Izvještaj s događaja: Andrej Blatnik, "Trg oslobođenja"

WRITTEN BY: Nenad Kostić

The beginning of the first day of the ninth Bookstan festival was marked by the presentation of the novel ‘Trg oslobođenja’, by the Slovenian author Andrej Blatnik, in the pleasant space of Atelier Figure, starting at 11 a.m. In front of a large interested audience, the talk itself was announced with music and then with the recitation of a poem by a Palestinian poet called 'Palestinian Streets'. Then the moderator of the conversation and the translator of the novel, Jagna Pogačnik, announced the author himself.

The conversation started with a story about the acquaintance of the author and the translator, how long they have known each other and worked together on the translation of his books. One of the first questions was whether this is a generational novel about a generation in Slovenia, during the transition after the demonstrations, as well as whether the author himself participated in them. They also touched on the question of whether this novel should be read in a generational key and whether younger generations will understand it. The author pointed out that his novel intrigued the audience in Germany when it was translated and published there. The conversation turned to whether this is one of the author's most personal novels. Blatnik pointed out that it certainly is and that at a time when today's literature turns to intimate worlds, in this novel he turned to the public, which is certainly a departure from his earlier works in which he also turned to internal events and worlds. The moderator touched on Blatnik's fragmentary nature, which is characteristic of him given that he is primarily a writer of short stories, and which he used in this novel as well.

Then followed a conversation about the mythologizing of the eighties and nineties in the Balkans, which the author skilfully avoids in the novel. As the author states, this novel originally began as a story that later expanded into the idea of ​​a generational novel after 1988 in Slovenia. As we learn, he got the idea for the theme of the novel after reading the novel ‘U Elvisovoj sobi’ by Sebastijan Pregelj.

The moderator also referred to the numerous references that the author uses in the novel, and she put a special focus on the musical references, which are very important and interesting to the author. She referred to the passive literary hero in the novel as well as the enterprising and more dominant literary heroine. The question arose as to how many authors there are in the novel, where Blatnik explained that the love story is fictional and the family relationships in the novel are based on true relationships from the author's life.

Finally, the moderator referred to the importance of literary festivals and asked the author for his opinion on it. He pointed out that it is very important that we have international festivals where we can meet authors from other countries and different linguistic and literary areas. Pogačnik invited the audience to follow the festival program for the next three days, after which the author signed books and talked to people. You can find the novel in the Buybook bookstore starting today.

Photo © Raisa Šehu