The literature of Bosnia and Herzegovina is a complex literary production within Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is seen as a unique, singular literature of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosnian and Herzegovinian literature, or Bosnian literature), consisting of literary traditions of the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In various times and periods in history, it is written in Serbo-Croatian, Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian languages, using both Latin and Cyrillic scripts. Historically, it also used Ladino, Arabic, Persian and Ottoman-Turkish, with a use of peculiar form known as Aljamiado and Arebica. Hence, the literature of Bosnia and Herzegovina was realized within the framework of multicultural-civilizational paradigm. It is closely related to other South Slavic literature.
The most important representatives of modern literature are writers such as Ivo Andrić, Meša Selimović, Enver Čolaković, Branko Ćopić, Derviš Sušić, poets such as Mak Dizdar, Aleksa Šantić, Antun Branko Šimić, Izet Sarajlić, essayists such as Hamdija Kreševljaković, and present-day contemporaries such as poet Marko Vešović, playwright Abdulah Sidran, novelists Aleksandar Hemon, Miljenko Jergović, Saša Stanišić, and Andrej Nikolaidis, essayist Ivan Lovrenović, Željko Ivanković, Dubravko Lovrenović, Predrag Matvejević, and many others.
Going back to the medieval times, literature was predominantly ecclesiastical, with literacy revolving around a production of the Bosnian Church, and other religious liturgical, diplomatic and trade texts, based in Bosnian vernacular, an old form of Shtokavian dialect, Ijekavian dialect, in some cases Old Slavic, and using Bosančica () and Glagolitic scripts. One specific peculiarity of this period in Bosnia and Herzegovina are written monuments in form of stećaks. The international trade agreement between Republic of Ragusa and the Bosnian medieval state of Ban Kulin, the Ban Kulin's charter, written in Bosnian vernacular using Bosančica, is the first such document among South Slavs, which appeared half a century earlier than first charter of any kind in Germany (the first one was from 1238/9), and just a little later than first such document in Christian Spain and southern France.
From late medieval and early modern times onward, the role of the Bosnian Franciscans became crucial for the literary developments, and their production in the same Bosnian vernacular Narodni jezik (), written in Bosančica, became an integral part of the Bosnia and Herzegovina literature, with Matija Divković, the first Bosnian typographer who in 1611 printed the first Bosnian book, written in Bosnian using Bosančica, being dubbed the founding father of Bosnia and Herzegovina literature.
Background and theoretical basis
The literature of Bosnia and Herzegovina is a complex literary production within Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is seen as a unique, singular literature of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosnian and Herzegovinian literature, or Bosnian literature), which consists of literary traditions of the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina, including parallel literature of Bosniaks, literature of Bosnian Croats, literature of Bosnian Serbs. and literature of minority groups such as literature of Jews of Bosnia and Herzegovina, literature of Romani of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Depending on the period in history, it is written in Serbo-Croatian, Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian language, and uses both Latin and Cyrillic scripts, and historically, it used Ladino, Arabic, Persian and Ottoman-Turkish, with a use of peculiar form known as Aljamiado and Arebica. Hence, literature of Bosnia and Herzegovina was realized within the framework of multicultural-civilizational paradigm. It is closely related to other South Slavic literature. Alt URL
The cultural identity of Bosnia and Herzegovina should be understood through its "composite integrity". The cultural traditions of the Bosnia and Herzegovina peoples are in a specific relationship, which is characterized by a constant oscillation between integral Bosnian identity and national peculiarities. Regardless of social circumstances, periodically even cultural isolationism, neither of these two characteristics have been completely suppressed. Based on this legacy of the contemporary cultural context, the conceptual determinant that is the "literature of the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina" gains the scope which transcends national and state framework when it comes to the possibility of including integral literary traditions of all people historically, and three constituent peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina in modern sense. The essence is that individual national literature, Croatian, Serbian, Montenegrin and Bosniak, cannot be tied to the borders of nation states anyway, as all these peoples, in the status of a constitutive or national minority, live in all four countries, with a cultural spaces overlapping and interfere with each other. Such circumstances justify the multiple affiliation of some authors to more than one literature, and the best example is Ivo Andrić, who equally belongs to Bosnian, Serbian and Croatian literature, respectively.
Bosnian literature, which includes literary traditions originated in Bosnia and Herzegovina, according to Muhsin Rizvić is based on: awareness of each literary tradition about itself and its own continuity; awareness of the Bosnian and Herzegovinian community and commonality which arises from evident tolerance towards other literary traditions, and from knowledge of the autochthonous position of each tradition on Bosnian and Herzegovinian soil; awareness of mutual relations that are necessary on the line of common language, on the line of historical destiny of common life and interests of maintenance, on the line of common mutual themes, ideology of social survival, and, finally, on the line of interest of stylistic-aesthetic commonalities and permeation; awareness of the innate venturing into the Serbian and Croatian literature of Serbian and Croatian writers - taking Serbian and Croatian literary works as a model in the line of literary and stylistic features of the common language and South Slavic reciprocity.
Name Until the middle of the last century, the term "literature in Bosnia and Herzegovina" was in use, but as early as 1950 the literary theory adopts the term "Bosnian and Herzegovinian literature" (or "Bosnian-Herzegovinian literature"; ). Author after author argue for its natural application, rejecting criticism that appeared outside of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in Serbia and Croatia. Theorist of literature and other scholars in related fields produced numerous works on the subject, such as 1950 Collection of Contemporary Bosnian-Herzegovinian Prose by Salko Nazečić, Ilija Kecmanović and Marko Marković, 1961 Panorama of Bosnian-Herzegovinian Poetry by Risto Trifković and Panorama of Bosnian-Herzegovinian Prose by Mak Dizdar. In 1970, Radovan Vučković wrote a study On some issues of approach to Bosnian-Herzegovinian literature, while in 1974, Vojislav Maksimović published the anthology Bosnian-Herzegovinian Literary Review 1910-1941, Ivan Kordić published the Anthology of Bosnian-Herzegovinian Poetry, and a three-volume Bosnian-Herzegovinian Literary Chrestomathy was published. Outside Bosnia and Herzegovina in neighboring Croatia and Serbia, the term was not always welcomed, but scholars such as Professor Zvonko Kovač fully embraced it, making clear in 1987 Interpretive Context that the term is "gaining more and more weight as an integral literary-historical concept".
Inter-literary community The interliterary, as part of the study of Literary Comparison, is a study of the concept of interliterariness and interliterary communities.
History
Bosnia and Herzegovina literary heritage can be assessed starting back from the Middle Ages. It is closely related to other South Slavic literature, and sometime has been even treated as part of the Serbian and Croatian literature, respectively. Although, not as notable as medieval Serbian, Ragusan or Dalmatian, in terms of quantity, it is, however, among oldest. The first monuments of South Slavic literacy appeared at the Bosnian-Herzegovinian soil. Among the oldest inscriptions, are two written in Bosnian Cyrillic, and both from Bosnia and Herzegovina, the first is grave inscription of the župan of Trebinje, Župan Grd from around 1180, and the second is the church inscription of Ban Kulin from around 1185, found near Visoko, and today it is kept in the Sarajevo Museum. The oldest known charter among South Slavs also originates from Bosnia, and is written in Bosnian vernacular, so-called Narodni jezik (), and in Bosančica (). It was the trade agreement between Republic of Ragusa and the Bosnian medieval state of Ban Kulin from 29 August 1189, the Ban Kulin's charter, which appeared half a century earlier than the first charter of any kind among Germans (the first one was from 1238/9), and just a little later than first such document in Christian Spain and southern France.
The oldest preserved Bosnian inscriptions are considered to be the Humac tablet (, ), Tablet and Charter of Ban Kulin, and stećak inscription of Grdeša, the župan of Trebinje, now in the church in Police near Trebinje, written around 1180. Humac Tablet is inscribed into stone tablet between the 10th and 12th century, which puts it at older date than Tablet of Ban Kulin (cca. 1185) and Charter of Ban Kulin written on 29 August 1189. The text is written is an Old Slavic epigraph in Bosnian Cyrillic script, and dated to the end of the 10th or the beginning of the 11th century, possibly to the beginning of the 12th century.
Sometime between 16th and 17th century Bosnian Muslims, who previously wrote in Arabic and Turkish, now began writing in the spoken local vernacular (Narodni jezik), but used Arabic writing system (also known as Arebica or Arabica), unlike Christians, especially Bosnian Franciscans, who continued to use Bosnian Cyrillic. During 17th century, a more extensive literary activity began to emerge. Also, the three largest religions (Islam, Orthodoxy and Catholicism) began solidifying toward ethnic identity during the late 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, which pushed the literature in Bosnia and Herzegovina to develop in three directions, all linked to church texts and institutions, but despite differences, the three orientations remained similar in character.
Medieval literacy
Such medieval writings, found in Bosnia and Herzegovina, produced during medieval period in Bosnian history, which included parts of Dalmatia, Old Herzegovina, revolve around liturgical literature production, such as Divoševo jevanđelje (), Grškovićev odlomak Apostola (), the Hrvoje's Missal, Hval's Codex (Hvalov zbornik, or Hvalov rukopis / Хвалов рукопис; ), Mletačka apokalipsa (), Čajniče Gospel (Čajničko jevanđelje), belong to the Bosnian literature, and are considered the written heritage, but not a literature in the strict modern sense. The manuscripts belonging to the Bosnian Church, are important part of the literary production during this period. Some of these manuscripts have some iconographic elements which are not in concordance with the supposed theological doctrine of the Christians, like the Annunciation, the Crucifixion and the Ascension. All of the important Bosnian Church books, such as Nikoljsko jevanđelje (), Srećkovićevo jevanđelje (), Hvalov zbornik (), Radosavljeva bosanska knjiga (or Rukopis krstjanina Radosava, or Zbornik krstjanina Radosava; ), are based on Glagolitic Church books.