lot about politics as no finish of theoretical political analyses.’ She usually returned to her favorite writers – Marguerite Duras, Irena Vrkljan, whom she considered a task mannequin, and extra not too long ago Zeruya Shalev and Annie Ernaux. She additionally beloved Walter Benjamin’s Berlin Childhood round 1900 and saved it above her desk.
Quickly after we met, Slavenka requested if I might assist set up her archive. She opened a cupboard in her examine, filled with unsorted papers: outdated, yellowing opinions of her books in lots of languages, interviews along with her and interviews she had performed, piles of literary magazines, videotapes, CDs, images giant and small, light letters written on fax paper, slides, and extra. Slavenka wrote rather a lot, and her books have been translated into round thirty languages – together with Chinese language, Japanese, Armenian and Persian – and sometimes obtained a plethora of opinions. Arranging the archive grew to become a years-long journey, a dynamic work in progress.
When she first confirmed me the archive, she sighed on the sight of the mountain of papers and mentioned: ‘I’ve concluded that nothing will occur except I set up it myself.’ I discovered many issues from her, however this was possibly crucial: do no matter you may your self and don’t look ahead to something or anybody, as a result of there’s by no means actually sufficient time. Her lengthy sickness sharpened her consciousness of mortality and writing was all the time her precedence. She usually mentioned that ‘life exists to be described.’ With Slavenka, all the pieces was ultimately changed into textual content. No matter she was eager about grew to become a novel, an essay, a newspaper article, or some mixture of all three.
It was within the early 2000s, once I was a younger feminist with a baby I feared would overwhelm my mental life, that I found her assortment The Mortal Sins of Feminism (1984) – one of many earliest contributions to feminism in jap Europe (sadly nonetheless obtainable solely in Croatian). The essays are astonishingly related. The primary, written in 1979 – the 12 months I used to be born – advocates for introducing necessary intercourse training in faculties. This was a time when ideas of gender performativity and linguistic constructs had been getting all of the hype – and when feminism(s) tended to overlook ladies’s organic willpower. I used to be grateful to Slavenka for her concrete texts on the fact of ladies’s lives. She analysed patriarchy within the on a regular basis: ladies’s magazines, kids’s image books, political speeches, home violence, and extra.
She used to say that ladies should actively defend their reproductive rights and perceive the risks of politicians and governments everywhere in the world who need to suffocate ladies’s emancipation by restoring them to their ‘pure’ caretaking roles. When she talked about this, she moved her fingers energetically, with a sparkle in her eye, typically laughing and saying that maybe ladies don’t protest as a result of issues will not be but dangerous sufficient. She was anxious that ladies would get up solely when it was too late, in some model of The Handmaid’s Story, after they would now not have a voice.
In 2020, she revealed a brand new version of The Mortal Sins of Feminism, which included her more moderen essays on ladies’s points. Within the afterword, Slavenka defined that she needed to publish a brand new version as a result of, ‘if we anticipated a greater state of affairs, extra respect, higher equality – that didn’t occur’. Quite the opposite, patriarchy is resilient, and girls, due to their means to bear kids, can in a single day turn into victims of nationalist or spiritual ideologies. The e book is good studying for anyone who doesn’t in any other case learn idea or feminist texts, as a result of it addresses these points merely and tangibly.
In our age of conflicts all through the world, Struggle Is the Identical In every single place (2022) – a group of essays written over a interval of some thirty years – is equally necessary. However my favourites amongst Slavenka’s books are Flesh of her Flesh (2012) and They Would By no means Harm a Fly (2004). The previous explores the motives of people that donate organs to strangers, whereas the latter is a e book of essays about ‘strange folks’ who turn into battle criminals. We frequently mentioned how the 2 books revealed reverse features of humanity – the unimaginable good and the unimaginable evil of which persons are succesful.
They Would By no means Harm a Fly has been translated into many languages and is commonly mentioned and quoted, however Flesh of her Flesh obtained much less consideration. Slavenka believed that it was simpler to examine battle criminals, since we think about we may by no means be them, than about organ donors – as a result of we may be them, however maybe will not be altruistic sufficient, which makes us uncomfortable.
I envied Slavenka for writing quick. As a literary critic, it takes me very long time to put in writing opinions, and never earlier than I’ve stuffed notebooks with notes and skim piles of books. Slavenka, then again, may end a lucid quick textual content on a extremely complicated topic in solely two hours. This fascinated me. She learn continually, virtually greedily, following new writers in addition to newspapers and magazines, each home and worldwide. There have been piles of books beside her mattress. She appreciated to underline them and, to my horror, even fold down the corners of the pages (till a couple of years in the past, when she grew to become captivated with vibrant sticky post-its and used them abundantly).
Slavenka was particularly all for new books by youthful ladies writers and journalists. She additionally reviewed their books, one thing fairly uncommon in Croatia’s small cultural circle, which is commonly able to criticize however reluctant to reward. Slavenka paid little consideration to any of that. She knew how necessary it was to look past the borders of a small nation – to learn not simply the classics but additionally probably the most attention-grabbing and revolutionary up to date writers, journalists and critics. She revealed her essays in a number of the most distinguished magazines worldwide, and books with main publishing homes similar to Penguin USA. When you contemplate the easiest, mediocrity is now not an choice.
As one would count on, Slavenka was a posh particular person. She might be cussed and emotionally demanding. But it surely was exactly that stubbornness that allowed her to beat extreme sickness for therefore a few years and proceed writing tirelessly. On the identical time, she generously shared her information and readily supported different writers. She inspired me to put in writing and communicate publicly, celebrated each article and e book I revealed – although she by no means missed an opportunity to level out that I wrote too little. She handled many different writers the identical means. She additionally confirmed nice compassion towards numerous folks affected by sickness, serving to them each virtually and financially.
It was becoming that the Croatian Journalists’ Affiliation gave her a lifetime achievement award final 12 months. She appreciated it as a result of it got here from colleagues, and since the Croatian cultural circle had usually excluded her. However readers’ responses to her books mattered extra to her than awards. I keep in mind one deeply shifting occasion. It was on the finish of 2025, after Slavenka had introduced her quick story assortment What We Don’t Discuss About (2024) in Zagreb. The viewers applauded for a really, very very long time; the truth is, it appeared that folks couldn’t cease applauding. They had been thanking Slavenka not only for this e book however for the amassed work of a lifetime, for the profound mark her writing had left on all of us. She was deeply touched.
Slavenka was witty, curious, genuinely all for folks and the world round her. She cared about fact, about private and social duty, and tirelessly looked for a extra simply and civilized society. She was an ideal instance of Gramsci’s ‘pessimism of the mind and optimism of the desire’. She appreciated to say that ‘optimists are merely uninformed pessimists’ – but she behaved optimistically. Daily she pushed ahead, enthusiastically speaking about new books, new topics, and saved writing and writing and writing. It was by no means troublesome for her to put in writing another article about abortion, another about abused ladies, another about fascist tendencies in society, after which one other one after that. When her archive ultimately turns into publicly obtainable, we can proceed learning her work and decide up the place she left off.
I may write way more about Slavenka, however I can virtually really feel her me and shaking her head in disapproval as a result of I’ve praised her excessively and with out restraint. I can hear her saying, ‘Lower half of it!’
A couple of days in the past, the gathering Why I By no means Discovered Find out how to Cook dinner arrived within the bookstores. She had been drastically wanting ahead to it. It’s an intriguing mixture of textual content and picture, wherein autobiographical tales about cooking are a place to begin for reflections on social conventions (one would possibly even say indoctrinations) based on which it’s ‘pure’ for girls to get pleasure from cooking.
I nonetheless can not imagine she is gone. What pains me most is the conclusion that I can now not present or inform her something – that I can not ship her this textual content. However her books are wanting down at me from the cabinets. They proceed to encourage and encourage me.
