In the National Library of Budva last night a scientific monograph "Minerva's trace - prose work of Montenegrin writers" by dr. Sofija Kalezic was presented. The discussion about the monograph was held by Dr. Andrijana Nikolic, journalist Branka Cvorovic, professor Zorica Joksimovic, who with her work is present in the monograph and the author, and Milos Boreta read the story by Zorica Joksimovic.
The monograph "Minerva’s Trail" is the first study on women writers in Montenegro and a critical review of their creativity. In her two-year work on the monograph, the Doctor of Literary Science, Sofia Kalezic spoke with more than 100 women and read 200 books, and thirty female writers are included in the monograph. The two authors from Budva, Zorica Joksimovic and Katarina Saric, have earned a spot on the pages of the monograph.
Doc. Dr. Andrijana Nikolic in her review of the monograph pointed out the following:
In the foreword to this book for the terms "female letter","female writing", or "female literature", the author emphasized that they represent a type of language discrimination, which in its very name implies that the creation of female writers is something that is normally outside the artistic framework and fields, like satellites that circle the world of "real" art. Although in literary, theoretical and critical terminology there are no terms such as "male letters" or "male literature," as if this is to say that it is understood that the creativity of men is in itself art. The author states that the term "female letter" is used in the pejorative, which gives the connotation of a pathetic, frivolous, and trivial one. Conscious of the fact that literature is an integral part of everyday life and as such speaks of everything that is also referred to the human effort to devise the reality, the author set herself into the adventure of exploring a special, meaningful "world of works". Without false modesty, when someone enters a path of research, one can never even imagine what kind of forest he will be taken through the paths of empirical work.
I suppose that Sofia Kalezić could not have guessed where she was taken by the women with their letters, while scientific persecution exceeded the scope of the expected one. In two years, to read and process at least two hundred books only for this monograph, it is undoubtedly a matter of respect. Because, to expose the dryness of every style, peculiarity or end-edges on which individual writers moved, could only be done by the dedication and perseverance with an excellent analytic note. In a comprehensive cross-section of this monograph, which we can easily say is scientific, methodological and interpretive, the author has approached differently from writer to the writer, in which she indisputably expressed the pluralism of methods and approach to interpretations, in order to deduce any thought of any kind the defects in every literary work. What is most difficult in every scientific approach is to separate the artistic value and dedicate it to the way to satisfy the phenomenalist school of Romain Ingarden, who found in each literary work a layer of meaning, a layer of sound, a layer of objectivity and a layer of schematized aspects. For the connoisseurs of the literary word, when I say that a special place in the study of all the texts, this author devoted to the formula-writer-work-reader, taking into account all the meticulous ornaments of every text processed in Jaus's "horizon of expectation" and the indirect influence of the literary work on the reader.
We can say that every literary work was analyzed separately, understanding it as an individual spiritual creation, which was also accomplished by the Dilta program, which was based on the compression of "spiritual history" which is viewed as a manifestation of the spiritual situation of a particular epoch, or time, on literary study. To be more specific, Sofia Kalezic dealt with the dominant artistic value of every read piece, and particularly, she united women's creativity through the prism of women. She successfully overcame the problems of systematization and classification of literary works, and thus by individual interpretations covered the analyzed area. What is important is the fact that guided by creative-artistic input, author Kalezic very critically dealt with the problem of reception of these works. Sharp critic, Sofija Kalezic did not rank the works, by the system of higher or lower values, but placed them in the spirit of postmodern manners in a flat horizontal, giving them a place of equality among the equals, that is, the best among the equals. "
Journalist and President of Women's Organization in Budva Branka Cvorovic, in her review of Sofija Kalezic's monograph, presented the audience with a cross-section of represented authors and their works, guided by thematic and motivational characteristics. In the conclusion of her presentation, she recommended that from now on we read the books as "Sofia's trail":
"After the monograph by Sofija Kalezic, which certainly occupies a high position on the scale of literary criticism, my recommendation would be to read the books from" Sofia's trail" since only in this way we will not miss the quality, exciting and valuable texts, stories and novels of Montenegrin writers who wrote about us and for us.
Sofija Kalezić has been scientifically and skillfully pervading the paths, and it is up to us to search for, absorb, explore, dream, find, to underline important words and sentences, remember, refresh, contemplate, and read with pleasure."
One of the present authors in the monograph of Sofija Kalezic, Zorica Joksimović, in the form of an essayist tale, turned to this scientific achievement. Citing the symbolism of the title Minerva's trail, she recalled that Minerva was a protector of creative professions, a symbol of wisdom among many nations; respected on Capitol, because of her strict temperament and love towards the beauty:
"Not by accident, Sofija Kalezic takes the title "Minerva's trail" for the monograph of the prose work by the Montenegrin female writers. A collection of selected ones, according to aesthetic and other qualitative criteria of the authors. I just do not know if she saw them with a spear and a shield as in the hands of the Protector? Spear, that word by which the authors write down their creative expressions, and the shield, their work that defends them. "Warriors" with an opus of words of multitude diverse actions in these and other "sad times", when even history is not "true" and "faithful" as reality, they write their letters. Thus, the author, guided by the trace of Minerva, affects the freedom and maturity of understanding one culture, that certain facts of literary-artistic self-importance are not "seen" through glasses with tinted glasses or a historiographic dioptre of short-sightedness."
Speaking about the literary reception of the creativity by Montenegrin writers, Zorica Joksimovic said:
"The literary reception of the literature written by women, Kalezic gives, starting from their form to the meaning that is outside of this form, that is, as such, the goal is by itself. She points out "the diversity of the emergence of various narrative subspecies within the framework of the contemporary creation of our writers, from novels and collections of stories of realistic and neorealistic character, through the form of a social, historical, family novel." Some of them, such as Vida Ognjenovic, whose works a long time ago sailed the seas of the Montenegrin and European literature, to those works which the author presented analytically, and which she thinks were "recently illuminated" to the broad readership audience.
In the end, the author, Dr. Sofija Kalezić, thanked the organizer and participants of the promotion who, each from their point of view, presented the monograph “Minerva trail”. The authors presented in the monograph in their works dealt with similar topics: the position of the woman in the family, community, company. In her introduction to the monograph, Sofija Kalezic emphasized that she dedicated it "to the Montenegrin women of modern times overcame not so small and easy civilization arch, who inside themselves pulsate with the vein of their own ancestors, who are ready to fight and love, and have, in various ways, shown that love and struggle are two essential imperatives of life. "
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Text by CdM, on March 26th, 2019, read more at CdM
