Selma Raljević for Oslobođenje: I wanted to create a book without borders

What are the key issues of transnationalism? How do you address them?

– The concept of transnationalism/transnationalism is not widely known in Bosnia and Herzegovina, so first of all it is necessary to briefly clarify its meaning. Transnationalism includes everything within the national scope, but transnationalism also includes everything outside the national scope. Therefore, the key issue of transnationalism, that is, transnationalism, is expressed and represented by the compound of these words, everything that includes the prefix “trans” and the root word involving “national”. This means that transnationalism/transnationalism covers everything “through” the country, “over” the country and “beyond” the country. From this it is already clear that transnationalism does not abolish the national, but includes the national, but transnationalism transcends and exceeds the borders and limits of the national.

Document structure

In my book Literature Without Borders (Contemporary Literary Studies, American Transnational Literature, and Bosnia and Herzegovina Transnational Literature), published in Sarajevo-Zagreb and therefore also available in a transnational edition on Buybook, edited by Lamija Milišić, I approached all of this and realized that everything about the literary and non-literary worlds is parallel, connected, intertwined, synergistic, and in dialogue with each other, with a focus on American literature and contemporary Bosnia and Herzegovina literature.

In the sense you just described, transnationalism in research is about looking at literature from the outside. Why is it important to look at literature beyond the boundaries of nation-states?

—The organization of the world we live in is currently national, and so is the organization of world literature. However, one’s sense of belonging is not necessarily and often not independent of this firm sense of national belonging. Moreover, each culture always has a combination of diversity in its space and time, because it is always penetrated by other cultures. Transnationalism also involves overcoming the limits of national literatures, as well as the limits of literary science, as I show and demonstrate in the book by scientifically observing the manifestations of specific transnational American and transnational Bosnian literatures outside of their national individuality, which of course are always somehow connected to them or related to them in some way. It is very important to observe literature outside of national frameworks, because national frameworks are limited, impermeable, and incomplete.

For example?

—The many identities and entities of writers, and of their works, can be seen in various ways, either alone or in relation to one another, as the identities and entities of two or more national literatures. In short, many events in literature and life transcend the national/national framework. This is precisely the basis of the ontology of transnationalism and, therefore, of transnational literatures, i.e., their creation, production, reception, research, scope, and influence.

What was the main motivation for creating your study?

– I had many motivations to complete this research, and they are all equally important to me. I will mention at least a few. Before the publication of Literature Without Borders, there had not been a single scholarly book that systematically, detailedly, and concretely dealt with transnational literature in Bosnia and Herzegovina. She is a pioneer and revolutionary in this field, making an original contribution to the scientific discourse on transnational literature in the United States, and to contemporary literature in general. In Bosnian literary science, especially in its center, the dominant and canonical remains national and ethnic, but Bosnian and Herzegovinian literature itself has long been transnational in multiple ways. Moreover, the fact that Bosnia and Herzegovina has not only become more, but has long been a country of immigrants, so that numerous writers and their books have multiple electronic/immigrant identities associated with them. . I also wanted to create a book without borders, not only in the sense of borderless, free-thinking truth-telling, not yielding to anyone or anything, which is how scientific words should be, but also in the sense that it is an open, dialogical, multidimensional book that repeatedly crosses the boundaries and limits of the possibilities of a book’s field. Books can do a lot of things, they just need to be read first. I have tried to write it in a way that is simple and understandable and I hope will also be interesting to a wider audience. It would be easy to write complicated and that is not my intention.

You mentioned immigrant identity. In what ways does immigrant literature address this?

– There are many writers from Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina in general, but also former citizens of the former Yugoslavia, who in various ways and under different circumstances, and the causes of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as refugees, exiles/expiles, immigrants, and those who found themselves in another country at the beginning of the war, or in any other war or post-war migration way, continued to live and/or became citizens of another country. Thus, more or less, they also became immigrants – immigrants who developed their identity in simultaneous contact with two or more cultures, societies, countries. Our modern era is very prone to various types of forced migration, whether they are related to the living (more precisely, dying) reality of Bosnia and Herzegovina after Dayton, characterized by decades of war tensions, whether they are related to the current specific wars, the situation in Gaza, Ukraine, Syria and around the world, and many other reasons. The awareness and cognition of all this is perhaps best expressed in transnational literature, and literary books are also a kind of documentation of reality. In their own way, they represent everything, for example, the blind spots of historical documents.

Some of the writers discussed moved from one place to another at some point, but the reasons for these moves varied widely, as did the ways in which they incorporated this experience into their work. What impact do you think they had on the literary culture of the countries they visited?

– First of all, the influence is visible only for those writers who have managed to achieve this in such a visible way. Speaking of how they achieve this, I am reminded of the words of Vladimir Brik, the narrator and protagonist of the novel “The Lazarus Project” by Aleksandar Hemon, who explains it as a combination of desperation and luck. Of course, all of these are talented and skilled writers, but I think it may be the case that some are not recognized in the literary culture and society in which they live, who have not experienced success, happiness, good experiences. and positive situations. Then, they and their influence are invisible. However, there is no doubt that through their literature and books, as well as their own identity, they can transnationally influence and impact the literary culture of the countries they visit, regardless of what nationality or citizenship they have.

How does comparative literature relate to world literature? How does it relate to transnational determinants? It is impossible to read all books written in their original languages, but here we come to the question of the importance of translation, which is also transnational. How do you see the role of translation in shaping the poetics of an author?

– For example, comparatist Rebecca Walkowitz observes that the concept of books is no longer that their existence refers to only one literary system, but that they exist individually in various different literary systems in the world. She adds that contemporary literature is “in many ways comparative literature: works circulate in several literary systems at the same time and can – one would say, should be read in several national traditions”. I completely agree with her and with the view that this is true. It is at this point that you can find the answer to the question of how comparative literature, transnational literature, and world literature “relate” to each other. As for literary translation, yes – it has a transnational dimension. Literature can be said to circulate in the nervous system of world literature through translation, and it is also one of the ways in which the transnational complements, completes, and expands national literatures.

Translated by our writers

To clarify the latter, use the concrete example of transnational Bosnian literature and its creators: literary translations, for example, the literary works translated from English by Aleksandar Hemon, in which he initially wrote and published his books for a long time, and the works of Ismet Prčić, and then from Italian, Elvira Mujčić, in which she initially wrote and published her books; from German, Saša Stanišić, in which he initially wrote and published his books; from French, Velibor Čolić, in which he initially wrote and published books mainly; Alen Mešković, who initially wrote and published in Danish, and other languages, making their books available in the Bosnian literary system. Their entry into the native language of Bosnia and Herzegovina literature, as well as post-Yugoslav literature, was achieved through the translation of their non-native books, in which they initially wrote and published books, into other national literary systems, rather than Bosnian. Therefore, the role of translation in shaping the poetics of the authors is transnational.

You said at the beginning that this study was just the beginning of your research on “Literature without Borders” and by no means the end, and at the end you said that you had written a book that you yourself wanted to read. What can we expect from you about future literature?

– I always do a lot, a lot, but due to numerous life-work obligations and obligations, I always lack time to do what I most want to devote to the part of my life’s career that is related to scientific research work. However, all this is inextricably linked to my life choices. To paraphrase Dubravka Ugrešić, I earn money for a broom, I earn money on my own, I fly alone. By the way, I read more than I write, but I think it should be so. What I can announce is that soon my new monograph will be published by the University Press. In it, I give a comparative treatment of the collection of novels “Dublin”. James Joyce’s work, which this year marks the 110th anniversary of its first publication, and a collection of stories, or the novel Winesburg, Ohio Sherwood Anderson.One of the aims and intentions of this book is to show due attention to those relatively neglected and therefore marginalised ‘Dubliners’. The place and reputation of James Joyce in Irish and world literature, and the place and fame of his later literary works, as well as Sherwood Anderson himself and his Winesburg, Ohio, have been unfairly neglected and overshadowed by the figures and works of later modernists, and thus marginalized in American and world literature. But now, more than anything, I look forward not to my book, but to the publication of the late Zvonimir Radeljković’s book Brave New World: Essays in American Literature in the Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries, also published by the University Press. The book is co-edited by his son, Ivan Radeljković, professor of literature at the University, Sanja Šoštarić, professor of literature at the University, and myself, all of whom were his former students, later colleagues, and lifelong friends. I dedicate my book Literature Without Borders to Professor Radeljković and to my husband and children. I will not talk about what else is expected of me in the future. I want to keep this secret to myself for now, only because I have many wishes and plans, and I hope that life will not in any sense prevent me from realizing them. Besides, I don’t like pomp and noise in anything. Paradoxically, in today’s world, the most valuable reputations often go to those who have the loudest voices but often have nothing to say. I am not keeping up with today’s world. It seems to me that neither are you when you devote so much space and attention to my words. Thank you!