On November 4th, the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies at the University of Michigan hosted author Aleksandar Hemon for their Third Annual Borka Tomljenović Lecture. Hemon, giving a talk entitled “Migration and Narration,” discussed his recently published novel The World and All That It Holds, covering topics such as displacement and empires, interwoven with multilinguality and macaronic language. After reading a selection of passages from this newest novel, Hemon joined CREES Director Elizabeth King for a Q&A discussion of his work, where he expanded upon his expansive narrative that spans continents from Sarajevo to Shanghai and the decades following the First World War.
Aleksandar Hemon is the author of a number of novels and short story collections, including The Lazarus Project (2008), which was a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, along with several short story collections and novels, including The Question of Bruno, Nowhere Man, Love and Obstacles, The Making of Zombie Wars, The Book of My Lives, and My Parents: An Introduction/This Does Not Belong to You. He also co-wrote the script for The Matrix Resurrections with David Mitchell and Lana Wachowski. Currently he also teaches creative writing at Princeton University, while working on a new book titled How Did You Get Here?: Tales of Displacement and producing music as Cielo Hemon.
CREES Director Elizabeth King remarked that Hemon’s lecture was both “historical and timely, as it centered the broad themes of forced migration, conflict, and language, communicated through a story that also focuses upon the transcendence of love.” Discussing the significance of art as communication, Hemon stated “Art as a practice allows us to create the conditions to understand, appreciate, and love the vast variety in humanity.” Upon the central topic of migration, Hemon also said, “Migrants, immigrants, refugees, those are my people, and so I wanted to write a book about my people, not just Bosnians, but people who move through space.”
The Annual Borka Tomljenović Lecture is supported by the Borka Tomljenović Southeast European Peace, Cooperation, and Conflict Fund, aiming to promote knowledge about Yugoslavia and other Southeast European countries.
