Svetlana Velmar-Janković facts for kids
Svetlana Velmar-Janković (Serbian Cyrillic: Светлана Велмар-Јанковић born February 1, 1933 – died April 9, 2014) was an important Serbian writer. She wrote novels, essays, and stories about the city of Belgrade. She was the first woman to win the Isidora Sekulić Award. Many people thought she was one of the most important Serbian female authors of her time.
In 2001, the French President Jacques Chirac gave her a special award called the Chevalier medal of the Legion of Honour. He honored her because she always worked to keep alive "humanist values" that connect her country with the rest of Europe.
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Life and Work
Svetlana Velmar-Janković was born in Belgrade. This city stayed important to her throughout her life. She grew up in a part of Belgrade called Dorćol. Her father was Vladimir Velmar-Janković. He left Yugoslavia in 1944 during World War II.
Because of this, Svetlana and her family faced difficulties in Yugoslavia after the war. It was a hard time for them. A famous writer, Ivan Ivanji, who lived through that time, explained how difficult it was for families like Svetlana's.
That's why we've been branded all our lives.
Svetlana Velmar-Janković, 2005
When I came back from the German concentration camp, I lived as a winner. Svetlana, as a girl from a family of those who lost, suffered greatly. After the war, everything was taken from her and her family. She and her sick mother were even put out on the street in winter. Should children be blamed for what their parents did?
Ivan Ivanji, 2017
After finishing high school in 1951, Svetlana studied French language and literature at the University of Belgrade. She graduated in 1963.
In 1953, while still a student, she started working as a journalist. She wrote for youth magazines like Dečje štampe and Pioniri. From 1959 to 1975, she was an editor for the literary magazine Književnost. She also worked for the Prosveta publishing house until 1989. There, she edited a series of books called Baština (Heritage). This series included stories and essays by many Serbian writers.
Svetlana Velmar-Janković became a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts in 2006. Three years later, she became a full member. From 2007 to 2013, she led the board of directors for the National Library of Serbia.
Svetlana Velmar-Janković was married twice. Her first husband, Miodrag Protić, was a journalist. They were married for 21 years until he passed away in 1974. Their son, Đorđe (born in 1966), later moved to the United States. Her second husband was Žarko Rošulj, who worked as a graphic editor. Svetlana is buried in a special honorary grave in the Belgrade New Cemetery.
The newspaper Politika wrote about her after she passed away. They said she would always be remembered through her books. She wrote about places, people, and different generations.
I write about the past so I can see it, and I see it as I write. Remembering, which is a rediscovery, always leads us to a deeper understanding of the world. I grew up in Belgrade, and without that ground, I don't know how I would exist and live. I deal with the past of this city so that I can understand and endure its present.
Her books have been translated into many languages. These include Bulgarian, German, English, French, Hungarian, Italian, Korean, Macedonian, and Spanish. Most of her works have been published in French.
Her most famous book around the world is the novel Lagum. It has been translated into Bulgarian, English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. Lagum means a dark, underground passage, like those found under the Kalemegdan Fortress in Belgrade. The story takes place in Belgrade. It is told by Milica Pavlović, the wife of a Belgrade University professor. She shares events from her life between 1928 and 1984.
During a difficult time, Milica's husband, Dušan Pavlović, tried to help people. He worked with the Serbian government at the time. This caused problems between them. Milica also secretly hid a wounded partisan in her apartment. When the new government took power, Dušan was executed. Their apartment was taken over by neighbors. Milica was even called a traitor by people she and her husband had helped. This book shows a powerful picture of society. It looks at human weaknesses and how people act in tough political situations.
Celia Hawkesworth, who translated Lagum into English, described the book.
Lagum was written after the fall of communism in Eastern Europe. It quietly shows how human relationships change during big social changes. It connects the time before the war with the time after the war in Yugoslavia. It explores difficult questions about the war and what it meant to cooperate with the occupation. The book follows a middle-class woman whose husband was executed. After 1945, she and her two children had to live in a small part of their big apartment in Belgrade. It shows the complex misunderstandings and wrong ideas that come from social divisions and revolution.
For the last 30 years of her life, Svetlana Velmar-Janković was a respected figure in Serbian literature. She also spoke out bravely for democracy and human rights. She believed in humanism and European values. She was a member of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
She spoke during the 1991 protests at the start of the conflicts in Yugoslavia.
These protests should have started much earlier, when the first shots were heard and when attacks on people and towns began. I am afraid that it already too late. Still, let us not allow them reduce us to their subjects who have become malicious, let us strengthen the better side of our personality, let us continue to walk and to support each other!
She also spoke about the Srebrenica massacre.
I can only say that once again the opportunity to clearly condemn what has been done to Non-Serbs, thousands of human beings in Srebrenica, has been missed to have the moral right to speak tomorrow about what to the Serbian population happened in the 1990s. If we refuse to face the horror of the violent deaths committed ten years ago, how will we fight for the truth in the world?
Her Books
- Ožiljak (Scar), 1956
- Lagum (Dungeon), 1990
- Bezdno (Bottomless), 1995
- Nigdina (Nowhere), 2000
- Vostanije (Uprising), 2004
Essays
- Savremenici (Contemporaries), 1967
- Ukletnici (Cursed Ones), 1993
- Izabranici (Chosen Ones), 2005
- Srodnici (Kinfolk), 2013
Memoirs
- Prozraci (Ventilation), 2003 and 2015 (second part, published after her death)
Short Stories and Narrations
- Dorćol, 1981
- Vračar, 1994
- Glasovi (Voices), 1997
- Knjiga za Marka (Book for Marko), children's literature, 1998
- Očarane naočare: priče o Beogradu (Spellbound Spectacles: Stories About Belgrade), 2006
- Sedam mojih drugara (Seven of my Friends), 2007
- Zapisi sa dunavskog peska (Danube Sand Records), 2016 (published after her death)
Monograph
- Kapija Balkana: brzi vodič kroz prošlost Beograda (Gate of the Balkans: Quick Guide Through Belgrade's History), 2011
Theatre Plays
- Žezlo (Sceptre, includes Stefan Dečanski and Prince Mihailo), 2011
- Knez Mihailo, first shown at Yugoslav Drama Theatre, 1996
- Lagum, adapted for stage by Gordana Gocić, first shown at Atelje 212, 1995
English Editions
- Dungeon (Lagum), translated by Celia Hawkesworth, Dereta and UCL, Belgrade and London 1996.
Awards and Honors
- Isidora Sekulić Award 1967 for Savreminici
- Andrić Award 1981 for Dorćol
- Meša Selimović Award 1990 for Lagum
- Award for the most read book of the National Library of Serbia 1991: Lagum
- Borisav Stanković Award 1994 for Vračar
- Đorđe Jovanović Award 1994 for Vračar
- NIN Award 1995 for Bezdno
- Neven Award 1998 for Knjiga za Marka
- Politikin Zabavnik Award 1998 for Knjiga za Marka
- Mišićev dukat 2001 for her life's work
- Legion of Honor (Chevalier medal) 2001
- Ramonda Serbika Award 2002
- Stefan Mitrov Ljubiša Award 2002 for her literary life achievement
- Award from Udruženje Beogradjana “6. april 1941” for all her writings about Belgrade, 2007
- Gordana Todorović Award for life work of women writers 2008
See also
In Spanish: Svetlana Velmar-Janković para niños
