Identity Issues in Bosniak Literary Science At the Begining of the 21st Century

Abstract

In the period between the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century, Bosniak literary science found itself, like its literature a century earlier, in proving its own identity. The recent generation of Bosnian-Herzegovinian theorists confirms in numerous studies the validity of the application of different literary-theoretical concepts in the study of the Bosniak literary past, with identity issues in literature being among the most important. In this regard, the paper will focus on two important issues. The first is the decades-long neglect of Bosniak literature and, consequently, the scientific exploration of its structural-poetic features. The second question, which the paper will attempt to answer, was raised in the study 'Literature and the Identities' by Vedad Spahić. This theorist believes that the most significant moments of literary science are when it reveals the deep structures of the whole culture while talking about literature. Apart from Spahić, the corpus of literature includes the studies by Enes Duraković, Sanjin Kodrić, and other theorists of the 21st century. Their works confirm that Bosniak literary identity today exists in areas distorted borders strict autonomy of literary science.