文章基本信息

标题：A bloodthirsty tyrant or a righteous landlord? Smail-aga Čengić in literature and oral tradition
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作者：Pavlović Aleksandar
期刊名称：Glasnik Etnografskog instituta SANU
印刷版ISSN：0350-0861
出版年度：2021
卷号：69
期号：1
页码：109-124
DOI：10.2298/GEI2101109P
语种：English
出版社：Institute of Ethnography, SASA
摘要：The 1840 murder of a notable 19th century Bosnian dignitary Smail-aga Čengić immediately inspired strong artistic production in the South Slav literature and oral tradition. These narratives, comprising newspaper articles, oral epic songs, and particularly Ivan Mažuranić’s literary epics written in the manner of oral folk epic, presented and codified Smail-aga as a bloodthirsty tyrant whose ultimate aim was to terrorize and extinct his Christian subjects. In distinction, some marginalized local narratives and oral folk tradition, which will be examined in this article, remembered Smail-aga as a righteous and merciful lord, protector of his flock and a brave warrior. Thus, when we scrutinize several versions of oral songs about the death of Smail-aga recorded between 1845 and 1860, as well as later collected anecdotes from his native Herzegovina, it appears that his hostile portrayal in written literature was rather the contribution of the Serbian and Croatian Romantic nationalists around the mid- 19th-century than an actual popular perception of him among local people in the region that he lived with. In conclusion, the article advocates for a wider consideration of the overall polyphonic narrative tradition and the revitalization of traditional narratives that glorify values which transcend strict religious, ethnic and national divisions as a way of reimagining and revaluating relationship of the South Slavs towards the Ottoman heritage.