Abstract:

Persuaded that epic Serbian poetry plays an exceptional part in the formation of the language itself as well as in the constitution of a national identity and collective memory, Vuk Karadjich hurries throughout his life to meet traditional epic-singers and note down their poems. It is in this way he is able to collect around one thousand popular songs.Vuk Karadjich’s criteria for systematisation take into account the thematic content of the poems. In his collection, he divides the songs into two categories: the female poems, dealing with appropriate subjects, and the masculine poems, evoking heroic themes, battles, wars, important people and events of history. The masculine songs are also at the centre of our research in this study. These poems of bloody battles and of national heroism are situated historically during the time of the Turkish invasions of the Serbian territories. Following the different periods of the Ottoman occupation, we can see the evolution of the image of the Turkish invader formed in the collective imaginary. In the Turkish occupation, the Serbs do not only see the cruel invader but above all they see their own adversity which makes them constantly call for vengeance and revolt. In this sense, the epic Serbian poetry from the era of the Turkish domination is but one long epic on a single theme: liberty.

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