Ala Tatarenko is a Slavic languages expert from Ukraine, and belongs among the top connoisseurs of Serbian literature. Her fields of work are the history of Serbian and other Slavic literature domains, literary criticism, translating and matter of Serbian-Ukrainian literary ties. She works are the Faculty of Philology at the University of Lvov, where she teaches Serbian and Croatian literature. Recently, the Serbian Literary Association has organized an evening dedicated to this energetic woman, with participation of the authors whose books she had translated to the Ukrainian. Dusica Maticki has more about Ala Tatarenko.
“For me, worth reading are those books that can change reader’s life and make it better, i.e. the works that offer the joy of reading, like listening to a beautify symphony, and which can always be re-read again”, Tatarenko says, in excellent Serbian. She has explained that the book must inspire her, so that she would write about it, and if able to find the “key” to that book, it will become her subject. “I have come to visit the writers and literature I love, because I have no obligation to compose harsh critical reviews, but the freedom to only write about those I like”, explained Tatarenko.
The guest from the Ukraine made this evening even more interesting by choosing not to listen to the “odes to her by those who wish to be translated, or have a review of their work written, or have their poetics analyzed”. Instead, she opted for the dialog with writers. Very skillfully, Tatarenko takes the role of a professor, so she called for Goran Petrovic to describe a reader he wishes for his work; Zvonko Karanovic was asked to comment on his expectation from a critic; with Mileta Prodanovic she talked about the similarities of his novel “Death in Venice” and Ukrainian author Andrukhovich… The dialog between the guest of honor and Serbian writers has revealed an excellent authority on our literature. Some of the Serbian books that Tatarenko has translated to the Ukrainian are “The encyclopedia of the dead” and “Grave for Boris Davidovich” of Danilo Kis, “Star cape” of Milorad Pavic, “New Jerusalem” of Borislav Pekic, several stories, essays and fragments from the novels of Ivo Andric, Milos Crnjanski, Goran Petrovic and Sava Damjanov, the poems of Zvonko Karanovic and Laszlo Blaskovic, dramas of Milena MArkovic and Dusan Kovacevic, etc.
Ala Tatarenko is also the author of more than 130 works on Serbian literature, published in Serbia, Ukraine and Germany.