Mihailo Lalić and Serbian Ethnology: Ethnography and Mimesis of Patriarchal Society in Montenegrin Highlands

Abstract

My starting point is the yet unexplored supposition that Lalić’s realistic writing about the reality contains also a real ethnological and anthropological reference, first of all comments on the Serbian ethnology of the first half of the 20th century, its traditional paradigm, and strategy of ethnographic writing. My second supposition is that the deeper structure of Lalić’s historical novels is “inscribed” by the genre of ethnography which, together with other text types and stylistic means, contributes to the virtuoso construction of great narratives about the Montenegrin life world in historical perspective. Finally, an analysis of Lalić’s discourse reveals that despite the Marxist inspired criticism of ethnology as part of the Serbian national science, the discipline was an inevitable point of reference in the narrative construction of Montenegrin identity.

Keywords

• Mihailo Lalić
• social realism in Yugoslav literature
• the Vasojević tribe
• Dinaric zadruga
• cultural-anthropological perspective
• Montenegrin lifeworld