Fundamentals of a comparative literature of the Balkan countries

The business plan recommended by the International Association for the Study of the European Southeast also includes comparative studies in the field of Balkan literatures. Although the idea of ​​this is very fortunate, it seems to me, however, that the task will be difficult for researchers if certain preliminary measures are neglected, which are necessary to take, in the haste to arrive at conclusions that would obviously be too approximate. It will be necessary, in my opinion, first of all to establish the methodology in the order of the searches, in order to leave nothing to chance, by eliminating from the very beginning the possibility of falling into errors, a possibility that would be, I think, incompatible with the aim pursued by this type of work. It is needless to say that any researcher who would embark on such an activity faces enormous difficulties. For it can be asserted without exaggeration that the literatures of the Balkan peoples existed and developed in a closed circle, without obvious relations between them. The difference in language, religion and culture often raised insurmountable barriers that prevented free exchange between the "intelligences" of the ethnic communities of the Balkans. The empires that succeeded each other over the centuries were unable to melt into a single crucible the heterogeneous elements of these peoples, who, although they sometimes lived under the same political power, developed in the direction of their own destiny. Especially since the beginning of the 19th century, the national awakening that marked the life of every Balkan people and the struggles that followed, carved a deep chasm between the intellectuals of this part of the world; the Balkan literatures therefore saw themselves as very distant from each other, I would even say, in some cases fiercely opposed to each other. This explains why the elite of the Balkan countries did not know each other, and with rare exceptions, no Balkan country showed any interest in getting to know the literature of its neighbor. We must also add that the attention of Every country was attracted by the brilliance of the great world literatures, which served as models for writers.