Marija Leontic, a Turkologist and translator, was born on 12.05.1967 in Istanbul. She graduated from the Department of Turkish Language and Literature at the Faculty of Philology of Skopje University, “Blaje Koneski”. She got her M.A. degree from the same university after writing her M.A. Thesis titled “The Turkish Elements Found in the Macedonian Names and Surnames”. She is also studying the Turkish derivational and inflectional morphemes in the Macedonian language. She also teaches Turkish language and culture to the Macedonians in Skopje.
Mari,ja Leontic makes translations from Turkish into Macedonian and vice-versa. She has translated the works of a number of important Turkish poets and made them known in Macedonia by making them published in certain Macedonian literary journals. The literary works that she has translated into Mcedonian and Turkish are published in Macedonia.
THE HISTORY OF THE MACEDONIAN SHORT STORY TRADITION
Macedonian short stories have always been dependent on the destiny of the Macedonian people, Macedonian language and the Macedonian nation. In most of the countries these three factors have developed parallel to each other and have been effective in the development of literature in an independent sense. The development of the Macedonian short stories have been delayed because of certain facts such as the late establishment of the Macedonian Republic and also the delayed standardization of the Macedonian language.
The quality of the Macedonian short stories depends, first and foremost, on the standardization of the language. But the standardization of the Macedonian language has began only after the establishment of Macedonian Republic in 1945, and by the acceptance of Cyrillic alphabet in 05.05.1945 and only after the first dictionary of spelling was published in 07.06.1945. These two dates are important in the development of Macedonian literature.
Before the establishment of the Macedonian Republic and the standardization of the Macedonian language, there were only the lyrical poems written in Macedonian. The short stories and dramas reflecting the lives of the people were also written. Short stories and novels, in a proper sense, were developed as a class of literature, only after the standardization of Macedonian language was realized.
Great efforts had been made for the standardization of Macedonian language before 1945, but teaching in this language had always been prohibited in certain periods, and the newspapers, magazines and books written in Macedonian, before the World War II, had also been prohibited. So none of these efforts had really been effective. For example, during the second half of the 19th Century Rajko Jinzifov (1839-1877), Anğelko Krstiç (1871-1952), Stojan Hristov (1897-1995), Anton Panov (1915-1942), Koço Racin (1908-1943) and Hristo Smirnenski had written their short stories under the influence of romanticism and realism and in the ambiguously standardized Macedonian language or in another language in which they had been educated such as Serbian, Bulgarian, French and English. But most of the short story collections of many of these writers had been burned for the purpose of preventing the other people, the readers from being harmed in a period during which writing in the Macedonian language had been prohibited.
Although the literary works are so less in number, parallel to this fact, the Macedonian people have created their own anonymous folk tales, myths and fables in their own dialects. The individuals who were collecting these public materials, for example Marko Cepenkov (1829–1920), wrote these onto the paper following their own views and understandings of aesthetics and language conception or they themselves wrote new folk tales in the same style. For this reason, we can say that the Macedonian short stories are the continuation of the oral old public folk tales that have been retold throughout many centuries. But the richness in the anonymous public creativity has always been effective in the rapid development of the Macedonian short stories and in their keeping step with the world literature within a short time.
Although the Macedonian literature could not develop the new samples of the short story genre, the writers still benefited a great deal form the literary works of world literature within a short period of time. The reason is that, the short story writers rapidly adopted the new and different approaches that appeared in the various world literature trends. But distinguishing these approaches, trends and writers from each other is quite impossible. Because some of these trends have been more effective in the transition periods or the writer himself has followed various trends in his own development. For example, Blaje Koneski wrote both realistic and modern short stories, while on the other hand, Slavko Yanevski wrote realistic, modern and post-modern short stories at the same time. This situation has been one of the peculiar characteristics of the Macedonian short story tradition related to the nation’s own historical and developmental processes.
From 1945 till now, the Macedonian short stories and writers can be grouped, generally, into five generations. Thus the writers who belong to each of these generations have major roles in the development of the Macedonian short story tradition in terms of history, theme, form, language and style.
The first generation of short story writers:
They have published their own realistic stories during the years of 1945–1950 in the newspapers, periodicals and magazines founded after the War of Independence. In the history of Macedonian literature, Jovan Boşkovski’s first story book named “Rastrel” has been published in 1947. The first generation, in the above mentioned period, have benefited form the experiences and works of the already developed literatures as they were seeking for new themes and new creative uses of language. The storytelling was still based on public sayings, as for the themes, the events of the World War II, the self-government of the newly established republic, the renovation of the republic and the life in the new conditions and the human relations. These were the facts that were imminent in those years. But all of these themes are treated and processed in objective, distinct and black-white manners. Together with the above mentioned themes, themes such as homesickness, socialization of the villages and distant history were the ones that were also appealing and gained importance. In this period short story writers like Stale Popov (1902-1965), Ğorği Abaıiev (1910-1963), Vlado Maleski (1919-1984), Jovan Boşkovski (1920-1968), Kole Çaşule (1921-), Slavko Janevski (1920-2000), Radoslav Petkovski (1916-1955), Ivan Toçko (1914–1973), Jordan Leov (1920–1998, and Blaje Koneski (1921-1993), have published standardized short stories in Macedonian. Also in this period, in Blaje Koneski’s short stories the modern way of expression was observed. The first short story generation who has faced with a series of difficulties and responsibilities, had at the same time, been the pioneers in the introduction of the Macedonian short stories.
The second generation of short story writers:
Criticisizing the above mentioned realistic approach, they have used the trends of modernism in their short stories. After long arguments and debates, in 1953, Branko Varoşlija’s short story collection titled “The Story of the Day” was published and by this book the Macedonian short stories have entered into the modernistic trend, for the first time. In 1955, the modernistic approach observed in the Macedonian short stories has been in close relationship with the contemporary developments in the modern European literature. Branko Pendovski (1927-), Tome Momirovski (1927-), Meto Jovanovski (1928-), Srbo Ivanovski (1928-), Tome Arsovski (1928-), Petar Kostov (1928-), Boris Vişinski (1929-), Simon Drakul (1930-1999), Cvetko Martinovski (1930-1995), Dimitar Solev (1930-), Kata Rumenova-Misirkova (1930-), Blagoja Ivanov (1931-), Jovan Strezovski (1931-), Duşko Rodev (1932-) were the short story writers who were under the influence of this new trend and they brought out a new energy in the Macedonian short stories in terms of expression and themes. These storytellers wrote about the ordinary events and the people, especially the life, the psychology, the good and the bad sides of the people living in the cities rather than the big events taking place in the society. The attention of the storyteller was directed form the public and society to the individuals, from the inner world of the writer and the individual to the outer world, and they had started reflecting the events taking place in the environment and the individuals even more subjectively. The stories have thus become more lively, dynamic and amusing after they have crossed the black and white borders.
The third generation of short story writers:
They are known to have been very insistent in bringing improvements to the trends and approaches of the sixties of the 20th century. The storytellers of this generation have introduced such themes as the village and the city, voluntary village to city migrations and the immigrations between the countries caused by civil war with a new expression. Besides these they have also paid attention to the phenomenal incidents, superstitious beliefs, mysteries, spiritual events. The storytellers of this era used symbols and figures of speech so as to reflect everything like a puzzle, especially in the description of the events and the individuals. Consequently, the readers have tried to find the solutions by themselves using their own imagination. This generation has reached a kind of independent, perfect and aesthetic storytelling, keeping alive the enthusiasm of storytelling in Macedonia. Petre M. Andreevski 1934, Vlada Uroşeviç (1934), Branko Varoşlija (1934), Taşko Georgievski (1935), Mile Nedelkovski (1935), Olivera Nikolova (1936), Ivan Çapovski (Ivan çapovski) 1936, Civko Çingo (1936-1988), Petar Jirilov (1936-1988), Jovan Pavlovski (Yovan Pavlovski) 1937, Boşko Smaçoski (Boşko Smakyoski) 1938-1998, Paskal Gilevski (1939), Bogomil Ğuzel (1939), Trajan Petrovski (1939), Radmila Trifunovska (1939-1994), can be given as the best representatives of this generation.
The fourth generation of short story writers:
This generation has defended the fantasticism, assembly of expressions in poetics in the seventies of the 20th century. In these short stories, the phenomenal things have been kept extraordinary or inexplicable till the very end of the short stories. Liljana Beleva (1940-1995), Gordana Mihajlova-Boşnakovska (1940-), Luan Starova (1941-), Bojin Pavlovski (1942-), Dimitar Başevski (1943-), Mitko Maıunkov (1943-), Zoran Kovaçevski (1943-), Ferid Muhiç (1943-), Danilo Kocevski (1946-), can be highlighted as the best representatives of this generation, who by the usage of two or more literary devices have created many interesting short stories. For example, Ferid Muhiç has written creative texts which stand in between the essay and the short story. Danilo Kocevski, on the other hand, has produced books which remain in between the travel books and the short story collections. And, finally, Luan Starova has written texts that can be taken as both autobiographies and essays.
The fifth generation of short story writers:
This generation has brought the post-modernistic expression to Macedonian storytelling in the second half of the seventies and the eighties of the 20th century. In the post modern short stories, individual dreams and fears of the modern human being, fantasticism, and destructiveness have been used as the main themes. This fantastic expression in these stories has been based on especially Slav folk culture and pagan mythology. In post modern stories, the personality of the storyteller looks for the truths of the literal life, wants to destroy the border between truth and fantasy or have the dreams become truth. The member of this new expression are Vase Mançev (1949-),LÖupço Siljanovski (1949-), Eftim Takovski (1949-), Krste Çaçanski (1949-), Trajçe Krsteski (1950-), Aldo Kliman (1950-), Dragi Mihajlovski (1951-), Dimitrie Duracovski (1952-), Aleksandar Prokopiev (1953-), Kim Mehmeti (1955-), Jadranka Vladova (1956-2004-), Hristo Petreski (1957-), Blaje Minevski (1961-), Ermis Lafazanovski (1961-) and Venko Andonovski (1964-). In the nineties Ermis Lafazanovski and Venko Andonovski have added irony, parody and the grotesque to this post-modernistic way of expression so as to create a new style. Especially, Venko Andonovski, by his last work, gave a pen to the reader together with the book and activated the him in the development and the conclusion of the stories as a co-producer. Furthermore, the Macedonian director Milço Mançevski (1959-) has brought a new way of expression and a new dimension to the Macedonian short stories by including certain cinematographic elements into his post-modern short stories.
The Post-modernistic trend, nowadays, is still continuing to use the aspects of the city life combining it with the new ways of literray expression of the 21st century. And this kind of approach is preparing a basis and a background for the sixth generation. The above mentioned literary expression can be observed especially in the short stories of Soüa Maniuk (1966-), Pandolf Vulkanski, Gordana Stojkovska (1961-), Stevo Simski (1953-), Igor Isakovski (1970-), Öubomir Toşev, Sinişa Stankoviç (1964-), Robert Alagozoski (1973-), Goce Smilevski (1975-), Irena Perçinkova, Kalina Maleska (1975-), Katerina Pçelarova, Ana Dinkovska. In the short stories written by this generation reality and dream, events and times are intermingled. For example, the people of the distant past seem to be living in our time or the modern people of the contemporary age seem to be living in the past with modern objects. Different styles and the combinations of the known writing techniques are also used at the same time.
All of these five generations of short story writers have dealt with various themes that are parallel to the themes of history, nationality, social issues, desires of the individuals, private lives of the individuals, love, disease, death, faith, enthusiasim, phases of depression, emotional states, wickedness, goodness, seeking of personality, struggle in life and the meaning of life. Other universal issues such as the above mentioned ones are also dealt with and these have formed a basis for each generation .
Throughout the history, many nations have lived in Macedonia. Thus the storyteller who is educated in his native language in the primary and secondary schools, lycees and in some faculties at the universities now prefers to write in his native language or by this free will both in his native language and in the Macedonian language. Sometimes, he prefers writing some of his work in his native language and the others in Macedonian. For example, Ferid Muhiç wrote both in Bosnian and Macedonian languages, Luan Starova and Kim Mehmet have created their works both in Albanian and Macedonian and, finally, Necati Zekeriya has written both in Turkish and Macedonian.
Most of the storytellers that we have presented in this article have remained within the scope of the short story genre and have developed their works in this direction. But in Macedonia some writers succeeded in poetry, novel and the drama, at the same time. The most significant ones among them are Slobodan Mickoviç (1935–2002), Atanas Vangelov (1946-), Dimitar Pandev (1958-), Trajçe Kacarski (Trayçe Kacarski) 1959, Tomislav Osmanli (1956-), Hristo Petreski (Hristo Petreski) 1957, Lençe Miloşeska (Lençe Miloşeska) 1948, Katica Kulavkova (1951-). Especially Katica Kulavkova has added prose to the poetry, and poetry to the prose to form a new way of poetic expression in her short stories. By this, the border line between poetry and short story has already disappeared. Thus, in her texts where the poetry finishes and where the story begins cannot be distinguished. Macedonia, a small country of two million, has differences in many ways, in itself, but this variety renders a rich source of inspiration, freedom and independency of style to the storytellers of this country making them have their place worldwide.
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“Blesok”
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NOTE: This essay was written by Marija LEONTIC on behalf of the “10th International Ankara Short Story Days” (1-5 June 2006) and was presented to the audience by Marija LEONTIC herself during the conference that she gave on 3 June 2006, in Ankara. (Venue: Contemporary Arts Center)
(Translated into English by Aysu ERDEN)
