Dr. Zlatan Colakovic Homerist, Philologist and Researcher

"Post-traditional singers have mastered the technique of epic-creating and of diction far beyond the powers of traditional singers of tales. They were fully aware of it, to the point of a hubristic mastering of tradition itself. They felt that only a good singer could make a good epic, and that a bad singer would make a poor epic poem even from the finest epic poem, learned from the best singer. Although this seems obvious to us, it runs counter to the conservative logic of tradition, as it situates the singer above the tales."

 

"...Homer and Mededovic also "overdo" or magnify the events within a traditionally inherited plot to the extreme. While doing it, they feel free to absorb many other individual poems, or at least many of their themes, into the hybrid poem that they create, thus diminishing the tradition's variety of poems."

 

(Dr. Zlatan Colakovic, The Singer Above Tales, The Epics of Avdo Mededovic Volume II)

Dr. Zlatan Colakovic ( 1955-2008 ) is considered a specialist in ancient Greek drama and comparative literature. As a Fulbright postdoctoral fellow he collaborated with Albert B. Lord at Harvard University ( 1984-1988 ) where he transcribed over 90,000 verses of epics from the sound-recordings of the Milman Parry archive. In 1989 and in 2005, he collected circa 40 hours of Bosniac epics on film, and circa 50 hours of sound-recordings on field. In 1991-1993, he founded and led the project "The Essence of Bosniac Epics" sponsored by the Croatian Ministry of Science. His books include Three Eagles of the Tragic World (Tri orla tragickoga svijeta) (1989), A Dead Head Utters Words (Mrtva glava jezik progovara) (2004; co-author Marina-Rojc Colakovic) and The Epics of Avdo Mededovic, A Critical Edition in Two Volumes (Epika Avda Mededovica, Kriticko izdanje, 1-2) (2007). For his scholarly achievements Colakovic was presented the Government of Canada Award. He founded the theory of the Post-Tradition and of the Post-Traditonal Homer which undermines, with abundant evidence, the generally accepted Oral-Formulaic Theory of the Lord-Parry school and its epigons.

Published Works:

Three Eagles of the Tragic World  - Tri Orla Tragickoga Svjeta (1989)

California Slavic Studies: Problems of Collecting, Editing, and Publishing (1993)

A Dead Head Utters Words - Mrtva Glava Jezik Progovara (2004)

The Epics of Avdo Mededovic, a Critical Edition in Two Volumes -  Epika Avda Međedovića, Kritičko izdanje u dvije knjige (2007)

Edited and Published Text by Enver Colakovic:

 An Only Child - Jedinac

 Biblical Tales from the Twentieth Century - Biblijske Price XX Stoljeca

 A Book for Mother - Knjiga Majci

Collected Poems - Izabrane Pjesme

Small World - Mali Svijet

The Townsmen of Lokljan - Lokljani

From Bosnia about Bosnia - Iz Bosne o Bosni

The Legend of Ali-Pasa - Legenda o Ali-Pasi (Translation into English)

Copyright web site: www.zlatancolakovic.com

Alberta Colakovic