Inside & Out of Byzantium

by Nina Živančević

In this, her first book of fiction written in English, Zivancevic's distant outsider stance as a cosmopolitan New York intellectual is shaken and inexorably transformed with the onset of the war in Sarajevo in 1992.

Nina Zivancevic, a Serbian poet, scholar, and translator, lived in lower Manhattan prior to the outbreak of the war in Sarajevo in 1992. Zivancevic introduced the work of Allan Ginsberg, Kathy Acker, and Charles Bernstein to East European readers, and her polyglot sensibility is highly informed by her immersion in the downtown New York art and literary world of the 1980s. In this, her first book of fiction written in English, Zivancevic's distant outsider stance as a cosmopolitan New York intellectual is shaken and inexorably transformed with the onset of the war. Faced with the complete blockade of information in the West about the situation in her country, she has no choice but to become actively involved in its comprehension, but without promoting the cause of a particular party or faction. Inside and Out of Byzantium is a remarkably visceral and powerful literary response to a state of permanent war.

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Nina Živančević is a Serbian poet, essayist, fiction writer, art critic, and translator, who introduced the work of Allen Ginsberg, Kathy Acker, and Charles Bernstein to East European readers. She worked for many years with the Living Theater in New York, has published thirteen books of poetry in English, three books of essays, three books of short stories and two novels, published in Paris, New York, and Belgrade. She has lectured at Naropa University, New York University, the Harriman Institute, and St. John’s University, in the U.S. She lives in Paris and works at Paris VIII University.

Reviews

[Zachary Lacan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just one thing, why is it always Woody Allen? I was happy to read the names of actors and performers unfamiliar to me, and Max really personified someone I wanted to know more of, and I was glad to. It's hard to dislike someone like Allen whose movies are so funny to me, but I'm not sure what Nina Zinancevic expresses is dislike.