IVAN VLADISLAVIĆ
A brief biography
Born 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 bits
Pretoria 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 sociopolitical 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