SERBIAN STUDIES

3

SERBIAN STUDIES
PUBIJSHED BY THE NORTII AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR SERBIAN STUDIES

CONTENTS VOLUME 4, NUMBER 4 FALL 1988

Dusan Puvacic 5
THE ECHOES OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR IN IVO
ANDRIC'S PROSE

Edward Goy 22
THE PLAY TASANA BY BORISAV STANKOVIC

Andrei Simic 43
INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS AMONG THE SOUTH
SLAVS: PROBLEMS IN CROSS-CULTURAL PERCEPTION

Vasa D. Mihailovich 70
JOVAN DUCIC IN AMERICA

Alex N. Dragnich 88
SERBIAN CULTURE IN KOSOVO IN PAST AND PRESENT
TIMES

REVIEWS

Tatyana Popovic 112

Prince Marko: the Hero of South Slavic Epic
Syracuse
Syracuse University Press, 1988

XVIIT + 221 pp.

(Biljana Sljivic-Sim~ic)

BOOK REVIEWS 85

Tatyana Popovic. Prince Marko: the Hero of South Slavic Epic. Syracuse:

Syracuse University Press, 1988. Pp. XVIII + 221. Price: $32.00.

T. Popovic has written a comprehensive book on Kraljevic Marko for
which it was worth waiting over half a century, since the long introductory
chapter on Prince Marko which appeared in D.H. Low's: The Balads of
Marko Kralyevic in 1922 (reprinted in 1968 by Greenwood Press, N.Y.]. In
addition to the usual Preface. Acknowledgements and an Introduction, the
book consists of three major parts (1. "South Slavic Folk Literature", 3-13;
2. "Factual and Fictional Images of Prince Marko", 15-43; and 3. "Interplay
of Legend and History in Epic Songs In Prince Marko", 45-180). A Conclu-
sion (181-185), notes, selective bibliography and two indices (a general one
and one listing over hundred folk songs and their variants to which the
author refers in the text] complete the book.

In the Introduction, T.P. says that her book "attempts to meet the interests
and needs of both general and specialist readers", those "seeking knowledge
of distant cultures..." as well as "anthropologists, ethnologists, psycholo-
gists, sociologists, and students of Slavic studies and comparative literatures
(p. XV)". The author knew that it would not be an easy task to satisfy such
a wide spectrum of readers, but her attempt proved to be successful. With
the broad audience in mind, the author approached the Marko legend "as
a living force, everchanging and continuously adjusting to the needs of every
generation up to the present" (p. XVI).

Part I provides a concise overview of South Slavic civilization in the
Balkans and its folk literature, which has served for several centuries as a
fertile ground on which the Marko legend grew and developed. The hero's
place within that framework is clearly delineated and the major points of
the author's intentions specified.

In Part II, T.P. carefully separates the historical elements of the Marko
legend ("Prince Marko's Factual Image as Found in the Historical Sources")
from the fictional ones ("Prince Marko's Fictional Image in Epic Poetry")
in order to be able, in Part III, to analyze in detail "the interplay of legend
and history" in the epic cycle about Prince Marko. With its hundred thirty
four pages, Part III is by far the longest section of the book (Part [ has only
10 pages, Part II has 30). and represents the most important contribution of
the author to the existing literature about Prince Marko in English. Part III
is divided in subsections by motifs and follows Marko's epic life from birth
to death: "Birth of a Hero", "Father-Son Conflict", "Avenging the Father",
"Mother and Son", "Prince Marko and Women", "The Husband on His
Wife's Wedding", " An Anachronistic Wedding", "Fratricide", "Heroic
Drinking", "The Sultan's Vassal", "Knightly Adventures", "Rescue from
Captivity", "Marko Against the Rebels", "A Moslem Counterpart of Marko
(Djerzelez Alija), "Epic Death". In each subsection the data from all the
available South Slavic historical sources, folk songs and their variants are
brought together and carefully examined in order to illuminate the intricate
weavings of many South Slavic epic singers of several generations who

BOOK REVIEWS 86

created the Marko legend as we know it today.
Apart from its literary value, the abundance of material on Prince Marko

presented, and the detailed description and analysis of thematic segments
which form the cycle of Marko Kraljevic or Kra/i Marko, one of the most
pleasant and refreshing qualities of T.P.'s book is the calm, objective, schol-
arly tone in which the author \vrites about Marko whom she, correctly, treats
as the folk hero of all the Southern Slavs.

The book is technically well designed, has a tasteful cover and well cho-
sen illustrations, and almost no typographical errors. Among the few which
caught the reviewer's eye are Nemany£es instead of correct c, (p.3) and

zabavljafi, instead of correct c, (p.5). On p.84, a sentence has erroneous

tense agreement, possibly because of another typographical error (paragraph
1: "Prince Marko's mother either \VTongly evaluated... or nutures..." etc.).
T.P.'s book is available from the Syracuse University Press (1600 Jamesville
Avenue, Syracuse, N.Y. 13244) and is highly recommended for students of
Slavic folklore as well as for young Americans of South Slavic origin inter-
ested in their heritage.

Biljana Sljjivic-Simsic
University of Illinois at Chicago

BOOK REVIEWS 87

U tudem pristanistu: Antologijo zagranicne srpske poezije. Vasa L.D;,~ijd Mi-
hailovic, ed. Chicago: The author's edition, 1988. Pp. 1-287. Price: $11.00

A tireless literary scholar and enthusiastic cultural worker, Vasa D. Mi-
hailovic (henceforth V.M.) once again surprised us pleasantly with his new-
est book, an anthology of Serbian poetry abroad, which V.M . appropriately
entitled U tudem pristanistu. In his preface "Slovo iz tudine" ('A Message
from Abroad', pp. 11-15), V.M. determines the period covered in this an-
thology as the one following World War II. Furthermore, the poets consid-
ered for the inclusion had to have lived outside of their native Serbia for a
long period of time so that the emigration became for them "trajna sudbina"
('a permanent fate') . Consequently, Proka Jovkic, whose poetic opus belongs
to the early 20th century, and Ducic, Crnjanski and Petrovic, for whom the
emigration was not a permanent fate, were left out.

The anthology contains 208 poems written by twenty-two poets born be-
tween 1902 and 1949. The best represented are the poets of the generation
born in the 1920s (10 poets with 106 poems). Only four, with 37 poems,
represent the generations born in the 1930s (3) and 1940s (1) while eight
poets (with 65 poems) represent those born between 1902 and 1914. Of the
four women who contributed to this volume, the late Mara Tomasevic-
Karabas (6 poems) and Ljubica Grkovic-Bojanic (6) represent the oldest gen-
eration, while Kosara Gavrilovic (6 poems) and Milena Milil:ic (10) still
write poetry and belong to the active circles of Serbian poets in the U.S . Of
the 18 male poets, two are represented by 13 poems: Dragoljub R. AC:imovic
(1914-1986), who lived in Jonahesburg since 1955 and recently died there,
and Sava Janovic (1923- ) from the U.S.; four by 12 poems each: Rastko
Stanisic (1921 - ), Vukadin Kecan (1923- ), Mateja Matejic (1924- ) and
llirde Vid Tomasevic (1927- ), and eleven poems each: Dragoslav Dragu-
tinovic (1902- ), D. Rajkovic (1920- ), Vasa Mihailovic (1926- ) and Veljko
P. Bojic (1931- ), all from the U.S. The remaining poets contributed six to
nine poems each: Milan M. Petrovic, U.S.A. , 8; Dragoljub Paunic, West
Germany, 8: Vujadin Mijovic, France, 7; Slobodan Sebar (pseud. Dusan Mes-
arovic), France, 6; Branko V. Obradovic, U.S.A., 8; Milan B. Milenkovic,
France, 9; Vladimir Milicic, U.S.A., 9; and Thrde Nikolic, U.S.A., 7. Among
them the first four belong to the generations born before or during World
War I and the last one, born in 1949, is the youngest poet included in the
anthology. V.M. provides brief but very interesting bio-bibliographical notes
on each poet.

The compiler, who takes full responsibility for the final choice of poems,
in the process of selection applied the same three criteria (clarity, beauty
of emotions and of poetic form) which guided Bogdan Popovic in compiling
his famous Antologija novije srpske lirike (Belgrade, 1911). Along those
lines , poems which were exclusively patriotic ("sa iskljucivo patriotskim
sadriajem"), overtly political ("otvoreno politickog sadrzaja") and overly
didactic ("suvise poucne") or sentimental ["prevge sentirnentalne") were,
justifiably excluded. Also in the preface, V.M. explains why he used the

BOOK REVIEWS 88

adjective "zagranicna poezija" rather than "emigrantska" in the subtitle of
his book: "... ne postoji emigrantska knjizevnost ni poezija kao takva, vee
knjiZevnost pisana na strani, istim jezikom i u istoj kulturnoj tracliciji" (p.
14). The limited space for a book review makes it impossible to comment
on all the poets and their poems in the anthology, especially sinco they are
very versatile, both thematically and formally. The interested reader should
really read the whole volume carefully and slowly, poet by poet, in order
to find whose words, thoughts and emotions are the moist beautiful and
pleasing to him, most satisfying for his individual taste, and relevant for

his current mood.
This reviewer thoroughly enjoyed the book and thought that V.M.'s ad-

herence to strict literary standard has paid off: the compiler has produced
an anthology of Serbian poetry abroad of which he can be proud. U tudem
pristanistu is warmly recommended to everyone who reads and under-
stands Serbo-Croatian. It is to hope that V.M. would soon acquire financial
means to publish his anthology in English translation.*

Biljana Sljivic-Simsic
University of Illinois at Chicago

*The book costs $11.00 and can be purchased directly from Vasa Mihailovi6, 821

Emory Drive, Chapel Hill, NC 27514.