BOOKS FROM MONTENEGROThe Mountain Wreath
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Set in Montenegro
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The Mountain Wreath (Serbian: Gorski vijenac) is a poem and a play, a masterpiece of Serbian literature, written by Montenegrin Prince-Bishop and poet Petar II Petrovic-Njegos. Njegos wrote The Mountain Wreath during 1846 in Cetinje and published it the following year after the printing in an Armenian monastery in Vienna. It is a modern epic written in verse as a play, thus combining three of the major modes of literary expression. Set in 18th-century Montenegro, the poem deals with attempts of Njegos's ancestor Danilo to regulate relations among the region's warring tribes. Written as a series of fictitious scenes in the form of dialogues and monologues, the poem opens with Metropolitan Danilo's vision of the spread of Turkish power in Europe. Torn by inner conflict he sees that the struggle is inevitable, but dreads the issues. Starting as a poetic vision it develops into a political-historical drama that expands into a wreath of epic depictions of Montenegrin life, including feasts, gatherings, customs, beliefs, and the struggle to survive the Ottoman oppression. With a strong philosophical basis in its 2819 verses The Mountain Wreath depicts three distinct, opposing civilizations: the heroic-patriarchal classic Montenegro, the oriental-islamic Ottoman Empire and the west-European Venetian civilization. The poem is constructed around a single, allegedly historical event, that took place on a particular Christmas Day in the early 1700s, during Metropolitan Danilo's rule: the mass execution of Montenegrins who had converted to Islam, known as "The Inquisition of the Turkicized" (Istraga Poturica). Despite the difficulty of proving that an event of such magnitude and in such manner as described by Njegos ever took place in Montenegro, the poem's main theme is a subject of significant political and ideological debate. Recently published History of Montenegro tells us that such an event initiated by Metropolitan Danilo occurred in 1707, but was highly localized in character, happening only in Ceklici clan, one of over twenty tribes of Old Montenegro. The fact that Njegos used this event only as a general framework, without bothering about the exact historical data, underscores his concern with an issue that preoccupied him throughout his entire life and which was in line with Romantic thought: the struggle against Ottoman domination. He subjects the entire plot and all characters to this central idea. U ponudi takodje imamo sledece naslove od Njegosa (potrazite na amazonu u search po isbn broju, samo u search ukucajte isbn broj i izaci ce naslov) - Gorski Vijenac (ISBN:978-1478251880) - Lazni Car Scepan Mali (ISBN:978-1478264859) - Luca Mikrokozma (ISBN:978-1478256427) - Ogledalo Srpsko (ISBN:978-1478263401) - Svobodijada (ISBN:978-1478256946) - The Mountain Wreath (Gorski Vijenac na engleskom) (ISBN:978-1479110575)
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