Voices in the Shadows: Women and Verbal Art in Serbia and Bosnia by Celia s> Hawkesworth (review)

Abstract

110 SEER, 8o, I, 2002 performative representativity, situational and cultural contextuality, cotextualand intertextualenvironment,discursivefunctionand ideologicalbasis [togetherwith] the collector'spurposiverole in the makingof the text and the editor's impact on the final form' (p. 3). His critical survey of approaches to text and performanceover the last century or so rangesfrom the paradigmof 'the text is king' to the current 'performanceis king' that in turn now due for problematizing.He tackleshead-on the ever-difficultquestion of how it is that while in one sense oral texts exist only in their episodic performances, often quite short and variable, a singer may neverthelessbe able to produce an integratedlong performanceeven when neverhaving done thisbefore. For this Honko utilizes his notion of 'mental text', a fertile (and controversial) concept applied in several of the papers here. It will doubtless attract much debate and scholarshipin the coming years. The forward-lookingcomparative work of Scandinavian literary scholars often seems relativelylittleknown in Britain.But for its theoreticalinsightsas much as its illustrativecases this volume should be in every library serving academic institutions engaged with literary and linguistic studies, anthropology , folklore, or cultural history. And for Slavonic and East European scholarsinterestedin recent approachesto epic, oralperformanceand literary text it will surelybecome obligatoryreading. Faculty ofSocialSciences RUTH FINNEGAN Open University Hawkesworth, Celia. Voices in theShadows.Women and Verbal Artin Serbiaand Bosnia. Central European University Press, Budapest, 2000. 28I pp. Illustrations.Maps. Notes. Bibliography.Index. ?3I.95. HAWKESWORTH'S book containseight chapters,Conclusion, Bibliographyand Index. The author describesher project in the 'Introduction'as a 'survey'of women's contribution to verbal art in the region (p. I3). Indeed, the book offersa sound introduction to the specificwritingsof certain women and the broader cultural context in which they worked, very often in difficult circumstances.The second chapteron the oraltraditiongivesan analysisboth of gender roles as expressedin differenttypes of song and of the contribution of specific women bards. Undoubtedly, the distinctionswhich Hawkesworth notes among song versionsby male and female singersarea tantalizinginsight into the flexibility of the tradition. Similarly, her next two chapters on the medieval period and the nineteenth century combine glimpses of the social position of women with examples of individualauthorsand theirwritings.She includessectionsin the nineteenth centurydevoted not only to writersbut also to women whose cultural contribution was of a more general nature: for example, Mina Karadzic and Ana Obrenovic In her discussion of the two majorfigurespresentedherefromthenineteenthcentury,Milica StojadinovicSrpkinja and Draga Dejanovic, Hawkesworth suggests that perhaps their personalviews on the role of women in society and in the familymay not have been overlyprogressivebut goes on to state, 'Itis surelyunreasonabletojudge these two extraordinarywomen by the standardsof a laterage' (p. II9). Most REVIEWS I I I of the rest of the book is concerned with Serbian women's writing in the twentieth century with just the final chapter devoted to women's writing in Bosnia. However, as the book demonstrates, there is a methodological question as a significantbody of material produced in Bosnia is an integral partof Serbiancultureand can only be presentedin thatcontext. In keeping with the other sections of her book and with the spirit of presenting her readers with a survey, Hawkesworth continues to combine discussion of specificwriterswithin the rapidly changing social, political and culturallandscape of the Serbs during the twentieth century. Sections on the emergence of women's magazines at the beginning of the twentieth century are particularly informative, especially with regard to the Sarajevo-based Srpkinja inchapter fiverelating totheperiodfromI900 to I9 I4. Thefollowing two chapters devote more attention to individual writers and Hawkesworth offers entries on many of the women who have brought their distinctive contributionto Serbianculturallife in the period between the two worldwars and in the communistperiod to the I99os. These entriesareto be commended for their discussion not only of the original literarywork of these women but also of their much broaderimpact as literarycritics, academics and essayists. Hawkesworthdemonstratesthe vital contribution of these women and, as is so often the case elsewheretoo, the fact that they have not alwaysreceived the attention they deserve. While the work of Isidora Sekulic and Desanka Maksimovichas been suitablyacknowledged,that of many othershas not and the success of the book is to remind us of the variety of their input and to restorethem to somethingof the centrestage. One may quibbleoverthe...