Mieszczaństwo w serbskiej prozie autobiograficznej na przykładzie wybranych utworów Svetlany Velmar-Janković i Dejana Medakovicia

• Authors: Justyna Pałka

Title variants

EN

TOWNSPEOPLE IN SERBIAN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL PROSE ON THE EXAMPLE OF SELECTED WORKS BY SVETLANA VELMAR-JANKOVIĆ AND DEJAN MEDAKOVIĆ

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The characteristic of the Serbian literature of the 90’s is an increasing interest in historical themes. Dramatic circumstances that led to the breakup of the Yugoslavia affected literature and resulted in critical evaluation of the last fifty years of Yugoslav history expressed in various forms of historical novel and autobiographic writing. Autobiographies and journals present the lot of Serb townspeople in the time of the Second World War and Communist Revolution. The fall of the Serbian bourgeois culture is connected with an unusual situation of cities and townspeople in Serbia, which was determined by long-term Turkish control over Serbian territories. Turks turned existing cities into headquarters of local Turkish authorities and garrisons stunting development of the native townspeople. In its short history, Serbian bourgeoisie did not manage to found stable basis and they remained a group devoided of their established tradition, which could have been able to oppose Communist ideology. Due to the ideology, the literary theme of bourgeoisie was marginalized. Communist model of culture that exploited elements of folklore determined the way of presenting cities and townspeople in literature. Autobiographical prose by Svetlana Velmar-Janković (Prozraci) and Dejan Medaković (Efemeris. Hronika jedne porodice) depicts living in occupied Belgrade and in the first years after liberation. Those two authors deal with the evaluation of the actions of Nazi-backed Serbian puppet government and its collaborators. Velmar-Janković and Medaković’s claim that collaborators such as prime minister Milan Nedić, Toma Maksimović and Vladimir Velmar-Janković made their choice in order to save as much Serbs as possible, especially those who escaped from the Independent State of Croatia. Additionally, the authors suggest that the communist government’s fight with collaborators turned into the fight with class enemy. The policy towards townspeople prevented founding an opposition to the communists. S. Velmar-Janković in her autobiography focuses on the lot of the collaborator’s family and presents only necessary historic facts. D. Medaković creates chronicle that presents a variety of the townspeople community.

Keywords

EN

serbian autobiografical prose

• Publisher: Committee on Slavic Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Pamiętnik Słowiański
• Year: 2011
• Volume: 61
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 47-68

Contributors

author

Justyna Pałka

• Instytut Filologii Słowiańskiej UJ, al. Mickiewicza 9, 31-120 Kraków