“BOSNIA, EXCUSE ME, THERE IS SUCH A LAND” : ON BOSNIA-CENTRISM IN THE POETIC AND SCHOLARLY WORK OF MAK DIZDAR Cover Image

“BOSNA DA PROSTIŠ JEDNA ZEMLJA IMADE” : O BOSNOCENTRIZMU U KNJIŽEVNOM I NAUČNOM DJELU MAKA DIZDARA
“BOSNIA, EXCUSE ME, THERE IS SUCH A LAND” : ON BOSNIA-CENTRISM IN THE POETIC AND SCHOLARLY WORK OF MAK DIZDAR

Author(s): Gorčin Dizdar
Subject(s): Cultural history, Poetry, Middle Ages, Bosnian Literature
Published by: Bosansko filološko društvo
Keywords: Mak Dizdar; Bosnian language; medieval Bosnia; Stone Sleeper; Bogomilism;

Summary/Abstract: Although the crucial role of the Bogomil or neo-Manichaean understanding of the medieval Bosnian culture in the creation of Mak Dizdar’s Stone Sleeper is beyond doubt, there are very different and even opposed interpretations of the significance of this understanding for our evaluation of Dizdar’s poetry. On the one hand of this interpretative conflict are the socalled Bosnia-centric readings that, to a greater or lesser extent, correspond with Muhamed Filipović’s idea of the development of the Bosnian spirit in literature; on the other hand, there are several authors who have in part radically criticized this idea as an ideologization of Dizdar’s work. Relying ona post-structuralist approach to the Stone Sleeper developed in the scholarly work of Nirman Moranjak-Bamburać, this study aims to recognize the essentially emancipatory intentions of Filipović’s essay, but also points towards the potential dangers of further insistence on this paradigm. The second part of this study provides a detailed analysis of two of Dizdar’s essays dedicated to medieval Bosnian literature and contemporary Bosnian language, as well as a possible reading of the Stone Sleeper in relation to the ideas presented in these two essays.

  • Issue Year: 2016
  • Issue No: 14
  • Page Range: 196-216
  • Page Count: 21
  • Language: Bosnian