An online lecture by professor Hariz Halilovich

RMIT University Melbourne

Friday December 18 2020 at 10 am CET

“Home is where somebody notices when you are no longer there.”

Aleksandar Hemon, The Lazarus Project

War, displacement, and migration have been the theme in the creative works of many Bosnian writers and other artists and their lived experiences. Bosnian artists shared the destiny of their fellow compatriots; many got killed and became refugees in the 1990s. Some of them were children when they fled and grew up to become writers in the countries they settled in. Today, a distinct body of literature is created in the Bosnian diaspora. This literature often influences the perceptions of Bosnians in their adopted countries and the country they come from. As Eva Hoffman, a German writer, points out, the literature of exile has often acted as a deep bridge across geographical borders, cultural mentalities, and ideological divides. The literature written by the Bosnian writers in the diaspora has created and continues to generate many such symbolic bridges.

To fully appreciate the Bosnian ‘exile literature,’ it is essential to engage not only with the what? Of their works—i.e. the themes of the fictional narratives described—but also with the questions, why? And how? The answers are often to be found in the realm of the real: the life stories of the authors and the contexts in which their works of fiction were created. Their vision mirrors the Bosnian diasporic realities in a profound, ethnographic way. It creates an ‘in–between space’, which serves as both an intimate refuge (home away from home) and an open platform—for dialogue, resistance and reflection. In this lecture, I’d like to take you on a metaphorical journey through the Bosnian diaspora by discussing several Bosnian writers and the literary works they created.

Hariz Halilovich is a Professor of Anthropology at the Social and Global Studies Centre, RMIT University, Melbourne. His research has focused on place-based identity politics, politically motivated violence, forced migration, memory studies, and human rights. His publications include the books Places of Pain: Forced Displacement, Popular Memory and Trans-local Identities in Bosnian War–torn Communities (2013/2015); Writing After Srebrenica (2017); and Monsters of Modernity: Global Icons for Our Critical Condition (co-authored with Julian C.H. Lee et al.) (2019). In addition to academic writing, he has produced multimedia exhibitions, works of fiction, and radio and TV programs. In 2001, he won the First Prize at the Australian National Writing Awards (in the Short Story category).