Skip to main content
Dubravka Ugresic dies aged 73
FIONA O’CONNOR calls attention to the achievement of a great Yugoslav exponent of intelligent, fearless humanitarianism
FEARLESS: Dubravka Ugresic, Netherlands 1992

ATTENTION deficit often follows the passing of the foremost women writers. 

In the case of Dubravka Ugresic, who died last month, under-appreciation of her brilliance was a constant through much of her life. Published in over 20 languages, Ugresic’s repertoire of novels, essays, short stories, and counter-cultural forms deserve to make her a household name. She is also a historical figure, a key observer of the Eastern and central European fragmentation still unfolding.

Born in Yugoslavia in 1949, Ugresic experienced a childhood limited in Western-style stimulations – children, for instance, made their own ragdolls in the former Yugoslavia as the factories focused on more important production. Through this lack, Ugresic formed a taste for literature under the supervision of her local librarian, who saw no reason a child should not enter imaginary domains such as Kafka’s Metamorphosis. 

Take out shares in the People's Press
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
A civilian casualty of war in Iraq lost both legs
Books / 14 April 2025
14 April 2025
A uncomfortably misogynistic authorial voice that sometimes seems to lack insight troubles FIONA O’CONNOR
A GREAT TEACHER: Fredric Jameson speaking at the Brazilian c
Books / 18 February 2025
18 February 2025
FIONA O’CONNOR recommends an accessible and entertaining survey of post-war French philosophy and its relation to contemporary capitalism
The four new tower blocks built around Deansgate Square domi
Book Review / 12 December 2024
12 December 2024
FIONA O’CONNOR admires a collection that is a riposte to the armies of developers, estate agents, private capital speculators and their marketeers
POACHER TURNED GAMEKEEPER? Jess Phillips MP holds the Sue Gr
Books / 5 September 2024
5 September 2024
FIONA O’CONNOR examines a new book by Labour’s media-savvy MP and new Under-Secretary of State for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls
Similar stories
LOVE IN SWASTIKA’S SHADOW: Summer 1932 in Mecklenburg; Pro
Book Review / 3 September 2024
3 September 2024
LEIGH WILSON applauds the new translation of a novel from 1932 that is a hymn to values inimical to the forces that were growing in Germany in the early 1930s
AGAINST BRAINWASHING: (L) Magdalen Laundry in Ireland, early
Appreciation / 6 August 2024
6 August 2024
FIONA O’CONNOR treasures the work of Edna O’Brien for the depth of evocation of psychologies, desires and losses among ordinary lives
Soyinka, at Festivaletteratura in Mantua, 7 September 2019,
Culture / 16 July 2024
16 July 2024
ABAYOMI AWELEWA celebrates AKINWANDE OLUWOLE SOYINKA, the legendary African author whose work shows the powerful role of the arts in challenging oppression, advocating for justice and inspiring social change
ART EVERYWHERE: A mural by GDR artist Martin Schmidt on the
Book Review / 23 May 2024
23 May 2024
JENNY FARRELL welcomes that rare thing - an authentic account of life East Germany that is both gripping as a novel and politically sentient