Yugoslav Literature

Abstract

Yugoslavia came into being in 1918. It is one of the most heterogeneous of small combinations in the world, and arose — like its literature — out of South Slav aspirations. There are two languages: Serbo-Croat (Croatian) and Slovenian, of which the first is the main one. The Serbs use the Cyrillic script, the Croatians and Slovenes use the Roman. Important minorities speak Macedonian, Albanian, Hungarian, Rumanian, Italian, Bulgarian and Turkish. The first three of these produce literatures of some vigour. The three main religions are Orthodox (the religion of most Serbs), Catholic (Slovenes and Croats) and Mohammedan. The ‘socialist realist’ phase in Yugoslavia was less intense and more short-lived than in other communist countries. Except for a few years immediately after Tito came to power in 1945, modernism has flourished almost, if not quite, as it has wished.