Meša Selimović's Autobiographical Discourse in the Interpretative Key of Postcolonial Critcism: Experience of One Liminal/Hybrid Identity Cover Image

Autobiografski diskurs Meše Selimovića u interpretacijskom ključu postkolonijalne kritike: iskustvo jednog liminalnog/hibridnog identiteta
Meša Selimović's Autobiographical Discourse in the Interpretative Key of Postcolonial Critcism: Experience of One Liminal/Hybrid Identity

Author(s): Aida Bajraktarević
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Bosnian Literature, Identity of Collectives
Published by: BZK "Preporod" Brčko distrikt Bosne i Hercegovine
Keywords: Meša Selimović; Memories; hybrid identity; culture; the Bosniaks; colonial stereotype;
Summary/Abstract: Analytical and interpretive objective of analysis of the autobiographical discourse of Meša Selimovic Memories (1976) is to examine the way the work represents the subjective and collective experience of liminal or hybrid identity and culture of Bosniaks. Theoretical and critical starting point for the work are the views and terms which are developed by the postcolonial critics Edward W. Said, Homi Bhabha and Jan Assmann, German scientist who has studied the cultural memory. These theorists with their theoretical models have focused on sub-cultures and parts of the world, interpreting the discursive construction of the colonial countries of the Orient and the Third World. The work aims to offer a reading of Selimovic’s autobiographical discourse through the prism of concepts of postcolonial criticism and cultural studies as a narrative that in the construction of identity of Bosniaks first adopts colonial stereotypes, participating in the creation and adoption of orientalist images and stereotypes about the Bosniaks, then affirms the diversity and variety of Bosniaks culture, moving the former margins to the position of equal center whose voice becomes one of many that we hear in literature and culture.

  • Page Range: 149-160
  • Page Count: 12
  • Publication Year: 2017
  • Language: Bosnian