EDITORIAL

 

Dear & esteemed reader!

 

“Diwan” No. 7-8 brings you an unusually large number of articles. Over fifty authors of various genre alignments and thematic orientations are presented in eight fractionated sections. The structure is the same as before. As the editor I joyfully and nonchalantly reject possible objections to “odds and ends” and “connecting the unconnectable,” because we offer a postmodern understanding of text(s) as a space above the genre model where the “sliding of signifiers” enables higher level communication.

The round table about the writer Alija Isaković and his work, organised at the Gradačac Literary Gatherings is presented by: Munib Maglajlić, Enver Kazaz, Nedžad Ibrahimović, Sulejman Kupusović, Tvrtko Kulenović and Vedad Spahić. A special addition to their research is Alija Isaković’s bibliography compiled by Mustafa ]eman. We wanted to make our humble contribution to the 70th anniversary of the birth of Isaković, critic-researcher-writer, the founder of Bosnian Language & Literature Studies.

This thematic unit is followed by the recent poetry & prose of Bosnian authors of the older and middle generations. They are: Ibrahim Kajan, Jozefina Dautbegović, Amir Brka, Hadžem Hajdarević, Aleksandra Čvorović, Dinko Delić, Dragoslav Dedović, Benjamin Isović, Goran Sarić, Tanja Stupar, Goran Samardžić, Dragan Marijanović, Josip Mlakić... A distinct addition to this “multi-carat” actuality is an interview with Josip Mlakić contributed by Dragan Šimović.

The theoretical work of Marko Vešović, the analysis of the poem “Christ the Traffic Policeman” by Radovan Zagović (otherwise a Communist Party official, one of the participants in the conflict on the literary left), and Zilhad Ključanin who explores the mystic and esoteric aspects of “Harem Lyric” by Ahmed Muradbegović (otherwise incriminated for co-operating with authorities of the NDH - Independent State of Croatia, in Sarajevo from 1941 until 1945), is “defamiliarised” by the poetic texts of Zvonko Kovač, Ferid Muhić and Miško Šuvaković who are represented here as theoreticians with (philosophical) fictions. And the documentary writing of Čedo Prica Plitvički about Vlado Gotovac and the Kosovo-style mythic historicity of the verses of Carl Polóny offer an abundant multi-level kaleidoscope adhering to our manner of everyday postmodernism.

Young Bosnian writers: Mehmed Begić, Rajko Jamedžija, Asja Bakić, Emir Džambegović and Harris Džajić & Tarik Zukić (of the Diaspora) can compare their sensibilities with the “LitKon” representation, here comprised of Goran Bogunović, Nikola Madžirov, Igor Isakovski and Daniela Stojković. The prose among the multitude of verses is written by the Persian-Dutch ”bard” Kader Abdolah (a writer at the heart of the interest for immigrant literature in Europe) along with the Bosnian selection by Cecilija Toskić (of the Diaspora), Unkas Arnaut and Marko Martinović.

I am proud to be able to present the translations of the Polish poets Lukasz Szopa, Jacek Bierezin, Krzystof Jaworski and Grzegorz Wróblewski. Our diligent associate, writer and founder of a magazines/fanzines, and above all the translator of the poems, Lukasz Szopa, has prepared for us a selection from politically and aesthetically uncompromising Polish poets.

It is also with no less pleasure that I present to you a selection from the works of independent Montenegran poets who write in the Montenegran language. They are: Aleksandar Bečanović, a laureate of the 32nd Ratković’s Poetry Nights in Bijelo Polje, Jovanka Uljarević, one of Diwan’s associates, the magnificent Pavle Goranović and Balša Brković, as well as the youthful forces of Paula Petričević and Brano Koćalo. New winds are blowing from the Adriatic South.

With them the excellent Gregor Podlogar from Ljubljana.

Reviews of new books were made by: the industrious Tanja Stupar (two texts), Zoran Bognar, Aleksandra Čvorović and Nedžad Ibrahimović. And Ibrahim Kajan has presented and reviewed (meriting a special mention) the book “Monography of a City” by Amir Brka (a member of the “Diwan” desk) which was awarded as the best book by the Writers’ Association of Bosnia-Herzegovina in 2002. We are proud of the fact that Željko Grahovac (also a member of the “Diwan” desk) has been elected to be the new editor of the literary magazine ”Život”. With the fact that “Diwan” has received support from the Federal Fund for Publishing, we can conclude that 2002 was a very successful year for our magazine.

The aesthetic aspect of this issues, the “make up” has (again) been provided by the Art Creation Service, that is maestro Bojan Bahić. And we would like to thank Sead Čerkez and Admir Mujkić who produced the graphics, water-colours and drawings at the Gradačac Gatherings for their contribution.

Ergo, we wanted to offer a concept of arranging authors’ differences into a bearable relation of multilateral coexistence. In the text. Since, politically speaking, that process “in the field” yields unsatisfactory results. With hope that the constitutive peo- ples of Bosnia-Herzegovina will as soon as possible along with the exclusivity (is it really exclusivity, or only differentia specifica?) of their own: Bosniak, Serb and Croat ethnicum, discover the notorious fact of the Bosnian being as a confirmation of their complex identity in terms of civilisation. We are also interested to examine what of the (South)Slavic (Balkan/South-European) cultural matrix is still acceptable for the territorial & political heirs of Tito’s Yugoslavia.

In the exchange of cultural goods, rather than cultural “evils”.

With the hope that the “promised land” Europe is the mother of us all.

 

Tuzla, 13.10.2002.

Your Editor, Dinko Delić