2006.01.04. – Katarina Tepesh
& PALINDROME APOCALYPSE” by Dubravka Oraic Tolic
– ……Writing her side of story of the “Palindrome
Apocalypse” poem, Dubravka points out how during former
Yugoslavia “Utopia was able to maintain itself only
by punishing the disobedient individuals: it ate its own children.
In 1991, the citizens of the Republic of Croatia said NO to
Utopia. The response was a war. Utopia was already dead and
vampires in uniforms of generals appeared on the scene.”
….
Review “AMERICAN SCREAM & PALINDROME APOCALYPSE”
by Dubravka Oraic Tolic
By
Katarina Tepesh
Newly
released by the Ooligan Press celebrated work by Dubravka Oraic
Tolic called “American Scream” or Urlik Amerike, originally
published in 1981 in Croatian. Included is a special treat with
the bilingual, Croatian and English poem “Palindrome Apocalypse,”
first published in 1993.
Dubravka
is a poet, essayist, and literary theorist. Born in 1943 in Slavonski
Brod, she studied philosophy and literature. Since 1971, the author
has been a member of the Philosophy Faculty in Zagreb.
Throughout
her long poems, Dubravka uses wordplay, political references and
several citations, including from the pastoral play “Dubravka”
by Ivan Gundulic: “O beloved, O dear, O sweet freedom.”
Much
of Dubravka’s inspiration comes from her childhood during
which she lost her father who served among the Home Guards and mysteriously
disappeared after the end of the WWII in May 1945.
In
a fictional letter to the United States Ambassador to Croatia, Peter
W. Galbraith, written in 1994, Dubravka declares, “I took
the name of your country as the key word and idea of my poem.”
This
world is not new
Columbus
is Odysseus
America
– a siren
And we
are hostages all
On the
road to Ithaca
What an
irresistible call!
Exploring
the unexpected costs of pursuing our dreams, Dubravka uses metaphors.
America
blows like the wind
And
collapses like fool’s gold justice
America
falls like rain
Over
our faces
And
we shudder
From
America
Writing
her side of story of the “Palindrome Apocalypse” poem,
Dubravka points out how during former Yugoslavia “Utopia was
able to maintain itself only by punishing the disobedient individuals:
it ate its own children. In 1991, the citizens of the Republic of
Croatia said NO to Utopia. The response was a war. Utopia was already
dead and vampires in uniforms of generals appeared on the scene.”
Other
books in Croatian by Dubravka Oraic Tolic are “Eye Without
a Homeland,” 1969, “The Landscape in the Writing of
A. G. Matos,” 1980, “Theory of the Citation,”
1990, “The Literature and the Destiny,” 1995, “Paradigms
of the Twentieth Century,” 1997, “The Twentieth Century
in the Rearview Mirror,” 2000 and “Male and Female Postmodernism,”
2005.
Ooligan
Press, Portland State University www.publishing.pdx.edu
“American Scream & Palindrome Apocalypse” www.amazon.com
$10.17
