Memory, Migration and Social Gender Structures in Rumena Bužarovska’s 'I’m Not Going Anywhere'

• In Event: Away from Home: Memories and Echoes of Yugoslavia in Post-Yugoslav Prose Portraying Exile

Abstract

This paper analyzes how Rumena Bužarovska’s I’m Not Going Anywhere (2018) employs the themes of migration, memory, patriarchal structures, societal stagnation and tensions between staying in North Macedonia and leaving this country, which struggles with the post-transitional effects after the dissolution of Yugoslavia. While some protagonists choose to remain in North Macedonia, reminiscing about its seemingly “better” Yugoslav past, others leave in search of solace abroad. Bužarovska foregrounds the psychological and social dimensions of migration, which can be understood as a form of existential exile, while critically examining women’s positionality and the implicit ways patriarchal structures shape interpersonal relationships.

Author

• Gala Naseva, U of Graz (Austria)