Böcker av Srđ

Research analyzes discursive meanings of ethno-religious street graffiti, and consummation and reception of their texts and contextual messages in Banja Luka, once a military, and nowadays a political center of ¿RS¿ (¿Republic of Srpskä). Ethno-religious graffiti are inflammable form of street art whose narrative contain prevailing national and religious features, themes and myths of new-Serbian pop-nationalistic meta-narratives of 1990¿s. In today¿s post-war and post-genocidal context of ¿RS¿ they are true ethno-fascistic hate speeches, but also a form of street postproduction of dominant official memory narratives, identitarian practices and ethno-exclusivism of the Serbian ethno-political elite in BiH (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Belgrade. By emphasizing ethnic and religious differences, new-Serbian ethno-exclusivism and racial or religion elitism, by glorifying war crimes and war successes or by hating ¿others¿, these graffiti aggressively produce visibility of ¿our stories¿, in such a powerful way that they produce discursive invisibility, auto-censorship and oblivion of ¿others¿.

Sr¿an Srdi¿'s collection of short stories, Combustions, establishes this author's position as one of the best prose writers in Serbia and across the region. This book consists of nine stories in which the author brings the reader face to face with the seamy side of everyday life, where, somewhere in the province, hopelessness and despair of the endless Balkan transition meet one another in the most radical way. Devoid of illusions of social engagement and narrative tricks, Srdi¿ linguistically demolishes the present and its numerous platitudes, either liberal or conservative, with which we have been overwhelmed for years, to the extent that we can no longer discern the depth of the twilight zone in which we live. Srdi¿'s stories are linguistically flawless, authentic and emblematically recognizable. The ironic distance that Srdi¿ uses to talk about his characters, which are often socially marginalized and in disproportion to self-perception, combined with exquisite attention to detail, associativity and a number of intertextual references, makes this collection of short stories a genuine masterpiece, which uncompromisingly brings into light the bizarre quality of contemporary life.