Muslim Issues in Serbian Literature: Introduction

Abstract

Thematic issue “Muslim Issues in Serbian Literature” aims to contribute to the exploration of Serbian literature, which, through artistic treatment of motifs, genres, and narratives related to Muslim culture, examines, shapes, and reexamines itself. Similarly, we view Muslims' world from a cultural perspective as a distinctive civilizational sphere shaped by Islamic teachings, socio-political processes, unique poetics, and interactions with non-Muslim cultures. Since encounters with Muslim culture in Serbia are primarily mediated through the Ottoman Empire, this theme is inseparably linked to Ottoman heritage and attitudes towards it. Understanding not only this relationship but also representations of Muslim culture in non-Muslim, predominantly Christian, environments have been significantly influenced by postcolonial theory and concepts such as Said's Orientalism ([1979] 1994), as well as Milica Bakić-Hayden's nested Orientalism (1995) and Marija Todorova's Balkanism (1997).