Academic literature on the topic 'Kosovo, Battle of, Kosovo, 1389'

The corresponding song received this name because the fighting between the forces of the Balkan coalition and the invading Ottoman army took place in this space, near today's Pristina, the capital of the Republic of Kosovo. The Albanian variants of this theme convey in an original and special way the general picture of the Kosovo War. In this sense, we would say that the songs about the Kosovo War, 1389, among the Albanians, although in different variants, with significant differences, come as a specific creativity of the Albanians, distinct from the other variants of the peoples who sang them this major event in the history of the Balkans. The true purpose of the creators and the circulating media of the songs about the Kosovo War has been the reflection of a concrete historical event, with real characters, historically documented, in addition to created figures, which is a completely legitimate phenomenon for folkloric artistic creations in generally.

In contemporary Serbian Orthodox texts, Kosovo is often referred to as the Serbian “Jerusalem”: a city calling for a Christian defense. All Serbs are bound to heed the call in keeping with the Kosovo “covenant” or “pledge” dating back to the Battle of Kosovo Polje in 1389, when Serbian troops, led by Prince Lazar, were defeated by the invading Muslim Ottoman army. The battle and Kosovo in general have since then assumed a central symbolic role in Serbian nationalism and the Serbian Orthodox Church. Furthermore, it has been claimed that the imagery and narratives of Kosovo were the ideological backdrop for the wars in the Balkans in the 1990s. This article investigates the development of the Serbian narratives and imagery pertaining to Kosovo and their modern form in the Serbian Orthodox Church in order to trace what type of imagery is dominant. The main focus will be on whether and to what extent the narratives of Christian defense and holy Serbian warriors fighting in the name of Christ are dominant. This investigation seeks to discuss whether the Kosovo imagery and narratives are formed upon and influenced by a broader Christian European antemurale myth.

This paper seeks to examine the epic and canonical status of the lute and songs of the Kosovo Cycle in both, Albania and Serbia. The interplay of epics with national identity and political aims will be scrutinized, with a particular focus on the nexus of imagination, identity, and history. Moreover, the Kosovo Cycle of Serbs, takes a central position concerning the fall of the medieval state following from the Battle of Kosovo (1389). On the other hand, the Albanian Cycle is more consecrated to the hero as an individual, a brave loyal nobleman and honest chevalier who fights for his besa as code d’honeur. Millosh Kopiliqi/Miloš (K)obilić, the hero of the Battle of Kosovo, is without doubt the most chevaleresque figure of the cycle, in Albanian and Serbian songs. Why the lute became an identity corner stone of Albanians, Serbs, and the other nations in the region? Figuratively speaking, it is the lute epic space of the Kosovo Cycle in Albanian and Serbian where Millosh encounters Miloš and historical truth and imaginary encounters fiction.

In "The Milman Parry Collection of Oral Literature" on Harvard University out of 131 epic songs recorded from Milovan Vojicic, several are dedicated to the popular theme of the Serbian and Balkan epic - the Kosovo Battle 1389 (Prince Lazar and Milos Obilic, The Defeat of Kosovo, ?he Kosovo Tragedy, The Kosovo Field after the Battle, The Death of Mother Jugovici, The Death of Pavle Orlovic at Kosovo, noted in 1933-34 in Nevesinje). The paper examines Vojicic?s Kosovo songs from the perspective of textual, stylistic and rhetoric criticism, poetics, and memory studies. An analysis of Milovan Vojicic?s Kosovo epic poetry leaves an impression of an active singer who has internalised tradition, and on this foundation composes new works in the traditional manner and "in the folk style". Vojicic is a literate singer who was familiar with the collections of Vuk Karadzic, Bogoljub Petranovic, the Matica Hrvatska, and the songbooks of the time. He did not hesitate to remake or rewrite songs from printed collections or periodicals, which means that his understanding of authorship was in the traditional spirit. Vojicic?s compilations lie on that delicate line between oral traditional and modern literary poetry; he is, naturally, not alone in this double role - the majority of the gusle-players who were his contemporaries could be similarly described. In the body of Kosovo epic poetry Vojicic?s songs stand out (The Death of Pavle Orlovic at Kosovo, The Kosovo Tragedy), where he abandons the printed model and achieves the kind of originality which is in fact part of tradition itself. Vojicic highly valued oral tradition and the opportunity to perform it, as part of the process of creating an image of himself as a folk gusle-player in modern terms. For this reason, his repertoire includes both old and new themes. They are sung according to the epic standard, but also in accordance with the modern standard of epic semi-literary works. In Vojicic?s world, oral tradition is an important component in viewing the historical past, and in perceiving reality and the singer?s place in it. The epic is a form of oral memory and the guardian of remembrance of past events; however it also provides a space for surveying and commenting on modern historical situations in a popularly accepted manner, at times in an ideological key, as seen in songs which gather together major historical events. This perception of the epic tradition and history is mirrored in the heterogeneity of the corpus and in the repertoire of songs, and is all a consequence of vastly changed conditions of origin, existence and acceptance, i.e. the consumption of oral works in the first half of the 20th century, in a process of interaction between literature and folklore.

The aim of the paper was to provide historical background of the so-called second battle of Kosovo that has occurred in October 1448, as well as the oral tradition that came out from the battle. In the battle, Janos Hunyadi (Sibinjanin Janko in the Serbian oral epic tradition) fought and lost against the Turks at the very same place where prince Lazar had encountered the same enemy in 1389. From the historical point of view, the most important facts about this event are the following: Hunyadi led the army of Hungarians, Czechs, Germans, Poles and other Christians who had encountered the Ottoman army of Sultan Murat II; the Christians were defeated; Janko's nephew Szekely Janos lost his life; and Hunyadi himself escaped. Later on, Hunyadi became one of the most prominent heroes of the Serbian folk tradition and epic songs about heroic deeds. Beside him, Janos Szekely, who governed Slavonia and Croatia also become an epic legend, under the name of Sekula Banović. A part of the tradition of the battle of Varna, which took place in the year 1444, also came into the tradition of the Kosovo battle, from which emerged one complex oral memory of the heroic fights against the Ottoman conquerors. Even though there are a lot historically vague facts, even a lot of fictional characters, the tradition of Hunyadi's valiant clashes with the Turks on the field of Kosovo has remained and survived through different epochs.

This article is devoted to the Polish edition of a collection of Serbian folk songs, which was published in 1962 by the Polish publishing house Nasza Księgarnia under the title Bitwa na Kosowym Polu (The Battle of Kosovo). It is the first and only complete edition of the songs of the Kosovo cycle in Polish, translated for young readers by Zygmunt Stoberski, an outstanding translator and promoter of Serbian literature in Poland. The article is divided into several parts. In the first one, attention is focused on the battle itself, which took place in 1389, the folk songs commemorating this event and the importance of the Kosovo myth. In the second part, the focus is on the fascination with the Serbian Middle Ages in Serbian literature for children and youth. In the following parts, Polish‑Serbian literary contacts after World War II and the history of translations of texts for children, the translation and popularization activities of Zygmunt Stoberski, and the reception of Serbian folk song in Poland were reviewed. The main purpose of the article was to show how the translator and the publishing house Nasza Księgarnia adapted the Serbian epic to the perceptual abilities of young readers. It also shows how Bitwa na Kosowym Polu can be seen against the background of Polish historical prose for children, which was written in the 1950s and 1960s.

A large part of our public is familiar with the name of the British-Irish author Rebecca West. Domestic journalism abounds with texts about the author due to her extremely positive writing about Serbs and Serbian culture. In the travelogue Black Lamb and the Gray Falcon, West expresses great admiration for our cultural heritage and understanding of our identity, which she identifies with the poem The Fall of the Serbian Empire. During her stay in Macedonia, she was introduced to Bishop Nikolaj, whom she considered one of the most extraordinary people she had ever met. In her travelogue, the author draws a comparison between the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 and England in 1939. In this paper, we will try to present her experience of monasteries in Kosovo, pointing to the fact that she considered herself different from other Western authors who, like herself, wrote about the Balkans.