Още веднъж за косовския епос и неговата употреба
Once Again About the Kosovo Epic Poetry and Its Use

Summary/Abstract: After her book "Епос - обред - мит" (Epic Poetry - Ritual - Myth) (Sofia, 1992), devoting special attention to the Kosovo epic poetry, the author goes back to it again, this time in connection with Miodrag Popovich's book "Видовдан и чаени кръст" (Бедград, 1998). Commenting Popovich's text, she gives an expres¬sion of her views on the problems put forward in the book; her agreement or dis¬agreement with Popovich's conclusions. In this way, besides highly assessing the book, R. Ivanova also continues her deliberations about the historical character of the Kosovo epic poetry, about the mythologisation of the events and characters, about the relationship between paganism and Christianity in the plots and charac¬ters, about the significance of Vidovdan (the day of reckoning) and its reaffirma¬tion in the holiday calendar of the Serbs. Special attention has been devoted to the problems of the use of the Vidovdan or the Kosovo cult in the Serbs' socio-political life - matters, treated in the last chapter of Popovich's book. These problems are associated by R. Ivanova with the use of the Kosovo epic poetry in the present-day political life of Yugoslavia, and what has been emphasised has been its misuse. According to the author, the schol¬ars are in duty bound to point out its place in the present-day cultural and socio¬political life of the people, so that the politicians could get no chance of turning it into an ideological weapon of manipulation of the masses and of pushing the country into a meaningless deadlock.

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