Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Literature
Towering over Montenegrin literature is Petar II Petrović Njegoš (1813-51); towering so
much, in fact, that his mausoleum overlooks the country from the top of the black moun-
tain itself. This poet and prince-bishop produced the country's most enduring work of lit-
erature,
Gorski vijenac
(The Mountain Wreath; 1847), a verse play romanticising the
struggle for freedom from the Ottomans. It's not without controversy as the story glorifies
the massacre of Muslims on Orthodox Christmas Eve in 1702, known as the Montenegrin
Vespers. It's not certain whether it actually happened, but according to the story Vladika
Danilo, Njegoš' great-granduncle, ordered the leaders of the Montenegrin tribes to kill all
of their kinspeople (men, women and children) who had converted to Islam. Some com-
mentators have drawn a parallel between this story of ethnic cleansing and the atrocities
that took place in Bosnia in the 1990s.
Following in the same epic tradition was Avdo Međedović (1875-1953), a peasant from
Bijelo Polje who was hailed as the most important
guslar
(singer/composer of epic poetry
accompanied by the
gusle,
a one-stringed folk instrument) of his time. If you think that
'Stairway to Heaven' is too long, it's lucky you didn't attend the marathon performance
over several days where Međedović is said to have recited a 13,331-line epic.
He may have been born a Bosnian Croat but Ivo Andrić (1892-1975), Yugoslavia's
greatest writer, had a home in Herceg Novi. Andrić was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1961
for his brilliant
Bridge over the Drina
(1945). While you're rafting along the Tara River,
it's worth remembering that the Tara becomes the Drina just over the Bosnian border.
Miodrag Bulatović (1930-91) was known for his black humour and graphic portrayals
of dark subjects. His most famous books such as
Hero on a Donkey
(1967)
, The Red
Rooster Flies Heavenward
(1959) and
The Four-Fingered People
(1975) are available in
English.
Danilo Kiš (1935-89) was an acclaimed author of the Yugoslav period who had several
novels translated into English, including
Hourglass
(1972) and
A Tomb for Boris
Davidovich
(1976). He was born in what is now Serbia but moved to Cetinje with his
Montenegrin mother after his Hungarian Jewish father was killed in the Holocaust.
Montenegrin-born Borislav Pekić (1930-92) was another significant name in Yugoslav
literature. His huge opus includes novels, dramas, science fiction, film scripts, essays and
political memoirs. His work has been translated into many languages but at present only
