On Thursday, July 18th, at 9PM, this year’s literary programme is to be continued at the Poets’ Square. The guest for the evening will be Danka Ivanović, who will present to the audience her first novel “Empty Houses”.
Danka Ivanović graduated from the Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade- Department of Romance studies- French Language, Literature and Culture. Her master’s degree from the same area of language studies she continued at “KU” Leuven, Belgium, from where she graduated in 2015. In addition, she obtained her master’s degree in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory at the Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade. Her work experience encompasses the areas of translation, tourism and education. She is currently residing in Belgrade, where she is working on obtaining her PhD thesis in the area of literary studies. Her translations from French and also her poetry have been published in the following magazines and journals: “Polja”, “Ulaznica” (the journal tackling the topics of culture, art and societal issues), “The Belgrade Literary Magazine” and The “Literary History” Journal, as well as on websites and in the poetry collection “Tajni grad” (published by “Enklava” in 2021). “Empty Houses” is the author’s first novel.
In the preface to the novel, Milana Grbić states that what makes it come together in the end is the narrative voice of the novel’s main protagonist. She highlights that due to the author being interested in many different areas of knowledge like: philosophy, sociology and linguistics that are all present in the novel, in some of its segments it resembles the essay form. Grbić also asserts that “Empty Houses” could be considered on one side a novel about the family tragedy as the deaths of both father and uncle are what the central plot revolves around. On the other hand, however, taking into consideration that it puts into focus the artistic process itself, it can be given a label of meta-text . Even though that ,according to Grbić, all this may seem overwhelming at times-it is what makes the novel a compact whole. If one of the before-stated elements was missing, the novel wouldn’t be what it is-says Grbić. The moderator for the evening is Srđan Srdić who is a writer himself.
The ”Theatre City” Press-Office