“What if a human needs to get out of the parameters attributed to him to become a person?”

Ivana Bodrožić, in her novel “Sons, Daughters”, tells the story of love between a woman and a transgender man in a bigoted Croatia. A story of people imprisoned in their body: Lucija is immobilised as a result of an accident, Dorian is trapped in a body he cannot recognise. Bodrožić is on stage with Italian actress and writer Lella Costa in Mantua's eighteenth century Teatro Bibiena. The idea for the novel was sparked by an article about lockdown syndrome, she adds.

Paralysis is thus the main theme of the book: paralysis of a world unable to accept minorities, paralysis of a system that was not programmed to include those who don’t conform to its parameters and paralysis of these people who cannot disregards their country’s culture nor their own identity. “This novel comes from a desire to apologise to all those who are afflicted by society, victims of violence and in their attempt of affirming their identity.”

These fights, says Bodrožić, do not belong only to those who are directly involved in them. When asked why someone not affected by it would take responsibility for the violation of LGBT rights, she answers “Why shouldn’t I?”. And what better means if not through literature? “Every real piece of literature is socially committed.” Because they have the opportunity to speak up, writers have the responsibility to do so as well. Costa quotes Grace Paley: “It is the poet’s responsibility to be a woman, not to lose sight of the world and shout as Cassandra did, but to be heard this time.”