Ugresic interview

[BlogSpy]

Dubravka Ugresic's The Ministry of Pain is now out in French, and so Natalie Levisalles interviews her at Liberation, in Titonic ta mere.

More...

[Eric]

A very interesting interview.

The principal thing that struck me is what Ugresic says about the Serbo-Croat language. The Serbs and Croats don't get on well, but they and the Bosnians speak the same language, except for some 50 words. Ugresic speaks of pollution of the language by the enmity involved.

Another curiosity is the alphabet. In theory, the Serbs use Cyrilllic, the Croats the Latin alphabet. But Ugresic points out that some Serbs continue to use the Latin alphabet, and that the younger generation of Croats cannot even read the Cyrillic one. In Yugoslav times, you learnt both.

The interview continues on the subject of exile. Ugresic lives in Amsterdam.