Romani mojkovačkog književnog kruga
Novels of the Mojkovac Literary Circle

Summary/Abstract: By studying the novels we came to realization that the Battle of Mojkovac, which took place on the Orthodox Christmas Eve of 1916, was decisive to Montenegro, but that it was also merely one event in an enduring and much wider conflict between the East and the West, the two civilizations contrasting in many respects. That discovery has helped us to realize the tragedy of the “dual province” population which after the multi-centennial, the Ottoman empire, had also experienced the second, Austro-Hungarian occupation, ultimately followed by the loss of independence, along with the country of Montenegro. Within the clash of civilizations, a ruthless and unscrupulous conflict between the patriarchal, centuries-old way of life and a budding civic organization of society based on the development of trade and small towns has also been unfolding. Although less noticeable, a dramatic and unstoppable clash of cultures, of oral tradition and the imminent descriptive epoch — and the clash of oral and written literature within them — has been taking place simultaneously. The best evidence of this can be found in Montenegrin novels, which are the subject of this work. They describe the events of the battle written in their own original way.

• Details
• Contents