Search

Laura, a Bosnian war survivor and Cambridge University librarian, has long tried to forget the horrors of her past. But when she and her husband Adam move to Serbia, disturbing memories start to emerge. Adam's work as a British diplomat takes him on a mission to capture war criminal General Ratko Mladić, leaving Laura isolated in the very country that invaded her own. As the spirits of those murdered in the conflict resurface, Laura finds herself running a guest house for ghosts. They cook, laugh, drink, play cards and share folktales of Bosnian water spirits, reminding Laura of the home she once lost. But when they develop a vengeful interest in the manhunt for Mladić, Laura must decide: are her guests a sign that she is unravelling, or can they help her confront the past she has fled for so long?

Die Studie widmet sich signifikanten Veränderungen innerhalb des literarischen Feldes zum Erzählgegenstand Jugoslawien: Zwischen der Veröffentlichung von Peter Handkes Winterlicher Reise (1996) und Saša Stanišićs Erzählwerk Herkunft (2019) ist eine diskursive Verschiebung von ‚fremden‘, externen Perspektiven auf den (post-)jugoslawischen Kulturraum zu autobiographischen Erzähltexten zu beobachten, was sich besonders gut an der Handke-Nobelpreis-Debatte im Jahr 2019 erkennen lässt. Den Untersuchungsgegenstand der Studie bilden Erzähltexte, die auf eigenen oder familiären Erfahrungen von Flucht und Migration dreier Autor:innen aufbauen: Saša Stanišić, Jagoda Marinić und Marko Dinić. Zentrales Anliegen ist es, die Vielfalt an postjugoslawischen Reisedarstellungen einer kulturellen in-group sowohl in ihren Themen und Motiven als auch in ihren formalästhetischen Merkmalen herauszuarbeiten und auszudifferenzieren. Stanišić, Marinić und Dinić stellen ein interkulturelles Erfahrungswissen bereit, das zur Aufklärung über (post-)jugoslawische Geschichte im deutschsprachigen Raum beiträgt. Insbesondere für Literaturwissenschaftler:innen, die sich mit interkultureller Literatur beschäftigen, bietet diese Studie innovative Anknüpfungspunkte.

Throughout history women have struggled to reclaim their bodies from the meanings and assaults imposed on them by cultural practices, sexual mores, victimization, and concepts of how their bodies should be presented and managed in public, to intimate male partners, or in the workplace. Despite the images and expectations imposed on their bodies, women are increasingly claiming their bodies as their own through embodied somatic leadership, in protesting injustice, in promoting peace, and in working in a so-called “man's world.” Why has embodied somatic leadership more recently become highlighted, and what conditions in the world have brought this approach to leadership under study and scrutiny? Women Embodied Leaders answers these questions, analyzing models of embodied somatic leadership, and how women use this leadership from a number of perspectives. The wholistic treatment of this leadership is a useful tool not only for researchers, practitioners, and activists, but also for educators in the fields of leadership and social justice. The Transformative Women Leaders Series is published in collaboration between the International Leadership Association (ILA) and Emerald Publishing. Celebrating women leaders and the leadership styles they employ to achieve success, the books in this series highlight successful context-specific leadership approaches and the moral qualities of endurance.