The Literatures of Southeast-Europe - 15th to early 20th c.

A comparative philology and history of literature of Southeastern Europe, comparable to the presentations of the historians or linguists, is not really existent. The main reasons for this situation are the multiplicity of the specific languages spoken and written in this area and the traditions of research usually in an exclusive national framework, but also the fundamental methodological obstacle, that in principle works of poetry in different languages cannot be compared at all. Nevertheless, comparable beyond languages are stilistic tendencies, ideological similarities, conventions of expression, themes and motives, topics and genres, and in this field Southeastern Europe in modern times till the Avantgarde is proved as a fascinating area for comparative research, where not only works of Weltliteratur were created, but it was also influenced substantially by oral literature and shows in terms of cultural geography significantly stable long-term structures. This book offers for the first time a concise historic presentation of the belletristic literature of Hungarians, South Slavs, Rumanian, Turks, Albanians and Greeks after the fall of the Byzantine Empire till the establishment of Socialism in most of the countries in this area; this is not done according to countries and languages, but following periods and stylistic preferences, so that the possibility of an immediate translingual comparison is enhanced. The presentation is limited to the belles lettres, that is fictional poetic works with mostly aesthetic goals; therefore, different as in so many national histories of literature in Southeastern Europe, theological, philosophical, historical, didactic, pedagogic and devotional writings are excluded. Significant concern was given to list the specific bibliography of special studies in the footnotes, because in the case of the literatures of the Balkan area this bibliography may be extremely difficult to find. The presentation is divided in two main parts, the first concerning poetry and prose writing, the second drama and theatre. This was necessary, because in some genres no clear line can be drawn between versificated texts and use of prose, on the other hand drama writing is often immediately dependent from stage production, which has a different dynamic of evolution that the mere literary production. One of the most interesting results for the history of comparative literature is the fact, that the boundaries of genres are very porous; moreover some conventional philological terms for genres and styles, created in Central and Western Europe, seem inadequate, implemented on phenomena of Southeastern Europe literatures. As it seems the different and changing historical and social conditions of specific regions cause processes of reception, where the aesthetical and ideological substance of the western paradigmatical models are essentially modified and enter new combinations, nowhere else found in this way. An additional third part is dedicated to satire and parody as special forms of literature having partly goals beyond aesthetics, as well as to forms of literature heavily influence by orality, like the chap books and other popular reading materials. In a bibliographical section, besides a selected bibliography of the book there is offered also a commentated bibliography concerning a comparative philology and history of literature of the Southeastern European area; this is offered exactly to give to the specialists and other interested readers a bibliographical starting point in this vast field of research, where only a handful of specialists have some orientation. With this concise presentation a solid fundament is created for more specific translingual studies in Balkan comparatistics, specifically in comparative history of literature, which may elucidate this fascinating cultural area in its autonomy and significance, its difference and incomprehensibility, an area which is forming today, probably in terms of mentality but not in artistic production, the most difficult part of United Europe.