A fictional-documentary interpretation of events from the Crnojević era, with the central theme of the relationship between Đurđe Crnojević and his wife Izabeta, is presented in the novel "Đurđe Crnojević and his wife Izabeta" by Boško Mijanović, which was promoted the night before yesterday at the Ministry of Culture.
The author of the novel, Boško Mijanović, said at the promotion that he had been preoccupied with the Crnojevics for a couple of years, and that's how the novel was created.
"I often walked by the monastery, where Crnojević's castle used to be, and I wondered how Izabeta, a girl from a noble family, who came to this stone, desolate valley of Cetinje from the splendor of Venice, felt. So I decided to return to that period, to live in it and to write about the people and events that gave it its stamp. I revived some parts of the documents available to me by turning them into a dialogue. I followed the roads and places they went to and where Đurđe and Izabeta were," said Mijanović.
The general director of the Directorate for Cultural and Artistic Creativity in the Ministry of Culture, Dragica Milić, said that the literary treatment of topics from our glorious past is always interesting and desirable.
"It is a receptive way to present our cultural-historical context and cultural history to the wider public, experts, laymen, readers... The period of the rule of the Crnojević dynasty is more than an interesting literary starting point, both because of the historical intrigue of the era itself, and because of the intriguing biographies of the members of this ruling house. However, it cannot be said that our literature has responded in the right way to those, for literature, always inspiring challenges. That's why I'm glad to see the appearance of a fictional-documentary interpretation of events from the Crnojević era, which has as its central theme the relationship between Đurđe Crnojević and his wife Izabeta," said Milićeva.
She assessed that with this work, Mijanović responsibly approaches the construction of the story, "supporting its fictional layer with a documentary one, which shows the author's serious research into historical factography".
Publicist Marko Špadijer assessed that Boško Mijanović's book represents an imaginary literary return to Ćipur, to Cetinje, "which the Crnojevics designated as the golden garden of Montenegrin history, which we are obliged to carefully cultivate".
Looking back at the heroes of Mijanović's novel, he noted that after Vladimir and Kosara, this is probably the most intriguing Montenegrin love story.
"Boško Mijanović used the rich material on Crnojević's printing house, he studied the connections of Cetinje with Kotor and Venice of that time and gained confidence in the description of the fate of Đurđe as the last ruler of Zeta in relation to the encroaching Turkey and its ally Venice. He tried to faithfully reconstruct the circumstances that prevailed in the country, the relationship between Đurđe and his brother Stefan, who became an exponent of Turkish politics, show the connections of Montenegrins with families in Kotor and Venice... He introduced a large number of personalities with interesting and lustrous destinies into the story. In the description of night and day, dusk and light, snow and rain, severe winters and south, one can recognize the Cetinje who experienced it and had countless times in his eyes the Orlov Krst, the Wallachian Church, Đinovo brdo and Lovćen where he took Đurđa and Izabeta. pointed out Spadijer.
Literature professor Maja Martinović-Kršić reminded that there has been no historical novel in our literature for a long time, and therefore the work "Đurđe Crnojević and his wife Izabeta" should be warmly welcomed, and Milićeva added that "with this publication, Matica Montenegrin publishing house shows its readiness to fiction, continue its work on illuminating our cultural and historical heritage".
The presentation of the novel "Đurđe Crnojević and his wife Izabeta" was organized by the Ministry of Culture and Matica Montenegrin - Cetinje branch.
Bonus video:
