Mostar Spring 2025.
Gloria Lujanović's School - a story about peer violence in which we all recognize ourselves
The penultimate literary program was also organized at the Mostar Spring, and it is the latest, third one.
a book by writer and journalist Glorija Lujanović, a novel in verse, or rather a poem, School,
presented at the Queen Katarina Kosača Gallery. In addition to the author, the program also included Ivan
Vukoja, Dragan Komadina, Anita Milićević and Misijana Brkić-Milinković.
As the author herself pointed out, it is a novel in verses, that is, a poem that thematizes the peerage
violence in the main character's primary school education.
– Writing this book was quite exciting and at times very difficult because, when you return to those
elementary school days, he realized that school was, in fact, not a place of freedom, joy, or even play, but
a dark and anxious place that people are justifiably reluctant to remember due to some traumatic and
negative experiences they had - added Gloria Lujanović, stating that this is one of her works
It was easier to write because she had experienced and lived through similar things herself.
– I know the mechanism of child abuse very well. Children have very specific and elaborate patterns
violent behavior, but I don't think it even matters whose experience is described in this book. Because, when
is a book out there, that experience is everyone's – both the one who reads it and the one who, unfortunately, finds themselves in it and
can identify with that. It is a collective experience because I don't think there is any one person who
school that she had not experienced at least a bad word, let alone something much worse - the author added.
– This is a poem designed in the form of confessional poetry, associated with the tradition of female writers such as
Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton, but without falling into ideological traps. Lujanović creates without preaching,
writing about the patriarchal world in which her lyrical subject lives – said Milićević.
– This is a large, significant and valuable book. Written in simple language, but still full of meaning. This
The book is not written from a victimist discourse. Its abusers are victims and this way of speaking is heroic.
"way of speaking," Vukoja added.
Dragan Komadina, reading some parts of the poem, as a playwright, tried to present the conflict to the audience.
that the School carries within itself, and most of all the internal conflict of the main heroine, an elementary school girl.
As stated at the very end, the book is not just a story about school, but a metaphor for the injustice of life that we all experience.
we experience, and the author herself admitted to the audience that she had long ago forgiven those children and the system.
– I am very glad that Matica hrvatska Mostar invited me to be part of Spring because this is exactly what
The Matica Branch is among the few in this country that are seriously involved in organizing such an event.
a serious cultural festival, which has been successfully running for almost three decades. And that is not at all
simply, neither financially, nor logistically, nor technically... - concluded writer Lujanović.
The poem School was published by OceanMore.
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