Slavenka Drakulić
(Yugoslavia, 1949) is a Croatian writer and journalist who divides her time between Stockholm and Zagreb. From 1982 to 1992 she wrote on feminist issues for Croatian media. After receiving threats due to her position on the rape of women during the Balkan War, she moved to Sweden in the early 1990s. She now writes for a wide range of publications, including La Stampa and Frankfurter Allgemeine. The war in the former Yugoslavia is the main focus of her work, both in her novels and non-fiction. She gave voice to women abused during the Balkan War in As If I Am Not There. And in They Would Never Hurt a Fly, she asks how people can be capable of extreme crimes in circumstances of war, referring to cases before the ICTY in The Hague. Nine books by Drakulić were published in Dutch between 1993 and 2003.
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Seven Deadly Sins
Pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, anger and sloth. The seven deadly sins are inseparable from literature, film and visual art. The festival asked seven authors to each choose one and write a fresh text about it. Tonight you'll hear sinful stories from home and abroad, with accompanying music by Dick van der Harst. A superb literary-musical programme to enjoy with abandon. José Eduardo Agualusa, Slavenka Drakulić, Mira Feticu, Petina Gappah, Daan Heerma van Voss, Andrej Kurkov and Neel Mukherjee read in their own language, with simultaneous translations projected in English and Dutch.
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It's the War, Stupid!
How do extreme circumstances turn normal people into monsters capable of heinous crimes? In her book They Wouldn't Hurt a Fly, Slavenka Drakulić looked into the background of Yugoslavian war criminals to find reasons for their later misdeeds. Frank Westerman experienced these crimes up close. This year, his Balkan reports were published in De slag om Srebrenica (The Battle for Srebrenica). And what about us: how do we deal with atrocities perpetrated by earlier generations? The writers discuss this subject under the guidance of Johan de Boose. In English
This event replaces "It's the System, Stupid," which was cancelled since Tariq Ali is unable to attend the festival.