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La guineu
Ugrešić és una fabuladora excepcional que, aquí, reivindica el poder de l’escriptura i reflexiona sobre com es creen les ficcions: d’on sorgeix la motivació primera?, com escullen els temes els escriptors?, com s’hi manifesta la vida pròpia?, què ens diuen i què amaguen?
A La guineu Ugrešić crea un brillant trencaclosques en què narra fets de la seva vida i d’altres escriptors, esborrant la frontera difusa entre realitat i ficció. Per això el títol és tan pertinent. La guineu és una criatura salvatge i esmunyedissa, que en les rondalles de tot el món sol encarnar l’astúcia i l’engany. Justament —per a Ugrešić, i començant per ella mateixa— els atributs dels escriptors.
Trenant hàbilment dotzenes d’històries i moments viscuts (Nabokov caçant papallones, Ugrešić vivint un meravellós amor tràgic amb un desminador, Pilniak viatjant al Japó, avantguardistes russos malvivint sota el comunisme…), aquest és un llibre inclassificable —sobretot perquè sempre s’hi percep l’ombra de la guineu, l’astuta, la mentidera.
A La guineu Ugrešić crea un brillant trencaclosques en què narra fets de la seva vida i d’altres escriptors, esborrant la frontera difusa entre realitat i ficció. Per això el títol és tan pertinent. La guineu és una criatura salvatge i esmunyedissa, que en les rondalles de tot el món sol encarnar l’astúcia i l’engany. Justament —per a Ugrešić, i començant per ella mateixa— els atributs dels escriptors.
Trenant hàbilment dotzenes d’històries i moments viscuts (Nabokov caçant papallones, Ugrešić vivint un meravellós amor tràgic amb un desminador, Pilniak viatjant al Japó, avantguardistes russos malvivint sota el comunisme…), aquest és un llibre inclassificable —sobretot perquè sempre s’hi percep l’ombra de la guineu, l’astuta, la mentidera.
Kindle Edition
Published March 19, 2025
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About the author
Dubravka Ugrešić
55 books657 followersDubravka Ugrešić was a Yugoslav, Croatian and Dutch writer. She left Croatia in 1993 and was based in Amsterdam since 1996. She described herself as "post-Yugoslav, transnational, or, even more precisely, postnational writer".
Dubravka Ugrešić earned her degrees in Comparative Literature, Russian Language and Literature at the University of Zagreb, and worked for twenty years at the Institute for Theory of Literature at Zagreb University, successfully pursuing parallel careers as a writer and a literary scholar.
She started writing professionally with screenplays for children’s television programs, as an undergraduate. In 1971 she published her first book for children Mali plamen, which was awarded a prestigious Croatian literary prize for children’s literature. Ugresic published two more books (Filip i Srecica, 1976; Kucni duhovi, 1988), and then gave up writing for children.
As a literary scholar Dubravka Ugrešić was particularly interested in Russian avant-garde culture. She was a co-editor of the international scholarly project Pojmovnik ruske avangarde, (A Glossary of the Russian Avangarde) for many years. She rediscovered forgotten Russian writers such as Konstantin Vaginov and Leonid Dobychin, and published a book on Russian contemporary fiction (Nova ruska proza, 1980). She translated fiction into Croatian from Russian (Boris Pilnyak, Gola godina; Daniil Kharms, Nule i nistice), and edited anthologies of both Russian contemporary and avant-garde writing (Pljuska u ruci, 1989).
Dubravka Ugrešić was best known in the former Yugoslavia for her fiction, novels and short stories: Poza za prozu, 1978; Stefica Cvek u raljama zivota, 1981; Zivot je bajka, 1983; Forsiranje romana reke, 1988.
Her novel Forsiranje romana reke was given the coveted NIN-award for the best novel of the year: Ugrešić was the first woman to receive this honor.
Croatian film director Rajko Grlic made a film U raljama zivota (1984) based on Ugrešić’s short novel Stefica Cvek u raljama zivota. Ugrešić co-authored the screenplay, as she did with screenplays for two other movies and a TV drama.
In 1991, when the war broke out in the former Yugoslavia, Ugrešić took a firm anti-nationalistic stand and consequently an anti-war stand. She started to write critically about nationalism (both Croatian and Serbian), the stupidity and criminality of war, and soon became a target of the nationalistically charged media, officials, politicians, fellow writers and anonymous citizens. She was proclaimed a “traitor”, a “public enemy” and a “witch” in Croatia, ostracized and exposed to harsh and persistent media harassment. She left her country of origin in 1993.
Dubravka Ugrešić continued writing since she began living abroad. She published novels (Muzej bezuvjetne predaje, Ministarstvo boli) and books of essays (Americki fikcionar, Kultura lazi, Zabranjeno citanje, Nikog nema doma).
Her books have been translated into more then twenty languages. Dubravka Ugrešić has received several major European literary awards. In 2016, Ugrešić won the Neustadt International Prize for Literature.
On March 17th of 2023, one of Europe's most distinctive essayists, Dubravka Ugrešić, died in Amsterdam at the age of 73.
Dubravka Ugrešić earned her degrees in Comparative Literature, Russian Language and Literature at the University of Zagreb, and worked for twenty years at the Institute for Theory of Literature at Zagreb University, successfully pursuing parallel careers as a writer and a literary scholar.
She started writing professionally with screenplays for children’s television programs, as an undergraduate. In 1971 she published her first book for children Mali plamen, which was awarded a prestigious Croatian literary prize for children’s literature. Ugresic published two more books (Filip i Srecica, 1976; Kucni duhovi, 1988), and then gave up writing for children.
As a literary scholar Dubravka Ugrešić was particularly interested in Russian avant-garde culture. She was a co-editor of the international scholarly project Pojmovnik ruske avangarde, (A Glossary of the Russian Avangarde) for many years. She rediscovered forgotten Russian writers such as Konstantin Vaginov and Leonid Dobychin, and published a book on Russian contemporary fiction (Nova ruska proza, 1980). She translated fiction into Croatian from Russian (Boris Pilnyak, Gola godina; Daniil Kharms, Nule i nistice), and edited anthologies of both Russian contemporary and avant-garde writing (Pljuska u ruci, 1989).
Dubravka Ugrešić was best known in the former Yugoslavia for her fiction, novels and short stories: Poza za prozu, 1978; Stefica Cvek u raljama zivota, 1981; Zivot je bajka, 1983; Forsiranje romana reke, 1988.
Her novel Forsiranje romana reke was given the coveted NIN-award for the best novel of the year: Ugrešić was the first woman to receive this honor.
Croatian film director Rajko Grlic made a film U raljama zivota (1984) based on Ugrešić’s short novel Stefica Cvek u raljama zivota. Ugrešić co-authored the screenplay, as she did with screenplays for two other movies and a TV drama.
In 1991, when the war broke out in the former Yugoslavia, Ugrešić took a firm anti-nationalistic stand and consequently an anti-war stand. She started to write critically about nationalism (both Croatian and Serbian), the stupidity and criminality of war, and soon became a target of the nationalistically charged media, officials, politicians, fellow writers and anonymous citizens. She was proclaimed a “traitor”, a “public enemy” and a “witch” in Croatia, ostracized and exposed to harsh and persistent media harassment. She left her country of origin in 1993.
Dubravka Ugrešić continued writing since she began living abroad. She published novels (Muzej bezuvjetne predaje, Ministarstvo boli) and books of essays (Americki fikcionar, Kultura lazi, Zabranjeno citanje, Nikog nema doma).
Her books have been translated into more then twenty languages. Dubravka Ugrešić has received several major European literary awards. In 2016, Ugrešić won the Neustadt International Prize for Literature.
On March 17th of 2023, one of Europe's most distinctive essayists, Dubravka Ugrešić, died in Amsterdam at the age of 73.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 3, 2026
Un llibre que no saps si és novel·la o recull de narracions, i que encara que en algun moment requereix un nivell d'erudició literària (que jo no tenia, per exemple) conté algunes de les pàgines més interpel·ladores de les que he llegit en els darrers temps. Trobo que, i això és molt personal, el text de la contra no s'adiu gaire amb el que m'ha donat el llibre: no és que sigui incorrecte, eh?, però a més de la reflexió sobre el fet d'escriure i ‘com es conta un conte’ a partir de la metàfora de la 'guineu' (“encarnació de l'astúcia i de la traïció; el tòtem dels escriptors”) jo hi he trobat una punyent reflexió sobre la guerra i els nacionalismes excloents (al voltant del cas de la dissolució de Iugoslàvia, l'autora es va quedar sense país, sense identitat i sense llengua). Molt xulo, però requereix paciècia i l'habilitat o la voluntat de destriar el gra.
February 28, 2026
em vaig comprar ‘la guineu’ aquet sant jordi. va ser una tria prou meditada, pro alhora prou inconscient perquè malgrat ser una novetat no n’havia sentit gens a parlar, suposo que ho devia veure clar. he tardat en llegir-lo i me’n penedeixo (pro ens n’hauríem de penedir tots de no haver-lo tingut en català fins gairebé deu anys més tard de la seva publicació!). sempre que pensava en començar-lo buscava allò que li havia trobat aquell vint-i-tres d’abril que m’havia fet tan evident que era per mi i que ara era incapaç de trobar. en qualsevol cas, és una genialitat. la capacitat que té ugresić d’allargar i allargar i allargar és impressionant. parla de tot i de res fent veure que no parla de res i alhora de tot allò important. la traducció se m’ha fet un pèl forçada en alguns moments i cap al final, el llibre perd una mica de força. segur que no és un llibre per a tots els públics, pro és el llibre perfecte per les meves amigues; anna (!!!és tot tan teu), mariona (per quan tens raó i jo també soc més de literatura) zoe (jo m’hi jugo algo que aquet no sé què t’atraparà), tot vostre❤️
“molts van perdre els millors anys de la seva vida esperant-ne una de nova.”
“molts van perdre els millors anys de la seva vida esperant-ne una de nova.”
August 4, 2025
La guineu o Sharazad. Molt interessant, carregada d'històries, però cal haver llegit molt per aprofitar-la al 100%
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews