An evaluation of Bosnian-Herzegovinian literature in evey respect, puts forth that both its fundamental and the most developed form of literature is short story in consideration. As put forward by Ender Kazaz in the introduction of Anthology of Bosnian-Herzegovinian Short Stories published in 2000; Bosnian-Herzegovinian literature has expressed its identitiy in short story form at best. Bosnian-Herzegovinian literature has definitely displayed aesthetical values in short stories. In the short story writing developed during the first half of the twentieth century, Bosnian-Herzegovinian literature has presented itself as a whole. This property can be verified reading the first modern anthology book published in 1979 by Yovan Krshich.
Short stories take part in modern Bosnian-Herzegovinian literature as much as poetry. It can be said that the short story writing of today had been grounded during the last decade of the nineteenth century. As widely known, Bosnian-Herzegovinian land had been subject to great historical changes during the second half of the nineteenth century – the empires ruling the land substituted then. As the Ottoman's were retreating, the Austrian-Hungarian Empire was coming to power. This major change had also affected the cultural life intensively. Consequently, there had been a stagnation for about a decade in literature, which is called «silence» in related written references. Then, in 80s, the cultural activities began to revive. There are two solid works which are thought to be among the triggering factors of this new atmosphere of revival: The Literal Riches of Our People prepared by Mehmed Kapetanovich Liubushak, and Epopes of Bosnian-Hercegovinian People prepared by Costa Heurman in two volumes. These two works had been the symbols of the cultural revival. The intellectual people who took a step forward to the revival, were the ones who started to write their works in their native language using the Latin alphabet. In this respect, the usage of the native language and the Latin alphabet was among the most important factors in the formation of modern Bosnian-Herzegovinian short story writing. Among these writers, two of them are mentioned as leaders: One of them is Edhem Mulabdich, and the other – Osman Nuri Hadjich. These two published their story books as early as the last years of the nineteenth century and gave the literal activities in the region a direction.
In 1900, the first issue of the magazine Behar was published. This magazine, which saved a significant amount of place for literature in its pages, kept its quality for being a magazine which attracted a wide range of readers' attention for many years. Besides, the culture association named Endeavor founded in 1903 made great contributions in the favour of the cultural activities in Bosnia-Herzegovina. It is a responsibility to mention that the magazines and the newspapers which began to publish more copies in 1900, made significant contributions for the development of short story as a form of literature.
In this period which is defined as the cultural revival, literature represents an important characteristic; the Bosnian-Herzegovinian people were going back towards their folkloric values. The folkloric literal works belonging to former periods were being gathered and evaluated systemmatically; and these were accepted to be the grounds for the cultural revival to rise up. On the other hand, this period witnessing the substitution of the empires, had brought new literal expressions and new ideological points of view to comprehend the new world. Consequently, it was necessary to preserve the essential values of the native culture in this period of great changes. On these grounds, Bosnian-Herzegovinian writers were in an effort searching for stylizations to write poems and short stories in the modern sense.
In studies about the origins of poetry, oral folkloric literature and a lyrical form of poetry called «sevdalinka», Bosnian City Song or Bosnian Ballad take the first place. Bosnian Divan poets' couplets has affected modern Bosnian poetry too; for these were taken as models sometimes by subsequent generations. If the inheritance of Pre-Islamic, Old Balkans, Archaic, Middle Age Bosnian Goverment etc. periods taking place in Bosnian memory is added to the formerly mentioned ones, the main values on which the Bosnian poetry rise can be seen.
Short story writers' situation, on the other hand, was different. Since the main course of the culture they took over was poetry, they had no authentic or developed models of expressions to move on. Therefore; besides formerly mentioned Edhem Mulabdich and Osman Nuri Hadjich, writers like Shemsuddin Sarailich and Hivzi Bielavadj had turned to narrative forms of oral literature and forms of literature like «eastern story» and «anecdote». The folkloric elements gathered and evaluated in this period took their place in these writers' short stories. Likewise, during this period, in European literature, mostly preferred neo-romantic poetica was taking its imagination power from folkloric inheritance and eastern stories.
These short story writers of the early period were in a manner exalting the family and virtues, and encouraging love. No deep dramatic struggles took place in their stories; their characters always managed to balance between the world and mankind at the end.
Bosnian short story writing of the early period has yet another important property: its lyrical atmosphere. Being loyal to lyrical tradition while ignoring epic tradition is a common characteristic of Bosnian writers. Bosnian short story, in its early period, made connections between the events taking place in the real life and the personal experiences. Despite the wide spectra of their subjects and their expression styles, it is hard to say that aesthetical values were developed in these stories. On the other hand, this early period short story writing stands at the beginning point of some important movements which were dominant until 1918. After Edhem Mulabdich and Osman Nuri Hadjich, some writers put their works on paper in a neo-romantic atmosphere, and also included some didactic elements. Some others developed a naturalist style in their short stories.
Development of the modern literature consciousness began with abandoning the society plot seen in the oral literature and working more on the individual plot. The short story writer who preferred to give up the idyllic atmosphere of folkloric literature for the first time was Hamid Shahinovich. Shahinovich brought his atmosphere through his short stories, in which he told about the effects of the socio-economic problems of his time on people from an intellectual's point of view, and which were published in Behar between 1901 and 1910. Although his stories reflected the inner man still in a neo-romantic atmosphere aesthetically, Hamid Shahinovich paved the way for the short story writers Abdurrezak Hivzi Bielevadj, Nafia Sarailich, Isak Samokovlia, Petar Kochich and Svetozar Chorovich who gave some succesful works before World War I. These writers worked on their subjects in an intellectual manner and stopped using the exaggerating style which was thought to be a necessity then. Their stories show that they preferred the neo-symbolic movements in literature.
As put forward by the literature historian Zdenco Leshich, the end of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentienth century can be defined as a «short story period» in Bosnian-Herzegovinian literature. Carrying his point of view from the history of literature to the plot of literature sociology, Leshich evaluates the period as an appropriate time for the development of the short story writing, and describes his views with the following statements: «In those years it was life itself, giving direction to arts. Life styles of the time was bringing the most appropriate materials for the essence of the short story form.»
In Bosnian-Herzegovinian short stories put down on paper in that period, the hero was searching for the authentic values for survival, in order to prevent the social structure from collapsing and to establish the points of view on which the future could be built. If this dimension of the poetic model seen in Bosnian-Herzegovinian short stories is taken into account, it can be stated that the short story of the period has the property of a short novel. This point of view was originally suggested by Yovan Krshich, in the introduction of the formerly mentioned anthology book. One of the significant attributes of this period is the plain usage of the language in the stories and the care given to the poetic function of the language. Even though it's impossible to say that these attributes are sufficient to define a typical expression style, it can be stated that the outline of the style is designated.
As widely known, short story in modern literature is built on fictions, even when the world of the story is taken from the history or the real life. Bosnian short story writing which had been taking its fiction patterns from the folkloric inheritance at the beginning, gave up its didactic function and started to care more about fiction in time.
This attitude can be seen in the short stories written in the years following World War I. Writers like Hamza Humo and Ahmed Muradbegivich of the new generation devoted themselves to the avant-garde atmosphere of the period which was based on expressionism. Most of the critics has stated that the short stories of Hamza Humo has an intense lyrical dimension. The reasoning they suggest is the big lyric revolution which was accepted by the writers of the new generation after World War I. Hamza Humo's successful lyrical novel Song of the Wren is still an oftenly used reference by literature historians and researchers.
In his first short story book named Noah's Ark, Ahmed Muradbegovich gave up the traditional style of neo-romantic Bosnian stories which was used for a long time comparably, and he preferred experiencing expressionism. Muradbegovich differs from the former writers in his way of representing the family: The family was no longer a statical and peaceful constitution in his works; he tried to put the condradictions, different opinions and the opposing comprehensions of traditional values down on paper.
Writers lik Hasan Kickich, Ziya Dizdarovich and Skender Kulenovic followed the tracks of Ahmed Muradbegovich and Hamza Humo, and kept on telling about the lives of their people. In the first stories of Hasan Kickich, traditional neoromantic aspects of Bosnian short story writing are clearly seen, but his later works of older age show more complex structures and different expression styles. The writer presented most of his short stories in the issues of the magazine Guide which was published by Skender Kulenovich, Saphet Crupich and the writer himself. Through this magazine, Hasan Kickich affected the following generation of writers.
Skender Kulenovich and Zia Dizdarevich dealt mostly with social subjects and wrote about the everyday life in small towns of Bosnia. Zia Dizdarevich's stories never showed a pseudo-romantic world image; instead, the real lives of poor and forgotten Bosnian people took place in them. Since he cared about the details so much in his short stories, we can say that Dizdarevich was a master of details. These details helped the mentality of the Bosnian people and the social realities between the two world wars become clearer.
Ivo Andrich takes an important place in Bosnian-Herzegovinian literature of the period between the two world wars. This writer dealt with the lives of people having different social backgrounds, tried to analyze them psychologically and found out the social contradictions in a realistic attitude. An important point about Ivo Andrich is that his works show a synthesis of expressions gained so far in Bosnian-Hercegovinian literature. Works of Ivo Andrich, Chamil Siyarich and Isak Samokovlia can be evaluated as the grounds established for the short stories put down on paper after World War II.
Short stories about social subjects were still being written after World War II. This trend was also seen in the other regions of Yugoslavia, which was a country founded after World War II. In this social realistic attitude, the creative consciousness was in harmony with the ideological elements. The most necessary subject of the prose in that period was war and reconstruction; mostly preferred forms of literature were feature reports, autographs and memoires; and the most important aesthetical value was the style used, which made the prose about the subject interesting. Being in charge as an aesthetical value, this «non-literal» criterion affected a significant amount of early age short stories and other proses of writers like Skender Kulenovich, Zaim Topchich, Mesha Selimovich and Dervish Sushich. These writers' early short stories can be evaluated as neo-realistic works. These stories had narrators who only watched the events and told about them objectively. This style of expression was dominant in Bosnian-Herzegovinian literature for a long time. Even after writers from the other regions of Yugoslavia had given up, Bosnian-Herzegovinian writers kept on using it. The «free creativity» view, as put forth in consideration by a great Croatian writer and intellectual Miroslav Krleja in 1952 at the Congress of Liubliana, found its «Bosnian echoes» in the prose of Skender Kulenovich, Ivan Focht and Ivan Fogel.
The new generation who stopped using the traditional expression styles took over the scene in the 60s. Writers like Alia Isakovich, Mirko Kovach, Vitomir Lukich, Sead Fetahagich and Nedjad Ibrishimovich brought new styles of modern expressions with their short stories. Skender Kulenovich, Mesha Selimovich and Dervish Sushich had already given the signs of the transition fom social-realism to modern expression styles. In order to understand his attitude properly, it was necessary to wait for the later works of a writer. For instance, The Fog and The Moonlight by Mehmed Selimovich reflected the writer was becoming mature. This short story of his acted as a harald for his novels The Dervish and Death and The Citadel which take a very important place in Bosnian-Herzegovinian literature.
The transition from the general subjects to the individual plot shows itself intensively in the short stories of Dervish Sushich. His book Rebellions is a good example of this property. Even though the characters in the short stories and the proses of this period were still living in the years of World War II, these literal writings had different aesthetical attitudes and subjects.
A master of prose who is evaluated as a true short story writer in the middle of twentieth century is Chamil Siyarich. This writer, who had developed an amazing expression technique, was still looking at the provincial events lives from a modern perspective. The characters of his short stories were fully integrated in their environments. They were strictly attached to their lands and homes; they could even estimate about the following day by looking at the sun or the clouds. They were always in search for a balance, and the balance was found at the place where the eastern an the western experiences met with eachother. Therefore, one can find the faith of the Bosnian people and literature in stories of Chamil Siyarich, as some sort of «malgama».
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The new generation of short story writers took the scene in the 60s. As seen in the short stories of Ivo Andrich, Mesha Selimovich and Mirko Kovach; the Bosnian short story writing before the 60s had not been able to go beyond the homeland-folkloric spirit, even though it was following the tracks of the movemnts in modern European literature.
In Traffic Lights and That Person - the short story books of Alia Isakovich, neither the traditional expession models and experiences, nor the narrator in the traditional sense coul be seen. The narrtor was not the same one who saw everything objectively and who told the events taking place in a neutral attitude, anymore. Every event told in the storiesof Isakovich, took place on the «strip» of consciousness which was always moving. Isakovich reflected the life as a whole on the narrative plot, and she built the narrative language of her stories on a fine structure. A recently published book named Literal Works of Isakovich tells more about this intellectual personality of Bosnian-Hercegovinian literature.
Nejad Ibrishimovich's first story book was published at the same time with Isakovichs'. Even with his first work, Ibrishimovich showed that his aim was a new expression style and he was a promising writer. His later works increasingly attracted readers' attentions, and finally his novel Everlasting, which was published a year ago, has already taken its place among the most important works in Bosnian-Herzegovinian literature. The most significant properties of the short story writing in the 60s and the 70s in Bosnia-Herzegovina can be seen in the works of Alia Ěsakovich, Vitomir Lukidj, Nejat Ibrishimovich and Sead Fetahagich. In this perioad of short story writing, the experiences gained from reading the works of Camus, Sartre, Berges and Marquez especially were carried through.
Therefore, it can be stated that the inspiration source of the «New Short Story» trend was the short story writing of the 60s. Since then, Bosnian short story writing has continued its search for new stuctures. It is impossible to mention all the writers who has contributed to this endeavour; therefore, we will name only a few of them.
As a writer who has managed to build his unique short story, Irfan Horozovich gathers more and more traditional information day by day, and his works come out in modern stuctures.
Djevat Karahasan is one of the most powerful writers in Bosnian-Herzegovinian literature today. His works show that he has accepted the act of ewriting as the only real act. Djevad Karahasan is also a philosopher and besides his short stories, he has puýblished two novels named The Ring of Shahriyar and Divan of The East, and many successful essays. Djevat Karahasan, Mirko Kovach and Irfan Horozovich are treated as writers who arew directing the the transition from modernizm to the postmodernist poetica.
Eventhough he is not a productive writer, Niyaz Alispahich shows in his every single shoýrt story that he is certain about what he wants to manage for the sake of the short story form.
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The story writers of the 80s and the 90s has managed to develop and strengthen the structure built in the 60s. The form of modern short stories which undoubtedly was grounded before 1980, has been enriched in the following years. This enrichment has come to life by the contributions of the short story writers like Huseyin Bashich, Rusmir Mahmutchehayich, Yasmina Musabegovich, Fatima Muminovich and Zlatko Topchich.
Due to the new experiences, there has been an enormous change in the subjects of the short stories written in the 90s. The stories put down on paper in the 90s are related with the war and the disadvantages it brings. The short stories published has significantly increased in number in the 90s. These stories include no violence. Instead, they resemble a rebellion against the war and no hatred against the human kind. Some short story writers like Yasmina Musabegoviç and Fatima Peleshich started to write their stories from a feminist point of view in those years; and some like Hazim Akmacich reflected the longing for peace. Sead Trhuly took his place among the writers who preferred a realistic expression style. Zlatko Topçiç had an ironic style in the stories he put down on paper during the war. A young writer whom we lost in the last year of the war, in 1995 – Karim Zaimovich, preferred dealing with the inner man.
After the war, subsequent writers searched for new subjects. The young writers of the new generation have already started giving successful works. Some of these short story writers, despite living abroad, who introduce themselves as Bosnian-Hercegovinian writers, have great contributons to Bosnian-Herzegovinian literature. Among these, as a promising Bosnian-Herzegovinian writer, Milienko Yergovich should be mmentioned along with his experimental short stories. Also, Alexandar Hemon, who is mostly recognised as a successful novelist, takes an important place in Bosnian-Hercegovinian literature today with his novels and short stories he had written formerly.
Being one of the short story writers living in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Alma Lazarevska has published her experimental and hig intellectual level short stories in Death in The Modern Museum of Arts. Fatima Pelesich dealt mostly with the people living in the provinces and their problems. Isnam Talyich, who has witnessed an exile has reflected a period of history. Nenad Velichkovich tried to widen the borders of imagination and consciousness. Goran Samardjicj has preferred dealing with the loneliness/alienation of the individual in his modern style. And finally, poet and short story writer Ferida Durakovich has reflected the mercilessness of the war and the feelings and losses of the people who have seen the war. The characters in her short stories, just like her, face with the realities of the war in their young ages; which we prefer to evaluate as a right of her as an artist.
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In a short essay like this oe, it is impossible to reflect all the colours of Bosnian-Herzegovinian literature. Therefore, we could only mention the masters of Bosnian-Herzegovinian short story writing.
BIBLOGRAPHY
Durakovic, Enes. 1995. Antologija bošnjacke pripovijetke XX vijeka. Sarajevo: Alef. [Anthology of 20th Century Bosnian Short Stories]
Isakovic, Alija. Djelo univerzalnog duha. 2005. Sarajevo. Vijece Kongresa bošnjackih intelektualaca. [Work of the Universal Spirit].
Kazaz, Enver. 1999. Antologija bosanskohercegovacke pripovijetke. Sarajevo: Alef. [Anthology of Bosnian-Hercegovinian Short Stories].
(Translated into English by Ceren YALÇIN-Revised and edited by Aysu ERDEN)
