The Happiness of Sisyphus or the Need to Revise one’s Own Engagement: The Case of Ivan Lovrenović

Abstract

The subject of my analysis is a review of the public engagement of Sarajevo writer and intellectual, Ivan Lovrenović. I am primarily interested in his transition from engaged interventionism to explaining the milieu of postbellum Bosnia and Herzegovina, evident in his writings, and his self-reflection on his own particular engagement. Essential for my analysis is the moment of the author’s transition from a phase of active participation in the public debate regarding the form of the state, i.e., Bosnia and Herzegovina and its cultural community, to the position of an outsider by choice, i.e., withdrawing to the sphere of “good solitude”. This stage, however, does not mean resignation from the attitude of the committed intellectual and complete abandonment of activism for change within the social and political space. In my opinion, Lovrenović does not turn away from the world in which he lives, nor does he rid himself of a sense of responsibility. Rather, he gradually shifts from journalism towards literary fiction. The main interpretative material spurring the present analysis is Lovrenović’s Sizifova sreća [Sisyphus’s Happiness, 2018], which overall offers an interesting example of the revision of his public engagement, while a broader timeframe of my reflections covers the years 1994–2018.