ÇANAKKALE ONSEKİZ MART ÜNİVERSİTESİ BALKAN VE EGE UYGULAMA VE ARAŞTIRMA MERKEZİ

ULUSLARARASI BALKAN TARİHİ VE KÜLTÜRÜ SEMPOZYUMU

6-8 EKİM 2016, ÇANAKKALE

BİLDİRİLER

CİLT II

EDİTÖR AŞKIN KOYUNCU

Çanakkale, 2017 WHO ARE BOSNIAN MUSLIMS – LITERARY NARRATIVES ABOUT BOSNIA AND BOSNIAN MUSLIMS IN THE PERIOD OF SOCIALIST YUGOSLAVIA

SABINA VELADŽIĆ*

INTRODUCTION - THEORETICAL APPROACH In my article, I treat the phenomenon of the nation - the community of the modern era - as a construction fabricated by the cultural *intelligentsia through firmly structured ideological narrative which is mainly being disseminated towards the members of the imagined community by the institutions which were created and maintained by the state.1 What connects the modern community and creates a historical and social entity out of it is a culture, as a complex of symbolically mediated unity within which all can become a symbol that encodes this fellowship.2Production and reproduction, i.e., maintenance of the modern community is enabled by the educational infrastructure that systematically raise members of the national community through ideological-cultural concept embedded in the historical, literary, linguistic narrations which are being presented to the subjects during and primarily through the educational process. In fact, as the cultural theorist and one of the founders of the theory of cultural remembrance, Ian Assman, correctly observes, referring to the French social psychologist Maurice Halbwasch, all the mentioned narratives emerge as cultural achievements, i.e., as social constructions closely related to the practical political aspirations of contemporary times.3 Literature has an important role in creating an imaginary universe of the symbolically mediated unity in a way that in suggestive, concrete and detailed way revives the image of imagined community and its symbolic world.4 In valorization, i.e., canonization of the literature decisive significance has - not only the literary and artistic value of the works, but also - the way in which this particular literary work presents certain community, i.e., geographic region or country. Which means that national literature represent in a certain sense a mirror in which the national-cultural intelligentsia/the literary critics “recognizes” and affirms „suitable“ reflection of the image of the national collective and its culture. Literary critique thus positions literary work within the created system of the collective literature and upgrades it ideologically, turning it occasionally, i.e. its content, into a symbolic figure of the collective culture of remembrance.5 A few facts about the context

* Mr. sc., University of , Institute for history, Alipašina 9, 71000 Sarajevo, , email: [email protected] 1 On this see: Gellner Ernest, Nacije i nacionalizam, Politička kultura, Zagreb 1998. 2 This definition of culture I took from: Assman Jan,Kulturno pamćenje, Vrijeme, Zenica 2005, p. 163. 3 Ibid, 55 4 On this see: Anderson Benedikt, Nacija: Zamišljena zajednica, Plato, Beograd 1998. 5 About the theoretical postmodern concept of collective culture of remembrance see: Kuljić Todor, Kultura sjećanjaTeorijska objašnjenja upotrebe prošlosti, Čigoja štampa, Beograd 2006. WHO ARE BOSNIAN MUSLIMS – LITERARY NARRATIVES ABOUT BOSNIA AND ... 343

After the Second World War communist Yugoslavia was established as a centralized state that was supposed to represent a profound shift in terms of equality of the republics and nations in comparison to the pre-war Yugoslavia Kingdom, whose statehood socialist one inherited. In fact, the new order fundamental principle of brotherhood and unity was about to sublimate in itself anticipations of the promised and rightful future. Through ideological discourse of the political elites in Yugoslavia, especially during the sixties and the seventies of the 20th century, at least formally efforts had been made to abandon and to overcome bourgeois xenophobic national myths and prejudices, and mega national encroachment in order to reach harmony and inter-ethnic cultural achievement of all recognized nations within the complex of the Yugoslav socialist community. Socio-political and national-cultural context of the communist Yugoslavia during the sixties of the 20th century was marked by the constitutional restructuring of the state. After breaking relations with Moscow, Yugoslav political leadership created the concept of self-government - supposed to determine the distinctive Yugoslav road to socialism. The outcome was long-term process of constitutional transformation of the country which was to be decentralized and in which the key political, economic, social and cultural entities and subjects had become republics.6 National question once again gained full legitimacy. The affirmation of - until then formally unrecognized - Muslim nation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the Montenegrin and the Macedonian, as national peripheries, had a role in creating a counterbalance to the dominant national-cultural subjects - Serbs and Croats.7 The formation of supranational communities, such as Yugoslav (or Bosnian) was firmly rejected as a form of denial of particular national identities, i.e., as a way of achieving the supremacy of the dominant and major nation. This conjuncture in the historical development of socialist Yugoslavia had important consequences in the form of ideological restructuring within the field of the national cultures and cultural narratives. Also, the launched process meant the beginning of the collapse of the Serbian cultural intelligentsia dream of creating an integrated social and cultural Yugoslavism which should permanently ensure territorial and social cohesion of the Serbs as the most widespread nation in Yugoslavia.8 Prospects of the Bosnian culture which should’ve strengthen the existence of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a social and political unit, in the early seventies of the 20th century, despite the obstacles, could clearly been seen. What I want to present on the following pages is the image of Bosnia as dark vilayet and the image of the Turkish guilt of Bosnian Muslims in literature - written by the writers from Bosnia to whom this country/region was an obsessive literary theme - and as well in literary criticism that had been created after the Second World war till the 60s of the 20th century in Bosnia.

6 On this see: Sabrina P. Ramet, Nationalism and Federalism in Yugoslavia 1962-1991 (Sec. ed.), Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis, 1992; Bilandžić Dušan, Hrvatska moderna povijest, Gol- den marketing, Zagreb 1999. 7 About the Yugoslav peripheries see: Kamberović Husnija, Josip Broz Tito i političko rukovodstvo Bosne i Herce- govine od sredine šezdesetih do sredine sedamdesetih godina XX stoljeća; In: Tito i Bosna i Hercegovina, Regio- nalni naučni skup (Collection of works), Savez društava Tito u Bosni i Hercegovini, Sarajevo 2006, p. 201-223 8 On this see: Dragović Soso Jasna, ‘Spasioci nacije Intelektualna opozicija Srbije i oživljavanje nacionaliz- ma, Fabrika knjiga, Beograd 2004. 344 SABINA VELADŽIĆ

But was that literature really Bosnian? And through which ideological perceptions was written? What makes described literary creation, among the rest, relevant and important for scientific study is that it had been proclaimed for Yugoslav literary canon, which meant that the presentation of images of Bosnia and the Muslim collective within it were legitimized through educational system, or in the time of social crisis this literature provided approval for otherwise unacceptable actions of national collective. The dominant ideological concept in the literature, literary criticism and literary-historical narrative in Bosnia in the 1950s and 1960s of the 20th century Although with hesitations, Bosnia and Herzegovina was recognized, by some of the key representatives of the Yugoslav leadership,9 as one of the equal political units of the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia after World War II - however, in reality, this equality, especially at the cultural level, was not implemented. Actually, even though - after World War II, Bosnia and Herzegovina, for the first time, as a result of, at least formally and in a conditional sense, restored medieval statehood - got the institutional and educational infrastructure that could’ve been a support for the foundation and production of certain Bosnian „cultural formation“ and reproduction of some Bosnian community - that did not happen. The main difference between Bosnia and other federal units was that this was not national republic, but multi-ethnic society in which, as a national and cultural entities, with a significant difference in the position and strength, officially existed Serbian and Croatian nation. According to the prevailing ideological concept at the time, Bosnia was one of the four republics - there were as well , Croatia, and - which formed the so-called Serbo-Croatian cultural area where the Serbo-Croatian language had been spoken and the Serbo-Croatian literature had been created. Mentioned nominations of cultural area of language and literature were not reflecting the so called “organic” state but represented the political, ideological, constructed concepts which had to confirm the cultural and political dominance of the two nations. The concept of the so called Serbo-Croatian culture within which, as one could see from the presented nominations, only two dominant of the four potential national- cultural subjectivity were being recognized (there „were no„ Muslims or Montenegrins) - presented narrower substitution of a supposed Yugoslav cultural integralism which, due to the linguistic diversity of Slovenes and Macedonians in a practical sense, couldn’t have been brought to life. As for the Bosnian Muslims, till the mid-60s of the 20th century in the scientific publications of the Serbian Academy of Science and Arts was claimed that, due to the atheism imposed to the society and predicted retreat of the religion, every trace of the specific Muslim identity will disappear and they will be restored to their original ethnic Serbo-Croatian roots. With this theory was not only the existence of modern categories such as nations projected in the historically distant Middle Ages but it had been insisted

9 On this see: Bandžović Safet, „Titov odnos prema izgradnji bosanskohercegovačke državnosti“, U: Tito i Bosna i Hercegovina , Savez društava Tito u Bosni i Hercegovini, Sarajevo 2006, p. 99-128 WHO ARE BOSNIAN MUSLIMS – LITERARY NARRATIVES ABOUT BOSNIA AND ... 345

on the fact that the identity of Bosnian Muslims i.e. Bosniaks was based exclusively on their religious distinctiveness.10 The dominant culture, which was, as a complex of symbolically mediated unity disseminated through the institutional and educational system in Bosnia and Herzegovina after the Second World War, had been actually Serbian, and to a lesser extent, Croatian, i.e., in terms of the literature that was, in the interwar period designed, that was Yugoslav culture enriched by war and post-war literary creations.11 Thus, in a cultural sense, Bosnia was not distinctive and autonomous Bosnian entity after the World War II - because specific Bosnian culture and its symbolism was neither defined nor designed, but - even though federal political unit - Bosnia was conceptually represented as a region12 in the cultural sense, i.e., as a distinctive exotic part of the unique Serbian / Croatian cultural space. Therefore cultural history of Bosnia, presented through literary-historical narrative, was social construction adjusted to the ideological and political concept of the Serbo-Croatian unity. For example – during 60s of the 20th century - the concept of Bosnia as of the central Serbo-Croatian area whose historical role and identity had been exhausting in connecting Serbo-Croatian national and cultural complex, remained valid and dominant, especially in the field of linguistics and literary narratives presented mainly by the Serbian cultural intelligentsia.13 Indirectly, thus possibility of imagining a distinctive cultural and historical Bosnian identity had been denied. Therefore, primarily Serbian national ideologists had constructed identity of Bosnia according to the nineteenth centuries idea of uniting the two culturally dominant nations - Serbian and Croatian - in the future common state, and the history of Bosnia had been conceptually adjusted to the aforementioned idea. Serbian cultural historian Vladimir Ćorović in his work, written in the early 20th century, and which remained the only comprehensive cultural history of Bosnia until the

10 Here’s how, within the ethnographic publication of the Serbian Academy of Science and Arts, the process of “secularization” of the Yugoslav Muslims - i.e. erasing trace of every kind of the Ottoman cultural impact which was essentially the backbone of their identity specificities - in the modern socialist era were being described: “During the last few decades gradually disappear differences that separate the Muslim population from the neighboring Christian; they receive a European urban costume, the type of house and furniture, they are leaving Muslim customs, conclude the marriage by the legislation applicable to the who- le population. There are more and more mixed marriages. They give Slavic names to their children, who are being educated in the same schools, etc. There is advanced process of national affiliation in duration among the Yugoslav Muslims to which contributes the weakening influence of religion.” Narodi Jugoslavi- je, Srpska akademija nauka i umjetnosti, Beograd 1965, p. 215 11 About the construction of the Yugoslav culture between the two World Wars and in the socialist period – the culture that was primarily based on the Serbian culture of remembrance see: Wachtel Baruch Andrew, Stvaranje nacije razaranje nacije Književna i kulturna politika u Jugoslaviji, Bošnjačka asocijacija 33, Sarajevo 2010. 12 Holm Sundhaussen in his article defines region as “(...) a part of a country or territory divided between two or more neighboring countries; sub-national territory or territory with its own profile in the border area of several states”. He notes that the characteristics with a long tradition make region recognisable, as well as “ history with political, cultural and / or ethnic specificities ,“ and that the most interesting regions are those with multi-ethnic and / or multi-religious composition of the population. Sundhausen Holm, „Od mita regije do ‘države na silu” Metamorfoze u Bosni i Hercegovini“, Prilozi Instituta za istoriju Sarajevo, 38, 2009, p. 16 13 On this see: Vuković Jovan, „Usklađenosti i neusklađenosti naših pogleda na probleme standardno jezičke po- litike“, Radovi Odjeljenja društvenih nauka ANU BiH, (L/17) (1974), p. 97-144; Marković Svetozar, „Naziv jezika i jezička tolerancija“, Prilozi nastavi srpskohrvatskog jezika i književnosti“, II/3, 1969/1970, p. 44-51; Ivić Pavle, „Naš jezik i naši narodi od Vuka do danas“, Zora (počasni broj), Mostar, 1968/1969, p. 11-34 346 SABINA VELADŽIĆ

beginning of the seventies of the 20th century,14 argued that the medieval Bosnian state at the peak of its territorial scope, led by Bosnian king Tvrtko I, actually played a historical role of some proto Yugoslav state, or to use a favorite phrase of the Serbian national ideologists in the time of socialism - the role of Yugoslavia in miniature.15 Ideological conception of Bosnia as Yugoslavia in miniature, i.e., as an experimental laboratory for Yugoslav society future survival was supposed to tie permanently the fate of both political „projects” and to put them on the same scale of historical meaning and importance. Thus, when in the early nineties of the 20th century the existence of the Yugoslav state came into question, Serbian national ideologists claimed that if Yugoslavia as a multi-ethnic society cannot survive, neither can and should Bosnia and Herzegovina. Proponents of the Bosnian statehood – mainly members of the Muslim cultural intelligentsia, on the other hand, had argued that unlike Yugoslavia, which had represented the realization of rather modern political project, Bosnia and Herzegovina was/is social entity with historical continuity.16 Until 1966 and the emergence of Meša Selimović novel Dervish and Death, as well as of Mak Dizdar’s collection poetry Stone Sleeper17 - Ivo Andrić work had been considered to be the sacrosanct top of literary creation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In fact, after the World War II, and especially after Andric had been awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1961, the writer became cultural icon of socialist Yugoslavia,18 and his work - Yugoslav literary canon. According to literary historian Andrew Wachtel – Andric’s The Bridge on the Drina represented the most important literary expression of the imagined Yugoslavian cultural identity, as it pointed at the same time at structural historical antagonism and conflicts of different religious and ethnic groups (in Bosnia), as well to their mutual, centuries long cooperation.19 Andrić’s ideological attitudes expressed in literature, his active involvement in the diplomatic service of the Kingdom of Serbs Croats Slovenians / Yugoslavia, and participation in the activities of the Serbian national youth organization Young Bosnia show him as a supporter of the unified Yugoslav cultural concept, within which the Serbian national culture of remembrance was dominant - concept that had been officially in force between the two world wars. Writer’s stances towards the Ottoman Empire, Bosnia, Muslims and

14 Maksimović Vojislav, „Do potpune pravedne afirmacije“,Odjek, XXIV/10, 15-31st of May 1971, Sarajevo, p. 5; The author of the article that was written in the early seventies of the 20th century notes that despite the methodological and conceptual unacceptability Ćorović book had remained until then the most complete study on the cultural history and literature of Bosnia and Herzegovina. 15 Ćorović Vladimir, Bosna i Hercegovina, Srpska književna zadruga, Grafički zavod „Makarije“ A.D. Beog- rad-Zemun, Beograd 1925. 16 About this I wrote in my master: Veladžić Sabina, Bošnjaci u Bosni i Hercegovini od 1990. do 1992. godi- ne: Uzroci i sredstva nacionalne homogenizacije; Manuscript of master thesis defended at the Faculty of Philosophy on 7th September 2011. 17 The aforementioned works - with the way they literary portrayed Bosnia and Bosniaks through the image that was acceptable and pleasing for the collective to be identified with - provided “arguments” for the Bosniak i.e. Bosnian national-cultural intelligentsia to fund Bosnian and Muslim literature. Filipović M, „Bosanski duh u književnosti – šta je to? Pokušaj istraživanja povodom zbirke poezije Maka Dizdara Kameni spavač“. Život, 3, Sarajevo, March 1967, p. 3-18; Begić Midhat, „Četiri romana“, Izraz, XI/12, Sarajevo, december 1967, p. 1155-1179 18 Wachtel, ibid, 188 19 Wachtel, ibid, 257 WHO ARE BOSNIAN MUSLIMS – LITERARY NARRATIVES ABOUT BOSNIA AND ... 347

Christians in Bosnia, that were widely popularized through his canonized literature, perhaps the most concretely had been reflected in his doctoral thesis The Development of Spiritual Life in Bosnia Under the Influence of Turkish Rule, defended in Graz in 1924. According to Andrić the arrival of the Turks caused a large-scale disturbance in the historic role of Bosnia, which had since then until the 19th century instead of connecting - actually divided Serbo-Croatian cultural complex “with large wall in the shadow of which”, as he writes in his dissertation, “five centuries of frightening history took place”.20 Five centuries of horrible history under the Turks had isolated Bosnia from the progressive impact of European thought and civilization and had turned it into a karakazan, dark vilayet, slowly progressing society of deep social and religious division that mainly, in ideological interpretations, matched, society of discrimination, oppression and hate. Because of the deep religious and social divisions of Bosnian society, ideologists implicitly suggested, religious/national groups in Bosnia existed as separated spiritual and cultural entities - next to each other and not with each other and therefore Bosnian cultural identity had never been born.21 According to the mentioned ideological interpretation, Bosnian Muslim converts were the main enforcers of repression and discrimination against their yesterday’s brothers and main supporters of the Turkish conqueror and authorities. That actually brings us to the question of the Bosnian Muslims’ “Turkish guilt”. Because, unlike the Kosovo heroes, converts had chosen kingdom of earth and for the material advantage they had betrayed their original identity. In this “fact”, according to the ideological interpretations, collective ethics had been reflected of those who had converted - ethics, born out of the act of betrayal. Petar II Petrović Njegoš, author of The Mountain Wreath, the book which was one of the crucial canonical works of Yugoslav literature, described converts as greedy cowards.22 An image of the Muslim community’s deviant mentality, their wild libido and impaired consciousness as literary, artistic and conceptual upgrade of the original thesis of the Bosnian Muslims’ Turkish guilt can be traced from the beginning of the 20th century, initially in a very impressive way in the Andric’s Turkish stories. The most striking ones are - the one about the protagonist of the battle, battle which represents important spot of Bosniaks’ cultural remembrance - this warrior is haunted by the guilt for the sexual abuse of four Crimean boys, in which he participated with fifteen Anatolian while fighting in Russia.23The second one is about military imam who gains sexual pleasure through sadistic behavior and slaughtering of young girls – actually the story ends with one of these scenes.24

20 Andrić Ivo, Razvoj duhovnog života u Bosni pod uticajem turske vladavine, Zadužbina „Petar Kočić“, Banja Luka, Beograd 2012, p. 32 21 On this see: Leovac Slavko, Svetlo i tamno, Pregled književnosti Bosne i Hercegovine 1918-1956, Džepna knjiga, Sarajevo 1957; Palavestra Predrag, Književnost Mlade Bosne I, Svjetlost, Sarajevo 1965; Krnjević Vuk, Antologija pripovjedača iz Bosne i Hercegovina, Svjetlost, Sarajevo 1967; Trifković Risto, Savre- mena književnost u Bosni i Hercegovini, Svjetlost, Sarajevo 1968; Petković Novica, „O jednoj doslednoj nedoslednosti“, Život, 5 Sarajevo, May 1967 22 Petrović Petar Njegoš, Gorski vijenac, Prosveta, Beograd 1947, p. 56 23 Andrić Ivo, „Mustafa Madžar“, In: Turske priče, , Beograd 2011, p. 119-138 24 Andrić, „Za logoravanja“, ibid, p. 139-152. One of the largest Bosnian literary critics and intellectuals - pro- fessor Midhat Begic suggested in 1973, during the Bosnia and Herzegovina Writers’ Association award ce- 348 SABINA VELADŽIĆ

Although the simple logic would lead us to conclusion that Muslims – due to their privileged social position and being more open and exposed to the cultural influence of the advanced Ottoman civilization – during the Ottoman rule over Bosnia produced, in comparison to their impoverished Christian compatriots, more significant material and spiritual culture – such an option had been, up until 1960s, strictly denied within the syncretic socio-national ideological interpretations in Yugoslavia and Bosnia. It was pointed out in eugenic manner that “the Turkish race” had transferred their warrior mentality to the Bosnian Muslims and therefore the cultural creation in Bosnian unstable social circumstances had a third-rate character and no greater artistic value. Literature heritage of Bosnian Muslims, created in Turkish, Arabic and Persian language, could not be considered as a reflection of national spirit, since it had been born in a language of invader, therefore in spirit of foreign stigmatized culture, religion and civilization. Even after the political recognition of Muslim nation, for some time their cultural heritage had been denied as retrograde and feudal, since its creation was attributed to the alienated and privileged social stratum that could not, as it was claimed, be the creator of the authentic folk culture. Even though, unlike the Bosnian Muslims, oppressed - Christians in Bosnia, according to the ideological interpretations, had developed - precisely because they were being subjected to the hostilities and oppression - an enviable moral ethics. Five-hundred years long slavery under the “Turks” during which they did not betray their “original” identity had honed and perfected, as it was imposed belief, the collective mentality of the Serbs. The above-described Serbian collective image and the image of deviant nature of Bosnian Muslims will appear again in the literature that at the end of the sixties of the 20th century arose in Bosnia. In this context I will mention Vojislav Lubarda and the published part of his book Proudly staggering – which provoked at the time wide public discussion in Bosnia and even further.25 In his book Lubarda describes in detail horrible crimes committed by fanatical Muslims, followers of the fascist occupier in Rogatica, small town in eastern Bosnia, during the World War II, over their yesterday’s godfathers, neighbors and friends - the Serbs.26The writer had skillfully interfered symbolic figures of the Serbian culture of remembrance through his literary narrative - long historical violence of “Turkish authorities” and mentally

remony, while mentioning, among others, Andric, that the writer projects his own personal darkness in to the world of his distinctive literary imagination. This could perhaps explain a subtlety of the sexual deviation that had been attributed to the Turks in Andric literature. Arhiv Bosne i Hercegovine, fund: Udruženje književnika Bosne i Hercegovine, Stenografske bilješke sa redovne Skupštine Udruženja književnika Bosne i Hercegovine, 7th March 1973, box 22, p. 9; Detailed analysis of the images of „Bosnian Turks“ in Andrić’s literary works can be found in : Rizvić Muhsin, Muslimani u Andrićevom svijetu, Ljiljan, Sarajevo 1995. 25 Stenografske bilješke sa sastanka Sekcije za pitanja kulture, nauke i umjetnosti Republičke konferencije SSRN BiH, 13th june 1969; I thank professor Husnija Kamberović who gave me this archiv document. 26 Underlining the moral nullity (nothingness) of the Muslim collective through their act of non-compliance with ethical sanctities such as friendship and neighborhood - necessarily imposes a parallel with what happened in Bosnia in the early nineties of the 20th century. Most shocking consequence, caused by the crimes of yesterday’s neighbours Serbs against Bosniaks, had been complete paranoia and collective revision of previous knowledge and beliefs about the brotherhood and unity. About that I already wrote in: Veladžić Sabina, „Kretanje ka nultoj tačci – politički narativ SDA 1990-1992. kao temelj kulture sjećanja Bošnjaka“, In: Cipek Tihomir (ed.), Kultura sjećanja: 1991. Povijesni lomovi i svladavanje prošlosti, Disput, Zagreb 2011, p. 299-312 WHO ARE BOSNIAN MUSLIMS – LITERARY NARRATIVES ABOUT BOSNIA AND ... 349

deranged Bosnian beys over domestic Christians.27Social and interethnic disturbances caused by Lubarda’s literary representation of past have been even more serious because, just like Andric, who had created an illusion, with his narrative style, of achieving complete, and scientific picture of Bosnian history in its literature, Lubarda claimed that the scenes, described in Prodly staggering were true, and that he witnessed them as an eleven year old boy. 28After being publicly condemned by the Bosnian authorities for his nationalistic public statements that followed discussions about the linguistic, i.e., national and cultural identity of Bosnia, Lubarda left Sarajevo in 1975 and went to , where he continued to develop ideological literary images of Bosnian karakazan divided by the centuries long mutual hatred of different religious/ethnic groups.29 The analyzed Serbian national discourse until sixties of the 20th century had a character of ideological paradigm and his articulation cannot exclusively be associated with Serbian cultural intelligentsia, but was imposed through educational system and socio-cultural, national dominance and accepted by leading Muslim intellectuals of the time. For example, Salko Nazečić, who was leading professor of literature at the Faculty of Philosophy in Sarajevo and one of its founders, in the Encyclopedia of Yugoslavia presented cultural life and literary creation in Bosnia and Herzegovina during Ottoman rule in the following manner: „Four hundred years of Turkish rule completely stopped every economic and cultural progress. There was no bourgeoisie in Bosnia and Herzegovina in that sense in what was in our other regions, and for rajas the only expression of national and cultural life was a folk song (epics) that talked about the past and stimulated the rebellions and uprisings, of which rajas expected better days. Religiously divided, economically impoverished and backward, Bosnia and Herzegovina in terms of Turkish feudalism was only able to give a religiously limited literature, empty and moralistic, without the deeper connection with life and its needs - more literacy than literature.“30 The same author will - while trying to present as historically progressive at least part of the stigmatized and rejected Muslim cultural heritage - localize “the Turkish guilt” on the Muslim beys. He will make significant effort to present an urban Muslim love song of the Ottoman period – sevdalinka – as socially engaged rebellious poetry of Muslim rayah.31 This example shows how the cultural heritage was being, in the ideological interpretations

27 Lubarda Vojislav, „Gordo posrtanje (I)“, Život, 4, Sarajevo, April 1969, p. 16-35; About the symbolic figu- res of the past in which history coagulates see: Assman, ibid, p. 61 28 On this see:.LubardaVojislav, Anatema, NIRO „Književne novine“, Beograd 1981; „Neshvatanje ili nespo- razum?“ (Objavljujemo pisma Predsjedništva Opštinske konferencije SSRN u Rogatici i autora romana Vojislava Lubarde), Oslobođenje, 7546, Sarajevo, 6th june 1969, p. 8 29 Images of deviant Bosnian muslims’ mentality will reappear in the literature at the beginning of the eighties of the 20th century in Yugoslavia after Tito’s death, together with the ideological revisionism through which the Serbian cultural inteligence were summarizing all the Serbian historical victories and defeats. In Vuk Drašković’s Knife Bosnian Muslims’ guilty conscience caused by the betrayal of their, as it was presented, initial christian and Serbian identity and by the centuries of oppression over their brothers will be detected as a major trigger of a disturbed collective Muslim mentality. And while the Turks were the other against which Serbs imagined their national identity, Bosnian Muslims were considered, in the aforementioned literature, as undesirable by-product of Ottoman rule that could not be restored to its original identity and moral condition. Drašković Vuk, Nož, Zapis, Beograd 1982. 30 Enciklopedija Jugoslavije, vol. 2, Leksikografski zavod FNRJ, Zagreb 1956, p. 72 31 Nazečić Salko, „O nekim pitanjima muslimanskih epskih pjesama“, U: Nazečić Salko, Marković Marko, Selimović Meša (ed.), Izbor književnih radova, Svjetlost, Sarajevo 1951, p. 258, 266, 267 350 SABINA VELADŽIĆ

of cultural intelligentsia, stretched as Procrustean bed in order to achieve, after this heritage went through stigmatizing process, its reaffirmation in the ideologically acceptable attire. It is important to mention the example of the ideological discourse of literary criticism, which was promoted in the early 70s of the 20th century as a significant link in the previous modest historical affirmation of the Muslim cultural development and heritage32 and was written by, at least formally, members of the Muslim collective. For example – Rizo Ramic’s book Awake Bosnia was written before the World War II but it was published in the mid-60s of the 20th century which meant that the discourse presented within it was ideologically acceptable for the communist elite, because Ramić valued the literature on the basis of its social engagement and through the perception of uncompromising social and class stance. In the book he treated the literary creation of the first generation of modern Muslim writers from the beginning of the 20th century as well. These writers were in the early 70s of the 20th century, during the process of the enthusiastic foundation of Muslim national culture, considered to be the first cultural revivalists of Muslim nation. Ramic had in turn defined these subsequent cultural reformers as promoters of the Ottoman civilizational backwardness whose traces - after the withdrawal of the Ottoman rule were beginning to disappear but literary-cultural activities of the mentioned Muslim intelligentsia, at the beginning of the 20th century, actually revived this east-oriental flavor in the culture of Bosnian Muslims. Orientalism is being revealed in the narrative of this critic, who will act in Bosnia during the communist rule - through negative images of Turks and the Ottoman rule, the images of the “degenerate beys” as “domestic exploiters and abusers”, and the suffering of “racially pure and vital peasantry” presented as the builders of more righteous and anticipated future.33It is necessary to mention that the social and national differences mainly matched, in these ideological interpretations, and that the majority of this “racially pure serfdom” presented Serbian peasantry. Ramic, in his book, claimed that the Christians and Jews were historically predestined to overthrow the feudal order and to establish modern European society in Bosnia. Why? Because they, as it was spreaded ideological conviction, belonged to the Western Christian culture, were open to the influence of the European civilization and, unlike Bosnian Muslims, had no political people to keep them in religious and political subordination.34 National-cultural and ideological consequences of the historical conjuncture from the 1960s in Bosnia and Herzegovina Along with the endeavor to make the process of political recognition of the national identity of Muslims35 widely accepted, both in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Yugoslavia,

32 Imamović Mustafa, „Studija o „kulturnom preporodu“ kod Muslimana“, Gledišta, 11/12, Beograd, novem- ber/december 1971, p. 1638-1644 33 Ramić Rizo, Budna Bosna, Svjetlost, Sarajevo 1966. 34 Ramić, ibid, 197; „Turkish guilt“ was at that time being localized at Muslim beys i.e. landholding class which represented political people. Professor Edin Radušić drew my attention to this fact. 35 Mentioned process began in the early 1960s, and was somehow rounded up with the 17th and 20th sessions of the Bosnian Central Committee, i.e. with the 1974 Constitution. On this see: Kamberović Husnija, “Bošnjaci 1968: Politički kontekst priznanja nacionalnog identiteta”, In: Rasprave o nacionalnom iden- titetu Bošnjaka, Institut za istoriju u Sarajevu, Sarajevo 2009, p. 59-81 WHO ARE BOSNIAN MUSLIMS – LITERARY NARRATIVES ABOUT BOSNIA AND ... 351

there was an attempt by the Bosnian political and cultural elite to prove, with the support of what was considered to be scientific results at the time, Slavic identity and origin of Bosnian Muslims and remove the stigma of “Turk” from them. Therefore, at the meetings of the Yugoslav republics’ party representatives - where intercultural disputes were discussed, which had been intensified in the second half of the sixties of the 20th century and were threatening social stability– Bosnian representatives insisted on Slavic origin of Bosnian Muslims and emphasized that beside the fact that there was “a national gap” in the educational system regarding Muslims, they, by inertion of the bourgeois historiography - dominant in the textbooks - were not treated as Slavs, but are identified with the Turks.36 Due to and as a result of the aforementioned constitutional changes - at the beginning of the 70s of the 20th century - with the support of the Bosnian political elite an attempt had been made to create Bosnian cultural identity. This process took a place in a very limited context, partly as a reaction to the dominant narrative, but mainly as a cultural support to political identity of Bosnia. Therefore, in order to establish Bosnian cultural structure - narratives of Bosnian historical continuity had been launched, fundaments of the Bosnian cultural identity had been sought in the Bosnian middle ages,37 the theory was developed of the Bosnian standard language expression/Bosnian language,38and finally discussions were led on whether could literary created in Bosnia be nominated, and therefore defined as Bosnian.39 Attempts to establish Bosnian culture had been accompanied with the process of establishing and legitimizing Muslim national culture. Often the same intellectuals constructed narrative for both cultures so the spots of the culture of remembrance of both cultural formations had largely coincided.40The most significant example of this compatibility is the myth of bogomils - members of the Bosnian medieval church - which is considered to be an emanation of the Bosnian distinctiveness not only at the religious but at the cultural level as well. The myth of bogomils as Muslims’ ancestors had a practical political purpose – of separating the Muslim ethno-genesis from Serbian and Croatian. Historical narratives, which developed the theory about Bosnian ethnicity formed in the Middle ages

36 Arhiv Jugoslavije, fund: CK SKJ Ideološka komisija (VIII) II/4-a-(68-79), Magnetofonske beleške sa sas- tanka Konsultativno-radne grupe Komisije Predsedništva SKJ za kulturu, 29th January 1971, box 49 37 Dizdar Mak, Stari bosanski epitafi, Sarajevo 1961.; Dizdar Mak, Stari bosanski tekstovi, Svjetlost, Sarajevo 1971; Dizdar Mak, „Marginalije na temu o kulturnom nasljeđu“, Izabrana djela Knjiga III, Eseji, Kritike, Dnevnik, Svjetlost, Sarajevo 1981, p. 33-42; Dizdar Mak, „Nad žutim pergamenama Bosne“, Odjek, 4, Sarajevo, winter 2007, p. 117-119 38 On theory of the Bosnian standard language expression see: Janković Srđan, „Pogled na bosanskoherce- govački međuvarijantni jezički tip“, Pregled, LVII/5, Sarajevo, May 1967, p. 419-450; Riđanović Mithat, Janković Srđan, „Pitanje standardnog jezika u Bosni i Hercegovini“, U: Petrović Milan, Suljević Kasim (ed.), Nacionalni odnosi danas (Prilog sagledavanju nacionalnih odnosa u Bosni i Hercegovini), Zavod za izdavanje udžbenika, Sarajevo 1971, p. 53-76; On pleading for Bosnian language see: Isaković Alija, „Varijante na popravnom ispitu“, Život, 11/12, Sarajevo, november-december, 1970, p. 54-72; Dizdar Mak, „Marginalije o jeziku i oko njega“, ibid, p. 109-120 39 On this see disscusion between Risto Trifković and Alija Isaković about stands brought in Trifković’s book Savremena književnost u Bosni i Hercegovini, Svjetlost, Sarajevo 1968.: Isaković Alija, „Pas svakoji svoje breme nosi“, Odjek, XXI/20, Sarajevo, 15th November 1968, p. 14; Trifković Risto, „Alijini(h) jada ili nešto pak deseto“, Odjek, XXII/1 Sarajevo, 1st January 1969, p. 22; Simpozijum o savremenoj književnosti Bosne i Hercegovine, Svjetlost, Sarajevo 1971. 40 Rizvić Muhsin, Iznad i ispod teksta Ogledi i kritike, Svjetlost, Sarajevo 1969; Rizvić Muhsin, Behar, kn- jiževnoistorijska monografija,Svjetlost, Sarajevo 1971. 352 SABINA VELADŽIĆ

as a result of the existing medieval Bosnian kingdom, was supposed to support establishing a distinctive Bosniak ethno-genesis.41 This theory should have legitimized the attempt of the contemporary renewal of the nomination Bosniak in the national attire. An important result of the process of the Muslim culture foundation was the legitimization of Islamic cultural heritage - as the backbone of the Muslim national identity - within the Bosnian culture. Thus, the picture of the Bosnian cultural landscape became sketchier because within it, at least according to the new Bosnian and Muslim culture of remembrance, no longer dominated single Serbian national-cultural line of literary and cultural development. CONCLUSION What were practical political goals standing behind the consistent use of narrative of Turkish guilt at the time of socialism? Essentially they could be reduced to maintenance of the perception of Muslims as artificial nation - politically ordained. Period of 1960s is marked, among other things, by discussions, conducted from opposing starting points, about the true nature of Bosniaks’ collective identity. Some of the Serbian and Croatian cultural intelligentsia claimed that the religion – Islam - in Muslims’ case cannot be the basis of specific national identity, since Bosnian Muslims were, as it was claimed, by their ethno-genesis, Serbs or Croats. Therefore – Bosnia as well was Serbo-Croatian region. Which means that practical goal was to prevent strengthening of any kind of the Bosnian cultural identity because this was representing a threat to the Serbian national identity for it was stabilizing Bosnia at the political and cultural level transforming it from the Serbian region to the Bosnian entity. Literature which promoted above presented images had its role in raising and feeding national prejudices and stereotypes, and it influenced the Serbian national homogenization, accumulation of collective hatred towards Muslims and frustration which had been at the time of social crisis in the late 80s of the 20th century strongly articulated. Mentioned prejudices that were part of the Serbian national culture of remembrance,42 and which in times of crisis were fueled with additional propaganda stimulation43- actually served as justification of the crimes that were to be committed against Bosniaks at the beginning of the nineties of the 20th century.

41 Redžić Enver, „O posebnosti bosanskih muslimana“, Pregled, LX/4, Sarajevo, April 1970, p. 457-488 42 On the Serbian national stereotypes see: Milosavljević Olivera, U tradiciji nacionalizma, ili stereotipi srpskih intelektualaca XX veka o „nama“ i „drugima“, Helsinški odbor za ljudska prava u Srbiji, Beograd 2002. 43 About „reactivated“ Serbian collective stereotypes at the end of the eighties and early nineties of the 20th century see: Tompson Mark, Proizvodnja rata: mediji u Srbiji, Hrvatskoj i Bosni i Hercegovini, Medija centar: Free B92, Beograd 2000, p. 116