1.
Among a lot of vague phenomena produced in Montenegrin culture and society in general, a really special place has been kept for the literary scene. As it has not been translated at all, Montenegrin literature is non-existent for the world. Deprived of basic modes of communication, in a way it had been self-sufficient for a long time; about our literature in the world little is known, or almost nothing.

Montenegrin society, even today, is solving problems which in other societies belong to ancient times. This, undoubtedly, reflects its very culture, literature most of all. Look, Montenegro does not have a single systemization of its own literature-precedent worth interpreting. Further, literary criticism and theory are an expression of some isolated activities of Montenegrin cultural representatives. University departments and institutes of literature do not deal with the history of national literature. That is why it is not surprising why many matters have not gone very far from the area of infrastructure, and in some places there is no literary infrastructure.

Problems within the shaded space are, certainly, inseparable from the illnesses of the society. Apart from those, many more have been generated. The fate of book in Montenegro meant that the book was left unread in the world. That is why, for example, we are not surprised that nothing had been done in presenting Montenegrin literature to the world. The fate of small people was followed by the fate of small literature.

2.
Montenegrin literature had not been developed as were other European literatures. Moreover, the way to its formation was not close to what was going on in the "neighborhood," because of it turbulent past, certainly, the past which has no comparison to European spaces. Specific among Southslavic literatures, full of paradoxes, anonymous in the world and often glorified in Montenegro itself, Montenegrin literature, it seems, is still waiting for its contextualization. Although its roots go deep into the past, it is difficult to speak of the logical continuation of its historic points of departure.

The treatment of heritage in Montenegro is very specific. This has been strongly repercuted in Montenegrin literature. According to T.S. Eliot, the stability of literary creativity with some people is consisted in the maintenance of an unconscious balance between tradition in a broader sense and the originality of coming generation.* From this perspective such a relation is almost impossible to establish, and we shall try to show why it is necessary to come to a new understanding of tradition, thus, to certain revelations. Having in mind this purpose we have made this panorama.

Almost a millennium-long state of continuity has not coincided with what was going on in the sphere of the written word. Montenegro, the country of a genuinely rich and multicultural heritage, has been suffering from different influences. Still, from the time of Slavorum Regnum by Pop Dukljanin (XII century to today), this area has never faced certain literary movements and epochs! This happened in spite of this, we would say, its unique geopolitical position and permeating of many cultures.

Let us be reminded that in the Montenegrin capital of Cetinje at the time when America was discovered, the first printing press--among South Slavs--started to work. Influences came from different directions. Later from the XVI century to the XVIII century, on the Montenegrin coast, some writers emerged, who created for that time typical works in the Italian and Latin languages. Further, perhaps there is not a single country which had so many rulers who were writers: parallel with the appearance of the rich oral literature of Saint Peter Cetinjski, who created epistolary literature. But, the crucial moment was the appearance of the famous epic, The Mountain Wreath, by Petar Petrovic II Njegoš. Until now, Montenegro had been in the shadow of that epic, and of that acclaimed magnificent figure in Montenegrin literature, which asks for a more adequate reception.

Unfortunately, the reception of the Njegos epic with the whole range of Montenegrin generations ( for example, another ruler-writer, King Nikola and his contemporaries) and even with those of today, illustrates their immaturity and dangerous belatedness when current movements are concerned. The result is tragic--not only did a strong figure appear at all, but a great number of epigones, and even today's production has been highly burdened by the epic matrix. Discontinuity happens with the representatives of social literature created between the two World Wars: the first Montenegrin novel practically appeared in 1933 (Nevidibog by Risto Ratković, perhaps the first modern poet in Montenegro.

The literature after the World War II had been greatly determined by social colors and distinctive involvement characterized by the cultural context of the time. Even more talented writers mostly succumbed to adapting themselves to the trend which was prescribed during the time of socialistic Yugoslavia. The literature after the World War II, from time to time sterile, rarely incidental, was mostly in accordance with the dominant cultural milieu. Nevertheless, Montenegrin literature, thanks to some writers, was for the first time at least a degree more equal to the other literatures in the state at that time. The second generation after the war, which matured creatively during the full maturity of the second Yugoslavia, turns from uniformity, and relies more and more on foreign experimentation.

So, it seems that the key turning point, not incidentally, occurred in the 90s of the last century, during the greatest moral fall of Montenegro, posing a threat to its identity, with the simultaneous encroaching "national awakening" of the Montenegrin. As it was already mentioned, a generation of younger writers appears, acting without the complexes typical of this area and paralleled with a reexamination of the poetics of other writers. The more the representations of today's literary scene in Montenegro look toward world literature, the more critical they are of their own tradition. Finally, Montenegrin literature must be formed, find its place, and must become more introspective. This panorama just wants to reflect this tendency.

3.
The first identity card of Montenegrin literature in any foreign language is now offered. This makes the act of creation even more difficult, but makes its appearance more justified, as well. Let us now clarify: the aim of making this panorama is certainly not making of an anthology or any canonization of our literary scene. The primary aim is to present the specific Montenegrin literary experience, to point out the most representative expressions of its literary production. This is one of the possible mirrors of contemporary Montenegro. Well, the choice is more of a promotive rather than of an evaluating character. It should be read in that way: the intersection of this phenomenon can always be different. Apart from that, every succeeding survey in Montenegrin, or in some of the foreign languages, we are sure, will be made with a small dose of relaxation.

Montenegrin literature, generally considered, wants to be a part of the world context. The quest for self-definition, yet for familiarity with regional and European literary tendencies, is more and more obvious. That is why the basic intention of this panorama is to present such representations, and look for them equally in all generations of Montenegrin writers, and in all literary genres. Apart from that, we have chosen texts which are more communicative, whose contents express a more universal character. At the same time, it was necessary that that panorama cover the achievements of the most active authors, those who, page by page, build the topography of contemporary literature written in Montenegro. There is no doubt that during this process a significant portion of valuable texts have been taken out. But, since this is a photographic view of this phenomenon, we had to focus on a certain number of authors and their representative achievements. After all, Roland Barth teaches us that there is no objective or neutral text. Looking for such a survey or panorama is equally futile.

The literary scene in Montenegro has also been burdened with struggles for both national and cultural identitiy. In this sense it is worth pointing out the controversial crises of the "double identity" of the Montenegrin had to be transmitted into the literary scene. As a result of such socio-historical circumstances, we can point out the fact that a certain number of writers brought up in Montenegrin spiritual space proved themselves in some other spaces, thus their works became a part of the other literary corpuses. One should not run away from that reality: this means that for decades at the top of Serbian literature one can find writers of Montenegrin origin. As our aim is not to arbitrate in this sense, this time we have included only the works of those writers who with awareness of belonging to Montenegrin literature create out of Montenegro (M. Kovač, M. Vešović, Č. Vulević), while the most famous writers out of Montenegro (Kiš, Pekić, Bulatović), who naturally belong to the Montenegrin and Serbian literary corpus, have not been included because their works have been published in a number of foreign countries. Incidentally, the mentioned phenomenon is not exclusively Montenegrin--some similarities can be found when speaking about the Ukraine, as well as the literatures of Ireland and Catalonia.

One of the basic intentions was to present some of the poetic and ideal characteristics, current on the Montenegrin literary scene. What is interesting is that a change has occurred lately, as we pointed out, a deviation from an anachronistic way of expression, similar to the case of Slovenian literature, for example, when it experienced its flourishing after its official break away from the former Yugoslavia. Montenegro has been, lately, changing certain trends, pushing aside frustrations and striving toward the formation of spiritual identity. It is rather difficult now to deny one literature which exists in the space of the Montenegrin language, and in whose scope there are to be found poetic ideologies kindred to some of the wider movements in the literary cosmos. Thus, in this panorama various poetic choices can be found: we have attempted to discover them in all literary genres.

And one more comment: the following pages are compiled with the awareness of possible methodological mistakes. Still, the result clearly presents a trustworthy reflection of the Montenegrin literary atlas. The authors and works mostly forming the main streams of this literature have been included. In addition, our intention was to point out some extremely new procedures, some lonely artistic "disturbances," to emphasize some new names and misunderstood literary achievements.

4.
Because of the specific development and the process of establishing, and because of historic and social contexts, our literary trends, as we have already pointed out, "overslept" even key literary movements and cultural patterns. The way of constituting the mentioned phenomenon undoubtedly illustrates to our readers a discontinuity in this area. In its history, Montenegrin literature did not have great protagonists in the governing European literary movements. Also, there have not been any possibilities for the natural continuation of literary heredities.

The included writers have created (ing) in three different state-legal frames, so to say, in undefined and forcibly united cultural spaces. ( This situation is similar today, when Montenegro finds itself in a presumably temporary situation expecting its independence.) They practically chose their predecessors, looked for them out of these spaces which is a specific feature of the younger generations. The writers included in this panorama have expressed their voices under unusual circumstances. Perhaps that is why these literary products contain certain elements of "exoticism" -- now you can read previously untranslated texts, the chosen texts of the chosen (both Balkan and Mediterranean)-- literary loners. That is why and undoubtedly because of discontinuity one cannot find too many points of homogeneity. Namely, the Montenegrin literary map is rather indented, and it is difficult to speak of specific constants, (for example, which movement dominates in the contemporary poetry). Believing that the essence lies in the very quality and seductiveness of the text, we will leave such speech aside, and define solid tendencies on which this survey relies.

Prose works have been a more neglected segment of Montenegrin literature. However, they will present themselves through a few extraordinary achievements, which, also, cover a wide scope. Experiences in Montenegrin prose are akin to the most interesting motifs and techniques of the contemporary European and American novel or short story. Prose writers readily announce that the age of post-heroic Montenegro has arrived. We are noticing the establishment of new space and time coordinates. The removal from the "authority of the old" has been advancing elegantly, followed by an essentially different revolutionary spirit.

The poetic scene brings new qualities, again, tuned seriously into accordance with world processes. Many Montenegrin poets, seemingly, have approached the formation of many variants of poetic text, devoid of complexes. The spectrum is rather broad--from historiographical meta fiction to numerous forms of poetic imagination, from postmodern textual "plots" to imaginary realism, from poetic diagnosing of everyday events to different experiments--both on a thematic-motivistic plan and on a formal-stylistic level. The reader, who at this point would ask, "What does postmodernism mean to societies which are only now about to enter modernism?"** However, this speaks of the pained complexities of the Montenegrin literary identity. In spite of that, the Montenegrin literary scene has partly come to terms with the related environment. Its (co)participants, as the century progressed, more and more clearly understood that literature without contacts does not exist--that is precisely why this panorama was made. Because of that, numerous references confirm active communications with relevant literary tendencies in the "neighborhood" and beyond.

The chosen works, most of them, build a new relationship with the universal heritage, which is sometimes a driving force of creative energy. It is not written any longer for the sake of being of an exclusively national heritage. In that way locality is easily avoided and enslavement to the myths of obsolete methods of expression, the places of many decades of imprisonment of Montenegrin literature and isolation from the environment, are constantly avoided as well.

Panorama of Montenegrin Literature intends to make a decisive step in that direction. Let this be the first of invitations to foreign readers to get to know this other Montenegro, its virtual residence of Montenegrins! And finally, to share this "reality" which is "the most meaningful and the most unseizable word which exists in /any/ language." *** Or, if you desire, this " ... dream /which/ has as many possibilities to be real as our phantasmagoria, made of our everyday world."****

_____________________
* "What is a classic?"
** Terry Eagleton
*** Ernesto Sabatto
**** Ernesto Sabatto

Pavle Goranović
Translated by: Radojka Vukčević

 ARS No.4 year 2003