Ivan Vladislavic
(Pretoria, South Africa, 1957) lives in Johannesburg where he works as a writer, journalist and editor. He has been awarded various prizes for his literary work, which includes amongst others his collection of short stories Missing Persons (1989) and his novel The Folly (1993) His most recent and well received book The Restless Supermarket (2001), is a slightly surrealistic story about a conservative, retired proofreader who has dedicated his life to reading phonebooks. The Dutch translation of this book (De rusteloze supermarkt) will be presented during the Winternachten festival.
WIN2005
Share this page
Archive available for: Ivan Vladislavic
-
Forbidden words in South Africa
What happens when language controls the course of events? When a zoo as a result of wrong spelling suddenly is no longer a zoo? The South African writer Ivan Vladislavic describes such a situation in his novel The Restless Supermarket, of which the Dutch translation appears this evening. His fellow countryman Troy Blacklaws wrote the novel Karoo Boy, about the coming of age of a boy in apartheid South Africa.
The authors discuss with Michaël Zeeman aspects of their work and words that are considered taboo. They will talk about concepts and ideas that were taboo during the apartheid but are not anymore, and vice versa.
English spoken.
