Meša Selimović
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Mehmed "Meša" Selimović (Cyrillic: Мехмед "Меша" Селимовић) was a Serbian, Bosnian and Yugoslavian writer, and one of the greatest 20th century novelists of Southeastern Europe. He wrote in the Serbo-Croatian language, and his written dialect greatly influenced today's Bosnian standard language. His novels deal with Bosnia and Herzegovina and Muslim culture in the province in the Ottoman era.
He was born on April 26, 1910 in Tuzla, Bosnia, Austria-Hungary, where he graduated from elementary school and high school. In 1930, he enrolled to study the Serbo-Croatian language and literature at the University of Belgrade. In 1936, he returned to Tuzla to teach in the gymnasium that today bears his name. In 1943, he was arrested for participation in the Partisan anti-fascist resistance movement. From 1947 to 1971 he lived in Sarajevo, then moved to Belgrade until his death in 1982.
Selimović wrote at least ten significant novels, most famously Death and the Dervish (Derviš i smrt), which opens with the traditional Muslim blessing: "In the name of God, the most compassionate, the most merciful." The novel reflected Selimović's own torment at the execution of his brother; the story speaks of the futility of one man's resistance against a repressive system, and the change that takes place within that man after he becomes a part of that very system. Some critics have likened this novel to Kafka's Prozess. It has been translated into numerous languages.
The only other Selimović novel thus far translated into English is The Fortress.
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[edit] Ethnic affiliation
Selimović's ethnic affiliation is a subject of controversy between Serbs and Bosniaks, especially after the breakup of Yugoslavia. He was born in a Bosnian Muslim family, but during the later part of his life he explicitly stated that he was a Serb by ethnicity. However, he was also a proponent of the Serbo-Croat language, and cultural and lingustic unity among the peoples of Yugoslavia.
[edit] Quotes
- I descend from a Muslim family, from Bosnia, and by ethnicity I am a Serb. I belong to Serbian literature, while the literature of Bosnia, to which I also belong, I consider only as my geographic literature center, and not a distinct literature of Serbo-Croatian language... I belong, so, to the same nation and literature of Vuk, Matavulj, Stevan Sremac, Borisav Stanković, Petar Kočić, Ivo Andrić, and my deepest kinship with them I don't need to prove. (From the Selimović's speech to the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts when he became a member of Academy.)
- Of course, It should first be mentioned that Meša, in his great quality as a writer, is wanted by certain political agendas that are looking out to claim his greatness to their cultural community... But no matter what, Meša never stated or believed himself to be of Serbian heritage... (From Bosnian Television (BHT) interview with his wife Darka Selimović.)
- Evil, good, gentle, raw, unable to move, stormy, open, hidden; They are all this and everything in between; And most importantly they are mine, and I am theirs; And everything I’m saying; I’m saying about myself. (Selimović about Bosnian Muslims, extract from one of his texts)
[edit] Bibliography
- Uvrijeđeni čovjek (An Insulted Man) (1947)
- Prva četa (The First Company) (1950)
- Tuđa zemlja (An Alien Land) (1957)
- Noć i jutra (The Night and the Mornings) (film scenario) (1958)
- Tišine (Silences) (1961)
- Magla i mjesečina (Mist and Moonlight) (1965)
- Eseji i ogledi (Essays) (1966)
- Derviš i smrt (Death and the Dervish) (1966)
- Za i protiv Vuka (Pro et Contra Vuk) (1967)
- Tvrđava (Fortress) (1970)
- Ostrvo (The Island) (1974)
- Krug (The Circle) (1983)
[edit] Translations into English
- Death and the Dervish, 1996, Northwestern University Press, ISBN 0810112973
- The Fortress, 1999, Northwestern University Press, ISBN 0810117134
