A Muzzle for Witches - Dubravka Ugrešić

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A Muzzle for Witches

by
Dubravka Ugrešić

general information | review summaries | our review | links | about the author

Title:	A Muzzle for Witches
Author:	Dubravka Ugrešić
Genre:	Q & A
Written:	2023 (Eng. 2024)
Length:	133 pages
Original in:	Croatian
Availability:	A Muzzle for Witches - US
	A Muzzle for Witches - UK
	A Muzzle for Witches - Canada

	from: Bookshop.org (US)

	directly from: Open Letter

Merima Omeragić in conversation with Dubravka Ugrešić
Croatian title: Brnjica za vještice
Translated by Ellen Elias-Bursać

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Our Assessment:

B+ : a solid summa of and introduction to Ugrešić and her work

See our review for fuller assessment.

Review Summaries
Source	Rating	Date	Reviewer
Publishers Weekly	.	18/7/2024	.
World Lit. Today	.	11-12/2024	Michele Levy

From the Reviews:

"Ugrešić expresses a refreshing commitment to the “invisible” space of literature where the participation of one great reader is enough to provide fulfillment. Lovers of international literature will be energized by this bracing tonic." - Publishers Weekly

"While offering few new insights, Muzzle tersely revisits Ugrešić’s central concerns, revealing how the rawest voice of Croatia’s “witches” (so-called for their infamous antiwar positions and the public harassment that led to their exile) became internationally known despite her “muzzle.” Even in her dying, her raw, ironic voice dares women globally to weaponize theirs." - Michele Levy , World Literature Today

Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure.

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The complete review's Review:

       A Muzzle for Witches nominally presents Merima Omeragić in conversation with Dubravka Ugrešić, but this isn't your usual kind of interview, with Omeragić's questions more like general prompts and Ugrešić responding at considerable length; as Ugrešić explains in the acknowledgements, Omeragić: "shortened and simplified her questions so as to give me as much room as possible". (Ugrešić also notes that: "The editor and I gave up on categorizing this book in terms of genre -- is this a conversation, an interview, or merely an unfettered monologue of mine ? I fear it may be the third".)
       The exchange is presented in seven sections, each with a somewhat different focus but all very personal, Ugrešić speaking from and about her life and experiences, and with her work a constant reference-point. A Yugoslavian writer -- though with a Bulgarian mother, which she was teased about in childhood (in that mindless, childish way: "they had no idea what Bulgaria was, nor what 'Bulgaria girl' might mean"), pushing her to: "identify permanently with others, with Gypsies, Blacks, foreigners, Bulgarians ..." -- the break-up of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s brought about with it a resurgent local nationalism -- "the butchering of the Yugoslav cultural scene into tribal communities" -- completely antithetical to Ugrešić's outlook and ideals.
       As she notes:

Nationalism is intellectual suicide. Every nationalism tsunami brings about an appalling provincialization of culture and everyday cultural praxis.

Ugrešić observes:

Post-Yugoslav culture is based on ethnic and national divides. The posthumous smash-and-grab robbery of shared cultural property continues to this day.

       Ugrešić has always been a cosmopolitan author, and suffered greatly, professionally and personally, for not embracing the post-Yugoslav nationalism that took over in the 1990s. The horrible narrowing of the Croatian literary sphere -- mirrored by similar diminutions of Serbian, Bosnian, etc. spheres --, left no room for writers like her; instead, she and others were condemned as 'witches' (suggesting also the pathetic level of criticism levelled at them). A pervasive misogyny -- also well-addressed in the exchanges in this volume -- also contributed strongly to the intolerable situation.
       Ugrešić sees little appeal in the: "cozy nest of a national literature", where second-rate talents flourish because they write the 'right' thing; she has always been a truly inter-national author. For her, literature is the true thing, and literature can rarely and barely unfold within strict nationalist constraints. But Ugrešić also addresses the marketplace, noting the growth of popular fiction (of dubious quality) that conquers the marketplace and sells well beyond borders -- and she points out that: "traditional arbitration has disappeared and has been replaced by the far mightier arbitration of the market, behind which is masses of readers".
       Ugrešić's literary world is a smaller sliver, but always outward-looking -- truly 'world'-literature, without national boundaries. Among her observations here is also how translation expands not only the reach of a work but can expand the work itself. So, for example, she finds: "I experience the English versions of my essays as the most mine".
       With Croatia, like Hungary and far too many other countries, such a clear example of: "Call it what you like -- a neo-fascist dictatorship, a populist dictatorship, or a democratorship", Ugrešić has a good example to focus her attention on, but as she notes, populism is on the rise all over (including: "with the recent US political constellation, known as Trumpism"). Her observations and critiques resonate far beyond the Croatian borders and her own experiences, and should be of interest (and concern ...) to readers worldwide.
       The themes and issues addressed in A Muzzle for Witches will be familiar to readers of Ugrešić's fiction and, especially, her non-fiction, but the presentation here -- in loose dialogue -- and the scope of the discussions -- despite it being a fairly short book -- make for a good overview and introduction, Ugrešić getting to and making many of her main points. It's not a substitute for the rest of her work -- read that, as well ! -- but gathers and presents the essence of much of it succinctly and well.

- M.A.Orthofer, 10 September 2024

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Links:

A Muzzle for Witches:

Open Letter publicity page
Multimedijalni institut publicity page

Reviews:

Dubravka Ugrešić:

The complete review's Dubravka Ugresic page
Official site
Reading Dubravka Ugresic Through Six Selected Sentences by Matthew Goulish in Context

Other Books by Dubravka Ugresic under Review:

Other books of interest under Review:

See Index of Eastern European literature under review
See Index of Interviews, conversations, and dialogues
Other books from Open Letter under review

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About the Author:

Yugoslavia-born author Dubravka Ugrešić (1949-2023) was awarded the prestigious Heinrich Mann Prize in 2000 and the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 2016.

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