Montenegrin literature
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Montenegrin literature is the literature written in the South Slavic country of Montenegro, mainly in Serbian language.
Characteristics
Although there are works written at least 800 years ago (like the Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja), the most important representatives are writers who lived in 19th and 20th century and wrote mainly in Serbian.
The first literary works written in the region are ten centuries old, and the first Montenegrin book was printed five hundreds years ago. In Venetian Cattaro (actual Kotor) there were a group of writers and poets that introduced Renaissance culture in coastal Montenegro, writing in Latin and Italian: Ludovico Pasquali, Giovanni Bona de Boliris, Giovanni Polizza, Giorgio Bisanti, Girolamo Pima, Timoteo Cisilla, Giovanni Crussala, Giuseppe Bronza and Girolamo Panizzola.
The first state-owned printing press (Printing House of Crnojevići) was located in Cetinje in 1494, where the first South Slavic book was printed the same year (Oktoih). A number of medieval manuscripts, dating from the 13th century, are kept in the Montenegrin monasteries.
On the substratum of traditional oral folk epic poetry, authors like Petar II Petrović Njegoš have created their own expression. His epic Gorski Vijenac (The Mountain Wreath), written in the Serbian vernacular, presents the central point of the Montenegrin Serbs culture.
Other contemporary poets include:Balša Brković, Borislav Jovanović and Jevrem Brković.
Notable works
- Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja a.k.a. "Slavonic Kingdom" (Sclavorum Regnum)
- Oktoih
- The Mountain Wreath (Gorski Vijenac)
Authors
Humanism and renaissance
18th and 19th centuries
- Andrija Zmajević, the baroque poet and theologist,
- Vladika Vasilije
- Petar I Petrović-Njegoš
- Petar Petrović Njegoš, known simply as Njegoš, Montenegrin prince-bishop from 1830 to 1851 who is considered to be the greatest Montenegrin writer (to Montenegrins he is what Shakespeare is to Englishmen or Dante to Italians)
- Stjepan Mitrov Ljubiša, from Budva, who wrote short stories, mainly about his hometown area.
- Marko Miljanov, a renowned tribe leader turned writer, described ethical ideal of 19th century Montenegrins.
- Ivan Mažuranić - a Croat, wrote a Montenegrin epic: The Death of Smail-aga Čengić (Smrt Smail-age Čengića)
- Nicholas I of Montenegro
20th century
- Mihailo Lalić
- Milovan Đilas
- Radovan Zogović
- Ćamil Sijarić
- Miodrag Bulatović
- Čedo Vuković
- Mirko Kovač
- Dragan Radulović
- Borislav Pekić
- Vito Nikolić
- Nicholas I of Montenegro
Contemporary
- Balša Brković
- Borislav Jovanović
- Jevrem Brković
- Andrej Nikolaidis
- Tanja Bakić
- Dragana Kršenković Brković