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Writers of Tales: a Study on National Literary Epic Poetry with a Comparative Analysis of the Albanian and South Slavic Cases

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Writers of Tales: a Study on National Literary Epic Poetry with a Comparative Analysis of the Albanian and South Slavic Cases DOI: 10.14754/CEU.2017.02 WRITERS OF TALES: A STUDY ON NATIONAL LITERARY EPIC POETRY WITH A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE ALBANIAN AND SOUTH SLAVIC CASES FRANCESCO LA ROCCA A DISSERTATION IN HISTORY Presented to the Faculties of the Central European University in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Budapest, Hungary 2016 Supervisor of Dissertation CEU eTD Collection György Endre Szőnyi DOI: 10.14754/CEU.2017.02 COPYRIGHT NOTICE AND STATEMENT OF RESPONSIBILITY Copyright in the text of this dissertation rests with the Author. Copies by any process, either in full or part, may be made only in accordance with the instructions given by the Author and lodged in the Central European University Library. Details may be obtained from the librarian. This page must form a part of any such copies made. Further copies made in accordance with such instructions may not be made without the written permission of the Author. I hereby declare that this dissertation contains no materials accepted for any other degrees in any other institutions and no materials previously written and/or published by another person unless otherwise noted. CEU eTD Collection DOI: 10.14754/CEU.2017.02 iii ABSTRACT In this dissertation I intend to investigate the history and theory of national literary epic poetry in Europe, paying particular attention to its development among Albanians, Croats, Montenegrins, and Serbs. The first chapters will be devoted to the elaboration of a proper theoretical background and historical framing to the concept of national epic poetry and its role in the cultivation of national thought in Europe. The second part will flesh out national epos among Albanians and South Slavs by the means of a comparative analysis of some epics belonging to these literary cultures. In order to carry a comparison methodologically as solid as possible, I will investigate how the authors of epos have dealt with three key elements which I regard as crucial in the context of cultural nationalism: The study of these three elements, i.e. kinship, religion, and patriotism, constitute what I would like to call the “Tripod model”. Whereas the importance of folk traditions in European cultural nationalism has been the focus of many valuable studies, the elaboration and communication of national/nationalistic ideas by the means of literary epics has met with relatively little attention from the scholarly world, despite the relevance some of these epics had (and still have) in many East European countries. By investigating the theory and history of national epic poetry, this project aims at filling this gap by providing an original contribution to the study of cultural nationalism in Europe. CEU eTD Collection DOI: 10.14754/CEU.2017.02 iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis would have not been possible but for the help of those who have been stood by my side over these years. First and foremost I wholeheartedly thank my supervisor György Szőnyi who took the trouble of supporting and guiding me during the research process. Non in lingua, sed in corde sapientia. Particular credit for providing me with some invaluable insights on cultural nationalism goes to Guy Beiner and Daniel Baric, who have helped me understanding the complexity of nineteenth-century national thought in Europe. I shall also thank Nathalie Clayer, for her insightful suggestions pushed me to rethink some assumptions I had on the Albanian nation-building process. Further references and suggestions have been kindly provided by Rusana Beyleri, Erika Kallin, Kendra Willson and Magda Zakowska. These years spent at Central European University as a PhD student have been crucial in my growth as a scholar and as a person, therefore my deep gratitude goes to all the CEU professors and fellow students whose presence has helped me during my life as a PhD candidate. I should also like to extend my thanks to CEU for the generous economic support I have received for my research and other activities as well. It gives me pleasure to extend my thanks to the American Research Center in Sofia CEU eTD Collection for accepting me as a pre-doctoral fellow in Autumn 2014. The fellowship allowed me to access the rich sources on Balkan history and literary cultures kept in the Bulgarian libraries. DOI: 10.14754/CEU.2017.02 v I am grateful to the directors and staff members of the libraries which I have worked in, and particularly the Philology Library and the Bibliotheca Nordica of the Kliment Ohridski University, the library of the American Research Center in Sofia, the library of the Albanian Studies Institute of La Sapienza University of Rome (my first “home” as an Albanologist, having studied there with Brunilda Dashi and Elio Miracco), and of course the Central European University Library. I am particularly indebted to the librarian of the Institute of Balkan Studies (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences) Emilia Petrova, to Tijana Galić of the Serbian Cultural and Documentation Centre in Hungary, to Mónika Segesdi of the Estonian Institute in Hungary, and to Jelena Jovin and Péter Heinermann of the Matica Srpska (Novi Sad/Újvidék, Serbia) for their friendly and enthusiastic support. It gives me the greatest personal pleasure to express my gratitude to my kum Oskar Mulej, who kindly agreed to proofread my Serbo-Croatian texts and translations. Of course, I bear the whole responsibility for any eventual mistake. I also want to thank all those friends and acquaintances who, albeit being totally alien to my research field or to the academic world, have provided me with so many unforgettable moments which admittedly made my PhD years an experience worthy to be lived. As always, I am immensely grateful to my family for the moral and financial support they have always provided me with. They gave me the strength to do what I CEU eTD Collection have done so far. Last but not least, pursuing my PhD at CEU has allowed me to meet a student from the History MA programme, Borbála Klacsmann. Soon acquaintance became friendship and eventually friendship became love. Now we are married. During the time I was writing this thesis, she has been an inspiration, a competent advisor, and a DOI: 10.14754/CEU.2017.02 vi never-ending source of happiness to me – something admittedly more valuable and important than any degree, scholarship or acknowledgment I will ever receive in my entire life. CEU eTD Collection DOI: 10.14754/CEU.2017.02 vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................................... iv TABLE OF CONTENTS .......................................................................................................... vii List of Illustrations ...................................................................................................................... x INTRODUCTION: FORGING A NATION IN POETRY ........................................................ 1 Studies on Cultural Nationalism in the Balkans: An Overview ............................................. 3 On South Slavic Cultural Nationalism ............................................................................... 4 On Albanian Cultural Nationalism..................................................................................... 7 Histoire croisée .................................................................................................................. 9 Comparative Studies ........................................................................................................ 10 Some Preliminary Remarks ................................................................................................. 15 Tricky Terms: Croatian, Serbian or Serbo-Croatian? ...................................................... 15 More Tricky Terms: Montenegrin, Serb or Serbo-Montenegrin? .................................... 19 One Last Tricky Term: South Slavic ............................................................................... 19 What about Bosnian Muslims? ........................................................................................ 20 Notes on the Translations and Spelling ............................................................................ 21 Chapter 1: from Nationalism to Cultural Nationalism: In Search of a New Approach ........... 23 Nationalism Studies and Their Evolution ............................................................................ 23 The First Generation (1940s-1950s) ................................................................................ 24 The Second Generation (1960s-1990s) ............................................................................ 25 The Third Generation (1980s-2010s) ............................................................................... 28 The Fourth Generation (2000s-2010s) ............................................................................. 31 Pros, Cons and an Attempt at Positioning ........................................................................ 33 What is a Nation? An Evasive Answer ................................................................................ 35 CHAPTER 2: TAXONOMY OF national literary epic poetry ................................................ 37 Bringing Epic Home ............................................................................................................ 38 CEU eTD Collection
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