Sultan kao Vis Major – predodžbe o osmanskoj vlasti u samostanskim ljetopisima bosanskih franjevaca iz 18. stoljeća

Abstract

THE SULTAN AS VIS MAJOR – PERCEPTIONS OF THE OTTOMAN AUTHORITIES IN THE MONASTERY CHRONICLES OF BOSNIAN FRANCISCANS FROM THE 18TH CENTURY The paper attempts to reconstruct the genesis of the narrative about the Other in 18th century Bosnia, using the example of the monastery chronicles of three Bosnian Franciscans, Nikola Lašvanin, Bono Benić, and Marijan Bogdanović. Since the Franciscans were members of the ecclesiastical and intellectual elite among the Catholic population in Bosnia at the time, and since the chronicles were written for internal monastery use (therefore, they were less censored), the imagotypical statements in them reflect a Eurocentric view of the Others, with a particular focus on the representatives of the Ottoman government in Bosnia. In the analyzed Franciscan annals, there is an identification of the one who observes/writes with a historically determined subject, because the author is not some external consciousness, but places himself within the historical sequence, shapes the story and – takes a side. The oppositions between “we” and “them” are explicitly present; order (mostly) comes from the Franciscan order, and dis-order and the threat to that order come from outside, from the Other, who is also clearly identified. The narrative subject of the Franciscan chronicles is directly affected by the current relation of power and power (lessness), which is the result of the historical moment and the socio-political context, which also determines the image of the Other. The Bosnian Franciscans’ monastery chronicles are a confirmation of their specific role throughout history, and historicity, on the other hand, is a confirmation of the “self”, which is shaped in opposition to the Other and in relation to the Other. Keywords: Bosnian Franciscans, Franciscan literature, chronicles, imagology, ideas, axiological attributions, the Other and otherness