Interviewed by: Matej Vrebac
Rene Karabash is the pseudonym under which Irena Ivanovna (1989), a Bulgarian artist, writer, theater director and actress, writes and publishes. For the main role in Ralitza Petrova's film Bezbog in 2016, she won the Heart of Sarajevo at the Sarajevo Film Festival. This year, at the Bookstan International Literature Festival in Sarajevo, he will present his novel She Remains .
Novel The one that remains was published in 2019, and in the meantime it has seen many editions and awards. The translation of this book into Bosnian language will be premiered this year at the Bookstan festival. How do you feel about that?
Of course I'm excited about it, but there's another reason. I recently did a DNA analysis to determine my origin in more detail and it turned out that a significant percentage of my genetic origin originates from Bosnia and Herzegovina. I said, "Okay, maybe it's not a coincidence that my book is coming out right there." In addition, I love Sarajevo, with the film Bezbog I conquered the Heart of Sarajevo almost seven years ago, and now I am coming to present my book, and all of this is connected on a symbolic level.
Your involvement is not only in the field of writing, you are also an actress and a director. You won the Heart of Sarajevo 2016 at the Sarajevo Film Festival for your role in the award-winning film Bezbog. What memories do you have of the city?
My first memory is definitely the delicious ćevapčići haha, and the narrow stone streets from which the sound of craftsmen and masters from their workshops comes. I remember that sound very well and the sound of the hustle and bustle of the streets, it was a very emotional experience at the time. I hope that this year I will have the opportunity to explore the city a little more and I believe that it will be a different atmosphere. I intend to meet people who read, write, the other side of the cultural scene of this city.
How was the book received in Bulgaria and in the rest of the world? What languages has it been translated into so far?
It was first translated into Arabic and published in Egypt, which is very interesting since it is a far from simple topic that includes the position of women and women's rights. The interesting thing is that it is really very well received and people are reading it. This was followed by translations in France and Poland, and thus a network of translations began to be created. The novel continues to spread around the world and is currently being translated into Chinese. It has not yet been published in China, with the translator I had to change the gender of one of the main characters because the political situation in China is not the most ideal in terms of the democratic structure of the country. But that certainly won't be a problem because the story itself is universal and doesn't change significantly.
The one who stays it is an impressive book. Virgins, ostajnices or tobelias are a cultural phenomenon in the Balkans. It details the life of a woman who takes a vow of virginity, cuts her hair, wears men's clothes and begins to live as a man, the head of the family. Where did you get the material for your novel? Why did you decide to write about virgins?
I come from a village in northern Bulgaria and the situation is quite similar to Albania. We don't have virgins, but in Bulgaria we still have the unwritten rules of patriarchy that still apply. It's more important to be a strong person and not show emotions, so I was looking for something similar to hide my story behind, or rather disguise it. A lot of things in the book are true, some things I experienced myself. I won't say what all the things I experienced, but a lot of things in the book are documentary.
I saw the exhibition about the virgins of Pepa Hristova and I thought that it could be material for my story because it shows a more radical problem: the limit of the body itself is reached to turn a girl into a young man. It shows from the psychological side that if you want to survive in those societies you have to be strong men. That's why I decided on such a radical topic and chose a widow for my heroine to show what the limit is in all of this.
In several places in the novel, it is mentioned that home is where your wings are cut off and that the most precious metal in Albania is freedom. It seems to me that this applies mostly to social arrangements where it is almost a crime to be born a woman. How are masculinities and femininity viewed today?
It depends on where you live, in which society and country. I write about the body and its metamorphosis, but behind that I have hidden a universal psychological truth about the very microcosm of a person. As human beings, we have both a masculine and a feminine side within us and we decide when to choose which one. As for the clipping of the wings, I put that and the whole background with the pigeons because my father had pigeons, so most of the things in the novel with the pigeons are real, they happened to me. Clipping the wings of these birds is actually a metaphor for the traumas we experienced in our families when we were little, regardless of where we grew up. It turns out that we treat poison with poison and clip our wings in order to experience a home somewhere and cope with life by asking questions about why we behaved or lived in a certain way. The answer to these questions must be found in our families when we were children.
Estates are subject to the rules of the Kanun. Are the laws of the Kanun, a set of archaic tribal laws originating in northern Albania, still valid in today's world? What is Leka Giukadjini's Kanun, does he still kill?
Yes, those laws are still present in some parts of Albania and the Balkans, but it is interesting that I have never been there, even though I have read many books about it and interviewed sworn virgins, and even wrote a play on the subject. I tried to do the same thing with me, which is to write something so that the reader himself can feel it. These are otherwise very harsh laws, it is disturbing that they still exist to some extent, but these are mostly abandoned and isolated areas in Albania, in very closed communities.
Although the remaining women reverse gender roles, they are still lifelong virgins and at the same time their sexuality is restricted. Matja/Bekia still loves one girl. Can this novel be read from a queer perspective?
It is certainly possible to read from that perspective, although the point of the story itself will not be grasped that way. Some readers think that it is a homo story, but it is primarily a story about a human being and the human body does not play such an important role here. It is a story about the soul and the desire for freedom, so I prefer to read it that way. It is clear to me that the topic itself is somewhat exotic, especially for readers from the Western world, because it is a very interesting cultural phenomenon.
Although She Who Remains belongs to the genre of the novel, she possesses exceptional symbolism, allusiveness and poetic expression. Does that reveal the poet in you?
Yes, I have to admit that the book is like a long poem because it is written in the form of stream of consciousness, of course, the book as a novel has its own structure. While I was writing it I felt like I was writing poetry, it's quite emotional like I am myself. I think this is the reason why it reaches the heart of the reader precisely through associations, memories, and thus the reader enters the character's brain. But we must not forget that the protagonist of this novel is also an unreliable narrator, which leads to a lot of upheavals in the story itself.
The theme of this year's festival is "Imaginary Balkans", and among the guests is your compatriot, the great Marija Todorova. How do you view the cultural space of the Balkans? Do you also love the Balkans without the need to admire or be ashamed of it?
I think we should actually admire him to some extent, but there are some parts and aspects that we should be ashamed of. We should be proud of literature, Georgi Gospodinov was recently awarded the Booker and this is a reason for pride not only in Bulgaria, but also in the entire Balkans. I think we have a very respected literature. The Western world is a little more cold, and we are more cordial, we have more of that passion in us. The world just needs such fires to remind them to awaken their feelings, it's not all about technology and social networks. During Covid we closed ourselves off more, we need to heal through feelings. Literature from the Balkans will certainly contribute to that, of course I don't think we are the chosen people. We don't need writers and psychotherapists who will draw out our feelings, from sadness to joy, and not just emphasize our rationality and encourage analytical skills.
You are the founder and mentor at the "Rabbit's Hole" Creative Writing Academy. What advice do you give to aspiring writers and poets?
I think the most important thing is to be honest in your writing. If something scares you, write about it. You have to write about the things that scare you. By writing, we connect with the feelings of other people, so it is important to write from the heart. There is a book by Orhan Pamuk, The Naive and Sentimental Novelist , and he writes about the balance between writing with the heart and the head. Writing with the head is the construction of subject and structure, while writing with the heart is like a child's creation. We must not forget that we write, create and explore like children, without thinking about the outcome and rewards.
Do you have any particularly favorite regional authors and literary works in the language that used to be called Serbo-Croatian?
It is difficult to single out someone, but I have to single out Josip Osti. I certainly believe that I will get many titles through Bookstan . I also like to read other writers from the Balkans, such as the Greek writer Kostas Montis, and of course I also love Latin American writers and their magical realism. We have a lot of good and talented writers in the Balkans, to whom the world should focus more attention.