A BRIEF HERSTORY OF LIVING AND DYING IN THE COLLECTION OF POEMS UNTIL THE NEXT DEATH BY SENKA MARIĆ

Text topic: Matrilineality

Text author: Selma Raljević

Senka Marić, an acclaimed Bosnian and Herzegovinian poetess, has written a brief “herstory” of female living and dying in her 2016 collection of poems Until the Next Death. Unlike history – seen as HIStory, meaning that history is mainly written by men – HERstory reveals a woman’s side of the world through her personal story. Until the Next Death is, in many ways, an autobiographical collection, so it can be seen as a poetic memoir of Senka Marić. One of its many poetic levels is her own genesis, both as a poetess and a woman. Also, it could be seen as a lyrical novel depicting her female ontology. Accordingly, this paper analyses the concepts of female “being” and “not-being” in Senka Marić’s book Until the Next Death, as well as the elements of autobiographisation and mythologisation of herstory, including elements of matrilineality in all these cases.