IVAN VLADISLAVIĆ

A brief biographyBorn in Pretoria in 1957

The name is Croatian – his paternal grandparents were Croatian immigrants

Of Irish and English descent on mother’s side

Majored in English and Afrikaans at Wits

After university: worked as a translator, then in advertising, then in publishing (Ravan Press)

Since worked as a novelist and editor based in Johannesburg

The relevant bitsPretoria and Joburg feature in most of his work – it is deeply place-specific

He has always been drawn to Eastern European and Irish writing

Studying Afrikaans was influential to his writing

First published in Stet, a literary magazine run by the academics in the department at Wits

Work as an editor helped shape his awareness of language, as well as the publishing world in SA

Brought him into contact with writers such Antjie Krog and Nadine Gordimer

Vladislavić’s writing Postmodern – employing especially techniques of fragmentation and paradox

Influenced by Afrikaans writers of the 1970s as well as American writers first exploring postmodernism

Often situated in observations of Johannesburg

Also references and explores art and architecture

Not overtly political, but uses narrative and description to investigate/comment on the socio-political situation of SA

Not strictly journalistic - mostly fictionalised accounts of the real

Bibliography Missing Persons, 1989. Collection of short stories. Won Olive Schreiner Prize.The Folly, 1993. Novel. Won CNA Literary Award.Propaganda by Monuments, 1996. Collection of short stories. Won Thomas Pringle Prize. The Restless Supermarket, 2001. Novel. Won Sunday Times Fiction Prize.The Exploded View, 2004. Novel in four parts.Willem Boshoff, 2005. Extended essay.Portrait with Keys, 2006. Series of short texts. Won Alan Paton Award for nonfiction.Double Negative, 2011. Novel. Won University of Johannesburg Prize.Flashback Hotel: Early Stories, 2011. Collection of short stories.The Loss Library, 2011. Collection of stories and essays.

Vladislavić has also contributed essays to many collections and journals, as well edited extensively for South African publications

The way in Portrait with Keys - winner of Alan Paton Award for Nonfiction 2007

WRITING PROCESS

CONTENT

STRUCTURE

LITERARY TECHNIQUES

Writing process “I quite often work with happy coincidence.”

Walks the routes of his characters, experiencing what they would. Aubrey Tearle: pg 37

“I’m walking around with my eyes wide open, taking in everything like a vacuum cleaner, coughing up bits of it on paper. But I never bother to get the facts.”

“I’m a great keeper of notebooks. So, I have notebooks containing scraps and fragments of things from ten and fifteen years ago. I use these notebooks as a resource. I’m constantly going through them to find ideas.”

Works slowly, collecting pieces of writing over many years, to be used eventually when relevant. Portrait with Keys, published 2006, begins with scenes dating back to 1998.

“Whenever I experienced some discomfort, it was a sign to me that I was probably on the right track.”

Content The story of a place:

“Just spending a day in the city is to be pushed, literally hour by hour, between exhilaration that you live in such an exciting, dynamic place where there's so much potential, and complete despair that things haven't changed, or that there are so many basic problems.”

“I am unequivocally grateful and relieved that we live in a transforming society. But I would like to be living in a society that’s somewhat more transformed than it is.”

Looks to Dickens as the master of writing about cities: “Long before he invented London, Dickens knew that cities exist primarily so that we can walk around in them.” pg 53

Excerpt 1:

Excerpt 2:

Excerpt 3:

Excerpt 3 continued:

Structure Breakdown: Short passages of writing, sometimes related, often not. Short sentences, description, dialogue

Time: begins far before the publishing date, tracks transformation in some ways

Tense: Skips between present and past, often within a passage

Characters: Authorial “I”. Trustworthy narrator? Other consistent characters include family, friends, neighbours. Brother Branko, partner Minky

Literary techniques“I’ve always been drawn to the intricate details of language.”

Creating familiarity: street names, landmarks, colloquial references

Effective comparisons, rhythm and alliteration:

“I have fallen like a drunkard over the guy-ropes of their conversation, jerking them both towards me.” pg16

“…they chiselled the Madonna of Eleanor Street off the wall, leaving behind a patch of white plaster as clear as a conscience in the cream-coloured paintwork.” pg 23

“For a moment, the shell of a city was pressed to my ears.” pg 18

Value in Vladislavić The power of observation and description

Compelling dialogue, sparse and carefully selected

Role of notebooks: mining your own mind for ideas

Defamiliarising the everyday in order to notice it again, resisting clichéd stories

Writing situated somewhere on the continuum between fact and fiction

Portrait with Keys: Part journalistic observation, part memoir

Thoughts on writing “In any event, I’ve come to think that we too often draw too clear a distinction between realism and its counter-strains.”

“Writing about the obvious images isn’t the problem: it’s being able to write about them in an interesting, fresh way.”

“Writers need to pursue their own course, rather than simply responding to perceived social needs or political pressures.”

Source list “Interview with Ivan Vladislavic”. Christopher Warnes. MFS Modern Fiction Studies, Volume 46, Number 1, Spring 2000, pp. 273-281. The John Hopkins University Press.

“An Interview with Ivan Vladislavić”. Ivan Vladislavić, Mike Marais and Carita Backström. English in Africa , Vol. 29, No. 2 (Oct., 2002), pp. 119-128

“Ivan Vladislavic”. Ruth Harris and Jansie Kotze. Published on Litnet: http://www.oulitnet.co.za/nosecret/vlad.asp

Portrait with Keys. Ivan Vladislavic, 2006. Umuzi: Houghton, South Africa.

The Exploded View. Ivan Vladislavic, 2004. Random House: Johannesburg.

Marginal Spaces: Reading Ivan Vladislavic. Gerald Gaylard, ed. 2011. Wits University Press: Johannesburg.

IVAN VLADISLAVIĆ