Natalija Stepanovic

Supervisors: Prof Zoran Milutinovic and Dr Peter Zusi

Email: natalija.stepanovic.22@ucl.ac.uk

Present status: MPhil Candidate

Working title of thesis: Queer Encounters: Comparative Analysis of Contemporary Croatian and Serbian Gay and Lesbian Prose

Research: In my doctoral project, aimed at establishing the post-Yugoslav queer literary archive, I endeavor to gather, categorize, and interpret Croatian and Serbian contemporary gay and lesbian prose. By combining careful contextualization (history of regional social movements that contributed to the proliferation of queer writing) and textual analysis, I reflect on representational aspects as well as the formal inventiveness of regional gay and lesbian literature. Organized around two main research questions, i.e. circulation and reinterpretation of recognizable ‘Western’ genres and narrative patterns through simultaneous reception in Serbia and Croatia as well as the intersection of sexual nonconformity and class, my proposed research also relies on queer theory. It challenges the asymmetry between progressive West and backward Balkans: rather than simply copying existing plots and textual strategies, Croatian and Serbian literates rework them in novel ways.

Research interests: post-socialist literature, cultural production and social movements in South-East Europe, queer prose, gay and lesbian memoirs, women’s writing, working-class cultures.

Research Centre Affiliation: South-East European Studies Seminar Series, Politics and Sociology Seminar Series and FRINGE.