Genealogy and Ambivalent Attachments in the Works of Nora Verde and Marija Andrijašević

• In Event: Rethinking Yugoslav Culture II: Arrested Development in/and Contemporary Yugoslav Culture

Abstract

This paper examines forms of arrested or misaligned development inflected by class, geography, and gender in the novels My Dowry by Nora Verde (Moja dota, 2022) and The Land Without Twilight by Marija Andrijašević (Zemlja bez sutona, 2021). I examine how Split and the Dalmatian region are shown to be stuck between deindustrialization and tourism; queer deviations from normative trajectories of gendered or economic success that Sara Ahmed calls “happiness scripts;” a return to the formative site of childhood/adolescence; and the novels' connection to new developments in the regional ex-Yu literary scene/market.

Author

• Samantha Farmer, U of Michigan