Ivan Vladislavic – författare

In the spring of 1970, a Pretoria schoolboy, Joe, becomes obsessed with Muhammad Ali. He begins collecting daily newspaper clippings about him, a passion that grows into an archive of scrapbooks. Forty years later, when Joe has become a writer, these scrapbooks become the foundation for a memoir of his childhood. When he calls upon his brother, Branko, for help uncovering their shared past, meaning comes into view in the spaces between then and now, growing up and growing old, speaking out and keeping silent.

Ivan Vladislavic är en oerhört sofistikerad författare. J.M. Coetzee I sin vilsna ungdom tillbringar Neville Lister en heldag med fotografen Saul Auerbach. Från en kulle ovanför Johannesburg väljer de ut tre hus och bestämmer sig för att knacka på för att leta efter berättelser. Auerbachs foton från de två första husen blir berömda porträtt, men sedan försvinner ljuset och kanske även intresset. Neville söker upp det tredje huset först flera decennier senare, efter att han återvänt till ett Sydafrika på andra sidan apartheid, nu själv fotograf. Han hittar sin berättelse. Frågan är vad ska han göra med den. I Dubbla negativ närmar sig den sydafrikanske författaren Ivan Vladislavic´ sitt lands omvälvande närhistoria genom tre nedslag i en vanlig människas liv. Resultatet är ett mångfacetterat porträtt av en stad och dess befolkning, men också en betraktelse om vem som ser och vem som blir sedd. Och om perspektiv i ordets alla bemärkelser. Ivan Vladislavic´ föddes 1957 i Pretoria men bor sedan länge i Johannesburg. Han har givit ut tolv böcker i olika genrer och är flerfaldigt pris­belönt för sitt skrivande. Sedan tidigare finns romanerna Snabbköpet Rastlös och Spräng­­skissen översatta till svenska. Dubbla negativ skrevs ursprungligen som en del i ett samarbetsprojekt med fotografen David Goldblatt, men är en helt fristående roman.

In the wake of apartheid, the flotsam of the divided past flows over Johannesburg and settles, once the tides recede, around Ivan Vladislavic, who, patrolling his patch, surveys the changed cityscape and tries to convey for us the nature and significance of those changes. He roams over grassy mine-dumps, sifting memories, picking up the odd glittering item here and there, before everything of value gets razed or locked away behind one or other of the city's fortifications. For this is now a city of alarms, locks and security guards, a frontier place whose boundaries are perpetually contested, whose inhabitants are 'a tribe of turnkeys'. Vladislavic, this clerk of mementoes, stands still, watches and writes – and his astonishing city comes within our reach.A classic from a writer who knows – and loves – his fractured, fractious city from the inside out, bearing comparison with Suketu Mehta's MAXIMUM CITY, Orhan Pamuk's ISTANBUL and Joseph Brodsky's WATERMARK.

“Not writing is always a relief and sometimes a pleasure. Writing about what cannot be written, by contrast, is the devil’s own job.”In this unusual text, a blend of essay, fiction, and literary genealogy, South African novelist Ivan Vladislavic explores the problems and potentials of the fictions he could not bring himself to write. Drawing from his notebooks of the past twenty years, Vladislavic records here a range of ideas for stories—unsettled accounts, he calls them, or case studies of failure—and examines where they came from and why they eluded him. In the process, he reveals some of the principles that matter to him as a writer, and pays tribute to the writers— such as Walser, Perec, Sterne, and DeLillo—who have been important to him as both a reader and an author. At the heart of the text, like a brightly lit room in a field of debris, stands Vladislavic’s Loss Library itself, the shelves laden with books that have never been written. On the page, Vladislavic tells us, every loss may yet be recovered. An extraordinary book about both the nature of novels and the process of writing, The Loss Library will appeal to anyone seeking to understand the almost magical and mythical experience of breathing life into a new work of fiction. Praise for Vladislavic “In the tradition of Elias Canetti, a tour de force of the imagination.”—André Brink “The prose is stunning. It gives the impression of the words and the phrases having been caught from the inside—as though the author lives on the other side of language, where every word is strange and dancing, and the way they are put together produces complicated patterned exchanges like minuets.”—Tony Morphet

In 2022 Wits University Press marked its centenary, making it the oldest, most established university press in sub-Saharan Africa. While in part modelled on scholarly publishers from the global North, it has had to contend with the constraints of working under global South conditions: marginalisation within the university, budgetary limitations, small local markets, unequal access to international sales channels, and the privileging of English language publishing over indigenous languages. This volume explores what the Press has achieved, and what its modes of reinvention might look like. In widening and deepening our understanding of the Press as an example of a global South scholarly publisher, this volume asks how publishing can contribute to a broader understanding of Southern knowledge production. Featuring contributions from scholars, publishers and authors this multi-voiced volume showcases the history of the Press’s publishing activities over 100 years: from documenting its evolution through book covers and giving credence to some of the leading black intellectuals and writers of the early 20th century and the success of those works in spite of their authors’ racial marginalisation, to the role of women, both in publishing and in the spaces afforded to women’s writing on the Press’s list. The collection concludes with essays by contemporary authors who detail not only their experiences of working with Southern publishers, but also the politics and influences governing their decisions to choose the Press over a Northern publisher. Publishing from the South shows the strategies deployed by the Press to professionalise Southern knowledge making, and in the process demonstrating how university presses in the global South support the scholarly missions of their universities for both local and global audiences.

In the wake of apartheid, the flotsam of the divided past flows over Johannesburg and settles, once the tides recede, around Ivan Vladislavic, who, patrolling his patch, surveys the changed cityscape and tries to convey for us the nature and significance of those changes. He roams over grassy mine-dumps, sifting memories, picking up the odd glittering item here and there, before everything of value gets razed or locked away behind one or other of the city's fortifications. For this is now a city of alarms, locks and security guards, a frontier place whose boundaries are perpetually contested, whose inhabitants are 'a tribe of turnkeys'. Vladislavic, this clerk of mementoes, stands still, watches and writes - and his astonishing city comes within our reach. This is for readers who want to put their faith in a writer who knows - and loves - his city from the inside out, bearing comparison with Suketu Mehta's Maximum City, Orhan Pamuk's Istanbul and Joseph Brodsky's Watermark.

Dropout Neville Lister accompanies acclaimed photographer Saul Auerbach for a day, to learn a lesson for life. They play a game: from a hill above Johannesburg they pick three houses and decide to knock on their doors in search of a story. Auerbach’s images of the first two will become classic portraits, but soon the light fades. Lister only reaches the third house decades later, returning to post-apartheid South Africa and a Johannesburg altered almost beyond recognition. How to live when estranged from your birthplace? What do you lose when you are no longer lost?Double Negative is a subtle triptych that captures the ordinary life of Neville Lister during South Africa’s extraordinary revolution. Ivan Vladislavić lays moments side by side like photographs on a table. He lucidly portrays a city and its many lives through reflections on memory, art and what we should really be looking for.

It is 1993, and Aubrey Tearle’s world is shutting down. He has recently retired from a lifetime of proofreading telephone directories. His favourite neighbourhood haunt in Johannesburg, the Café Europa, is about to close its doors; the familiar old South Africa is already gone. Standards, he grumbles, are in decline, so bad-tempered, conservative Tearle embarks on a grandiose plan to enlighten his fellow citizens. The results are disastrous, hilarious and poignant.A classic novel about the post-apartheid era, brimming with surprising perspectives, urban satire, riotous imagery and outrageous wordplay. Vladislavić’s tour de force was awarded the South African Sunday Times Fiction Prize.

What kind of Detective am I? Eardrum or tympanum? Gullet or aesophagus? Pussy or pudenda? A Detective needs a language almost as much as a language needs a Detective.In this new collection of stories, award-winning author Ivan Vladislavić invites readers to do some detective work of their own. Each story can be read as just that – a story – or you can dig a little deeper. Take a closer look, examine the artefact from all angles, and consider the clues and patterns concealed within.Whether skewering extreme marketing techniques or constructing dystopian parallel universes; whether mourning a mother’s loss or tracing a translator’s on-stage breakdown, Vladislavić’s pitch-perfect inquisitions will make you question your own language – how it defines you, and how it undoes you.

Mr and Mrs Malgas are going quietly about their lives when a mysterious squatter appears on the vacant plot next to their home. Arriving with portmanteau in hand and a head full of extraordinary ideas, the stranger at once begins to fashion tools and cutlery from old iron and rubbish. Soon he enlists Mr Malgas’s help: drawn in by the stranger's conviction, Mr Malgas clears the land, all the while struggling to catch sight of the grand mansion that is supposedly springing up around them. His vision, however, continues to fail him - until, one day, it doesn't. When The Folly appeared in South Africa in 1993, with its story of the seductive and dangerous illusions language can breed, it was read as an evocative allegory of the rise and fall of apartheid. Vladislavić’s remarkable first novel is sure to strike new chords for contemporary readers.

Ivan Vladislavic's latest collection of short stories exemplifies the sly wit and formal innovation that have gained him international acclaim.

Im Sommer 1971 begeistert sich der zwölfjährige Joe für den größten Sportler aller Zeiten und entwickelt eine Sammelwut, die nur nachempfinden kann, wer selbst einmal ein echter Fan war. Er trägt alles über das Ausnahmetalent Cassius Clay alias Muhammad Ali zusammen. Für diese Obsession hat Joes älterer Bru-der Branko kein Verständnis: Der Kleine ist weder sportlich begabt noch sonst besonders lebenstüchtig – verschlingt dafür aber fünf Bücher pro Tag.Vierzig Jahre später bittet Joe seinen Bruder, sich die alten Notizbücher voller Zeitungsartikel noch einmal gemeinsam vorzunehmen. Es beginnt eine De-tektivarbeit, die die Familiengeschichte im Südafrika der siebziger Jahre ebenso rekonstruiert wie die unzähligen Legenden, die sich um Muhammad Ali ranken. Ali, der das Sportmarketing und das Spiel mit den Medien quasi erfindet, der Boxer, der dichtet, provoziert und sich als Black Muslim engagiert – Vladislavic´ schreibt eine Hommage an den großen, bis heute wirkmächtigen Dissidenten des Sports und einen Roman über die Liebe zweier ungleicher Brüder und die trügerische Erinnerung an die entscheidenden Jahre.

Südafrika: Für viele ein Sehnsuchtsort von magischer Anziehungskraft. Doch seit dem Ende der Apartheid macht das Land eine schwierige Phase durch. Mauern, Stacheldraht und Zäune zerteilen Johannesburg, seine heimliche Hauptstadt. Soziale Differenzen und wild wuchernde Siedlungen sprengen die Metropole, festungsartige Wohnstätten am Freeway improvisieren eine halb fertige Welt. Zu ihrem schärfsten Analytiker und angesehensten Schriftsteller hat sich Ivan Vladislavicć entwickelt. Sein Roman Exploded View gliedert sich in vier lose miteinander verbundene Teile, deren Protagonisten eines gemeinsam haben: Alle vier versuchen ihren Platz im neuen Südafrika zu bestimmen, alle sind Sinnsucher in einem veränderten Koordinatensystem.Mit äußerster Präzision und bestechender Klarheit beschreibt Vladislavic die südafrikanische Lebenswirklichkeit. Seine große Vorliebe gilt dabei der Architektur, an der sich die gesellschaftlichen Umbrüche festmachen lassen. Vladislavicć ist ein Meister des zweiten Blicks, ein Virtuose im Zusammenfügen der Details, die uns den Mechanismus des Ganzen erklären. Entstanden ist ein Monumentalpanorama Südafrikas auf einem sprachlichen Niveau, das seinesgleichen sucht. Der Roman ist eine Tour de Force, die unter die Oberfläche dringt. In grandiosen Sätzen bringt der Autor die Stadt zum Oszillieren: ihre Verheißungen und Abgründe, ihre Tragik und ihren Witz.