UNFORTUNATELY, MACEDONIAN LITERATURE IS NOT TRANSLATED VERY OFTEN
Our guest today is the renowned Macedonian writer, theatre critic, Doctor of Philosophy in Communication, Editor-in-Chief of the literary journal Literary Elements, President of the “Perun Artis” Association for Art and Multiculturalism, and laureate of the Kosovo IWA Bogdani, the Montenegro Translators Association, and the Croatia Literary Association’s “Literary Feather” awards, Sasho Ognenovski.
— As a theatre critic, what criteria do you use to evaluate a performance?
— Theatre is a symbiotic art and establishing a criteria for the particular theatre show means to develop a sort of relationship with it. It is not only taste, it is not only liking the show, or being your type of the theatre show, it is a kind of analyzing all segments of it (acting, directing, dramaturgy, visual and auditional). I never write a review for the show I think is not well developed. I write for the shows that excites me with its compactness and an impacting and artistic well expressed. Theatre is also a message and mostly engagement, so it means we, as theatre critics have to recognize its meaningfulness.
— What kind of fairy tales do you think modern children need the most?
— Unfortunately, the modern children are mostly influenced by the visual types of storytelling. Fairy tales like the classic ones are not well recognizable. The modern heroes and villains are a kind of hybrid creatures constructed and built by the visions influenced by the other medias. For my opinion, children have to get back to reading because it is the only way for developing the criteria and the recognizable understanding of the social values in general. Good and bad guys in the fairy tales are products of the philosophical approach to the human life shaped into the stories we are recognize as fairy tales. The mechanism of separation of books from the visual media is crucial for proper understanding of the role of the literature in the children’s spiritual life.
— In children’s literature, what elements are more important than fantasy, in your opinion?
— Fantasy is always the most important thing ever. It is bonded with the talent and is very needful in the children’s understanding of the literature. The reading and the understanding of the characters and the story are the elements that are the biggest ingredients of the child’s relationship to the literature.
— Which national literatures have had the greatest influence on your creative work?
— The classic models are incredibly important in the understanding of the role of literature and mostly of the reasons foe writing. I find impressions and inspiration in the modern literature as well. My favorite writer is William Faulkner and I adore his writing style, as well as his point of view, of course his attitude towards the world. Of course, I’ll never try to write like him, I’d rather write like I feel, but the depth of his stories and his characters are fantastic to me.
— How do you portray global issues in your writings — directly, symbolically, or spiritually?
— I’d say directly, even I write realistic story developing especially into the novel. I find symbols in the moments of the story, it is in the style, I think. Symbols are everywhere around us and all we need is to recognize them and to articulate them in the piece of art. Converting the moments in the story into symbols is a process very close to the intimate life of the author, so the mentioned types of portraying very often are mixing each other in the period of creating the literature piece.
— Are there days when you completely stop writing? What emotions do those moments evoke?
— I believe in the writers who spend more time in the process of researching particular theme than to the writers who writes one piece of literature step by step leaving it to get matured. I always spend a lot of time in searching and researching and when I am sure it is the right path, I write it in a very short time.
The most exhausted are the corrections and cutting the text you think is not needful. Here are the biggest dilemmas. And of course, the biggest writers always think the missed something in the already published piece of work, always think they did not write well some parts of the work.
— When and from what does a poet’s soul break? What kind of pain does he hide from others?
— Poet’s pain is very secret and very personal. The reader recognizes his own pain, reading the poets verses. The poems are always intimate act, even the philosophical ones. They have their own path to reach the reader’s souls.
— In your view, what makes a writer different from other people? Is this difference a gift or a burden?
— Writers always see the world from the different point of view that the regular people. His emotions are dedicated to the fantasy and inspiration. Of course, here is the gift very important because the talent is the one that gives to the writer the power to watch the world’s processes completely different. That’s why the writers are read. Because they are completely different that the other people. It is the same with the other types of the artist: painters, composers, actors etc.
— It is often said that artists suffer more than others. Do you believe this to be true?
— No, the suffering could be from the reasons not bonded to the inspiration. We all suffer from different reasons and not all people takes the essence of it to create the piece of work. It is important for the artist to suffer to make the better piece of work, but it is usually called the human experience.
— What is your opinion about the statement: “Writing is turning pain into words”?
— Writers are turning everything into words. The different approaches are generated by the diverse of the genres. You not needed to suffer always to write a good novel, or poem or drama etc. Sometimes you have to revoke the moment of your past, or maybe from your life experience to make a good piece of art. Comedies are the best example. The comedy is a mindfulness issue, but the tragedy is a emotional issue. The both are corresponding with the pain, and they are not, as well. All is your approach to the world.
— Are there topics you have never written about — subjects you didn’t dare to approach?
— I am not daring, there are subjects I’d never write about. It depends of your interests and your personal engagement. My opinion is that the author has to be engaged. He/she must be related to the human movements because the author is the human’s voice. Translated and read, the author (as the other kind of artists) must shape the human bean’s opinion to the traumas and unfortunates of his being.
— How is literature, and the role of poets and writers, regarded in Macedonia? What is the culture of reading like there?
— Macedonian literature is inspired by the very moment of the transitional country like Macedonia is. Unfortunately, Macedonian literature is not translated a lot. I think there are a lot of writers in my country that deserved to be translated. There are literature festivals dedicated to poetry and to other genres that give the chances to our writers to compare themselves with the other writers worldwide, but it has to be developed more, of course, with the support of the state institutions.
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Jakhongir NOMOZOV, is a young poet and journalist from Uzbekistan. He is also a Member of the Union of Journalists of Azerbaijan and the World Young Turkic Writers Union.
