Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
SERBIAN STUDIES
PUBLISHED BY THE NORTH AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR SERBIAN STUDIES
CONTENTS
VOLUME 4, NUMBER 3
SPRING 1988
Alex N. Dragnich
AMERICAN SERBS AND OLD WORLD POLITICS
Vasa D. Mihailovich
THE IMAGE OF AMERICA IN CONTEMPORARY SERBIAN
LITERATURE
27
41
59
71
79
Pll KLETA
33
59
60
61
from his travels in Europe, Asia and Africa. 24 On all these journeys
he bought whatever he deemed useful and compatible with his
country's native traditions. He also traveled through the interior of
his homeland and taught his people not only Christian religion, but
even such worldly subjects as more efficient methods of agriculture
and other aspects of rural economy. 25
Besides, for many years, he also served as foreign minister, ambassador and adviser to his brother, Stefan, and to his royal nephews, Radoslav and Vladislav. 26 He died in Bulgaria in 1236.27 Almost
immediately, the church made a concerted effort to build him up as
a national saint and benefactor. 26
St. Sava is to the Serbs what St. Patrick is to the Irish, St. Stephen
to the Hungarians and St. Olaf to the Norwegians. He is a culture
hero with certain features of Prometheus as well as Hiawatha. 29 A
plethora of references to Sava's life and achievements, in written as
well as oral literature of many centuries, represents one of the fundamental themes of Serbian civilization. His cult contributed to the
preservation of Serbian nalional consciousness especially during the
difficult centuries of Ottoman domination. 3 0
After the fatal weakening of Byzantium by the so-called Latin Empire (1204-1261), Serbia's own imperial ambilions began to emerge.
Under a series of rich, well-armed and cultivated rulers, she steadily
grew in economic, military and cultural respects. Having become,
through mining and trade, one of the foremost powers in southeastern Europe, she began to expand mainly at the expense of her Byzantine model and teacher. Inspired by the examples of Nemanfa
and Sava, all Serbian monarchs supported their loyal Orthodox church
as the main agency of educalion and welfare and all spent lavishly
on monumental architecture and pain ling. 31
62
63
64
65
66
raphy; imitations of The Physiologus; Stephanit and Ichnilat (borrowed from the Panchatantra); One Thousand and One Nights; Tristan
and Isolda (certainly from the West); and various other works containing a fusion of Greco-Roman and Judeo-Chrislian learning.sa Many
motifs from these and other literary sources have been detected in
the Serbian Oral tradition.
Especially widespread was the influence of the so-called apocryphal books, that is, works inspired by interpretations of the JudeaChristian heritage unacceptable to the church and not contained in
the canon. Some Serbian apocrypha came from Byzantium while
others seem to have entered from Bulgaria and Macedonia, the most
important strongholds of the Bogumil and other heresies. Among
the works of St. Sava there is a Serbian adaptation of the Nomocanon
(Krmcaja Knjiga).64 Containing an index of canonical and apocryphal books, this document testifies to the strength of unorthodox
influences among the masses whose oral literature appears to have
relished forbidden interpretations of the Bible. 65
Among the Old Testament apocrypha, Serbian literature embraces
Narratives of Adam; the Book of Enoch; Narratives of Abraham; the
Apocalypse of Baruch; Paralipomena of Jeremiah, a story of the
destruction of Jerusalem; and Isaiah's Vision, present also in Bulgarian literature.as
Among the apocrypha of the New Testament, medieval Serbian
scholars translated the Gospel of St. Thomas, an unorthodox version
of the life of Christ; the Gospel of Nicodemus, dealing with the
Saviour's death; The Protoevangelium of fames, the oldest story of
the conception of the Virgin and the death of Zacharias; the Epistles
of Emperor Abgar, with questions addressed to Christ and His purported answers; the Acts of the Apostles, with miraculous stories
not recognized by the church; the Questions of Lhe Apostle Bartholomew addressed to Christ; the Voyage of the Virgin in Hades,
with echos in the oral tradition; the Questions of fohn the Theologian directed to Christ on Mount Tabor; the Voyage of the Apostle
Paul to the infernal world; and Discussions of the Patriarch Methodius, concerning the pagan empire. 6 7 Il is through these writings
that the oral tradition of the peasants came into contact not only
with reflective thinking but also with legends, myths and other folklore of Near-Eastern, African and even more distant provenience.as
Many elements of this highly heterogeneous heritage found an
67
'Steven Runciman, Byzantine Civilization, Arnold & Co., London, 1948, pp. 2368; see also B. Moycndorff and N.H. Baynes, "The Byzantine Inheritance in Russia,"
in Byzantium, ed. by N.H. Baynes and H. St. L.B. Moss, Oxford, at the Clarendon
Press, 1949, pp. 382-385.
2 Nikola Radojci(;, Srpski drzavni sabori u srednjem veku (Serbian State Assemblies
in the Middle Ages}, Srpska kraljcvska akadomija (Ska). Beograd, 1940, p. 45.
3 Kralj Stefan Prvovoncani (King Stefan the Firstcrownod), Zivot Sv. Simeona-Stefan a Ncmanje (fhe Lifo of St. Simeon-Stefan Nemanja) , in Stare srpske biografije
(Old Serbian Biographies), prepared by Milivoje Basic, Srpska knjizevna zadruga
(Skz), kolo XXVI!, br. 180, Beograd, 1924, p. 31; sec also Sv. Sava, Zivot Svetog
Simeone (fhc Lifo of St. Simeon), Ibid., pp. 24-25.
N. Radojcic, op. cit., p. 45.
H.M.V. Temperloy, Jlistory of Sorbio, Second Impression, B. Bell & Sons, Ltd.,
London, 1919, p. 38.
W.A. Morison, The 11evolt of the Serbs Against the Turks, translation from the
Serbian National Ballads of the Period, with an introduction, Cambridge, at the University Press, 1942, p. xiii, see also Vuk Karadzic, Pjesmo (Songs),vol. II.
7 Charles Diehl,"An Outline," in /Jyzan tium , pp. 37, 45.
Jordan Ivanov, Bogomilski Knigi i Legcndi (/Jogomil Books and Legends), Bulgarskata Akademia na Naukite (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences), Sofia, 1925, p. 30; see
also Dmitri Obolensky, Tho Bogomils, A Study in Balkan Neo-Manichaeism, Cambridge, The University Press, 1946, 283-84, and Steven Runciman, The Medieval
Manichee, The Viking Pross, Now York, 1961 , pp. 63- 93.
Obolensky, op. cit., pp. 10- 13; sec also Ivanov, op. cit., p. 23, and Runciman, op.
cit., pp. 116, 145- 170 and passim.
1oPrvoven~ani (Firstcrowned), op. cit., p . 40.
68
"L.P. Brockett, The Bogomils of Bulgaria and Bosnia or. lila Early Protestants of
the East, American Baptist Publication Society, Philadelphia, 1879 , pp. 73- 74, 8385.
12 Domentijan, iivot Svetoga Save (fhe Ufe of St. Sova), Skz, kola XLI, knjiga 282,
Beograd, 1938, pp. 31-39; sec also Teodosije, iivot Svotoga Save (fho Life of St.
Sava}, in Stare srpske biogrofije, pp. 83- 95, and Thomas Butler, Monumenta Serbocroatica, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 198?, PP 55;-61.
13 Sv. Sava, iivot Svetog Simeono (fhe Life of St. S1meon}, m Stare srpske biografije, pp. 7- 17; see also Prvovencani, op. cit., pp. 47- 49, and Domenlijan, op. cit.,
pp. 255-281.
. 'Sv. Sava, op. cit., pp. 15-1_7; Prvovencani, op. cit., PP 50- 52; and Domentijan,
Z1vot Sv. Save, pp. 65-69 and Zivot Sv. Simeona, pp. 269-272.
" Domentijan, Zivot SV. Save, pp. 33-41; Stanojc Stanojcvic, Svoti Sava, Dr~. Stamp.
Kralj. Ju goslavijc, Beograd, 1935, pp. 120- 123.
16 Runciman, Byzantine Civilization, pp . 54-5 5.
17 Gcorgije Ostrogorski, Istorijo Vizantije, Prosvcta, Beograd, 1947, pp. 212-215;
Runciman, Byzantine Civilization, pp. 54-5 7.
'"Temperley, op. cit., p. 45.
'"Ibid., p. 45; A.A. Vasiliev, History of the Byzantine Empiro, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, 1952, p. 612.
'"St. Stanojevic, Sv. Sava, pp. 44-47.
"Temperley, op.cit., p. 46.
22
loc. cit.
' 4
69
35 Petkovic, La Peinture, pp. 59-64; Ka~anin, L'Art Yougoslave, p. 76; Rice, Byz.
Art, p. 124; Sv. Radojcic, in Yugoslavia, UNESCO World Art Series, New York Graphic
Society, by arrangement with UNESCO, printed in Italy, 1955, pp. 27-28 and N.
Okunev, Monumenta Artis Serbicae, lnstitutum Slavicum, Pragae, 1928, val. I, p. 11.
36A. Deroko, Srednjevekovni gradovi u Srbiji, Crnoj Gori i Makedoniji (Medieval
Castles in Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia), Prosveta, Beograd, 1951, pp. 112,
119, 136, M. Ka~anin, Umolnost i umetnici, pp. 119-149 and Pera J. Popovic, editor,
Spomenica petstagodisnjice smederevskag grada, Drz. ~tamparija u Beogradu, Beograd, 1930, 1931, pp. 31-132.
"Rice, Yugoslavia, UNESCO, 1955, p.9.
36Vasiliev, op. cit., p. 562.
39Rice, Yugoslavia, p. 10.
40A. Grabar, Byzantine Painting. Historical and Critical Study. Skira, Inc., New
York, 1953, pp. 149-151.
41 lbid., p. 151
42 Rice, Yugoslavia, p. 9.
43lstorija naroda jugoslavije, Knjiga Prva, Prosveta, Beograd, 1953, p. 482.
sv. Radojcic, Yugoslavia, pp. 14, 18.
Ibidem, p. 20.
Ibid., p. 18.
47 lsl. nor. jugoslavije, I, p. 482.
sv. RadojCic, Yugoslavia, p. 22.
Jst. nor. juga., I, p. 482.
50Jbid., p. 484.
51 D. Diehl, R. Guilland and R. Grousset, Histoire du Moyen Age, Tome IX. Premiere
Partie, L'Europe Orientale de 1081 a 1453. Presses Universitaires de France, Paris,
1945, p. 295.
52 See examples in The Virgin of the Annunciation (Church of St. Clement, Ohrid,
Xlth-Xllth), Personification of the Earth in Veluce (end of X!Vth century). Nativity
(St. Dimitrius, Pee, 1338- 1346), Birth of the Virgin (Studenica, 1313-1314), Master
Serge's frescoes in Decani (ca. 1350) and many other instances.
53 Sv. Radojcic, Yugoslavia, p. 25.
Op. cit., Joe. cit. Sec also N. Banasevic, Ciklus Marko Kraljevica, "Nemanja,"
Skopljo, 1935, p. 191 ct passim.
"M.S. Stanoycvich, Early Yugoslav Literature {1100-1800), Columbia University
Press, New York, 1922, p. 11 and Boris Unbegaun, Les Debuts de la Langue Lilleraire
chez les Serbes, Libraire Ancienno Honore Champion, Paris, 1935, pp. 18, 34.
Lazar Mirkovic, Miroslavljevo Evandjelje (The Gospel of Miroslav), Naucna knjiga,
Beograd, 1950, pp. 49- 50.
571. Mirkovic, op. cit., Joe. cit. as well as Butler, Manumenta Serbocroalica, p. 21.
M.S. Stanoyovich, op. cit. , p. 13.
K. Jirecek - J. Radonjic, lstoria Srba, Vol. I, Naucna knjiga, Beograd, 1952, p .
131.
60M . Ba~ic, Stare srpske biografije, p. viii; P. Popovic, Pregled, pp. 26-39 and L.
Mirkovic, Stare srpsko biografije XV i XVll veka, Skz, kolo XXXIX, knjiga 265, Beograd, 1936, pp. 43- 120 (Zivot despota Stefano Lazarevica od Konstantina Filosofa).
"'M.S. Stanoycvich, op. cit. , pp. 16- 17 and P . Popovic, op. cit., pp. 17-27.
62 S tojan Novakovic, Zakonski Spomenici srpskih drzava srednjega veka (Legal
Documents of Medieval Serbian States), Ska (Royal Serbian Academy), Beograd, 1912.
63 P . Popovic, op. cit., pp. 11- 16; Ch. Diehl. L'Europe, p. 294; M.S. Stanoyevich, op.
cit., pp. 18-20 and M. Ba~ic, lz stare srpske knjizevnosli (Out of Old Serbian Literature), Skz., 137, Beograd, 1911, pp. 33- 35.
70
64 Bozidar Koval::evic, Iz Proslosti (From tho Past), Skz, Kolo XLV, knjiga 308, Beo
grad, 1949, pp. 303- 306.
M.S. Stanoyevich, op. cit., p. 23.
66lbid., Joe. cit. and I. Ivanov, op. cit., pp. 131- 151.
07M.S. Stanoyevich, op. cit., pp. 23-24.
08M. Basic, Iz stare srpske knjizevnosti, Vol. Ill; F.H. Marshall, "Byzantine Litera
lure," in Byzantium, ed. by Baynes and Moss, p. 238.