LiteraturSchweiz

Reading tip

Dragica Rajčić, Buch von Glück: «Wieso schreiben sie? / Nicht in muttersprache» (Why do you write / In a foreign language), asks a member of the audience after the reading. That is not one question, it is two, and together they are a provocation. More than challenging the poet's use of foreign and native languages, the man is questioning the very act of writing. The author, for whom German is only a «stifmuter» (stepmother) language, replies: «Das schreibende ich / Sagt das sprechende ich / Ist exorzist der wörter / [...] Genisst es / Fremdes zu probieren?» (The writing I / Says the speaking I / Is an exorcist of words / […] Likes / To try foreign things?) This key scene appears in Dragica Rajčić's fourth collection of poems «Buch von Glück» (2004). Although Rajčić moved to Switzerland many years ago, the issue of the accessibility of the foreign language, German, is a leitmotif that runs throughout the work. The poet writes in German, but has remained a guest-worker in the German language, in spite of decades spent living in the country. With her five collections of poetry and short stories, Rajčić also cuts a solitary figure in Swiss literature. No other author whose native language is not German makes such radical use of language fragments or perches their texts so precariously on the outer edges of the confines of their language. Rajčić's poems break the rules of German spelling and grammar to draw new meanings out of the words. Her work is provocative and a challenge for her readers and critics. A rewarding read! (Christa Baumberger, transl. by Andrea Mason)