Political in Minor Literature: The Field of Jewish Literature in Bosnia and Herzegovina Between the Two World Wars

Abstract

Jewish literature in Bosnia and Herzegovina between the two world wars is not the result of a peaceful weaving of tradition, but a constant struggle of different forces that made certain writers and their works important and famous, and marginalized others. The founding of the Jewish newspapers in Bosnia and Herzegovina between two world wars opened the possibility for public debate, polemics, and numerous literary contributions in the Judeo-Spanish and Serbo-Croatian languages. These newspapers show how a field of Jewish literature was formed and how the success of some writers and the oblivion of others was influenced by what we can conditionally call political and which is always present in the structure of the field as a force that regulates, directs, and shapes it.