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 Macedonian
literature has its roots in the rich heritage of Slavonic literacy and the
distinguished literary schools of the Macedonian monasteries. Its more recent
development has been marked by the work of
Dimitar
and
Konstatin Miladinov,
Grigor Prlichev,
Rayko
Zhizinfov and other authors from the period of the Macedonian Revival in the
middle of the 19th century. In the early 20th century their work was further
developed by
Voydan
Pop Georgiev Chernodrinski, Nikola Kirov-Majski and Atanas Razdolov. The
poet
Kocho (Kosta) Racin,
with his collection entitled Beli Mugri (White Dawns) published in 1939,
is considered to be the founder of modern Macedonian literature.The first
postwar generation of Macedonian poets, prose writers and playwrights included
Blaze Koneski, Aco Sopov, Slavko Janevski, Vlado Maleski and Kole Casule. Among
them, on the grounds of his achievements in literature, the codification and
development of the Macedonian literary language and in the affirmation of
Macedonian Studies in the world, we must single out the figure of Blaze Koneski,
a member of the academies of arts and sciences of several countries and laureate
of many outstanding international awards for literature. From this generation
also came the founders of the Writer's Association of Macedonia, established in
1947. This Association and the new association, Independent Writers of Macedonia
- which emerged in 1994 - number over 300 active members. The new generation of
Macedonian writers which appeared in the early 1950's, encompassing among others
Gane Todorovski, Mateja Matevski, Dimitar Solev, Ante Popovski, Boris Visinski
and Simon Drakul, is still very active today. They were followed by a wider
group of talented authors, from which we can single out Zivko Cingo, Petre M.
Andreevski, Radovan Pavlovski, Bogomil Guzel, Jovan Koteski, Vlada Urosevik,
Petar T. Boskovski and Mihail Rendzov.
After Vasil Iljoski and Risto Krle, Macedonian drama has
recently achieved new heights with the works of Goran Stefanovski and Jordan
Plevnes.
Works by Macedonian writers have been translated into
many languages of the world. Anthologies of Macedonian poetry and prose have
been published in Italy, France, United States, Russia, Hungary, Poland, United
Kingdom, Germany, China, Sweden, Japan, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Greece,
Ukraine, Malaysia and many other countries.
The constant growth of Macedonian literature has also
been connected with the development of publishing. Although it covers a
relatively small linguistic area, there is virtually no important world author
who has not been translated into Macedonian. All significant works of world
literature have already been published or are in the process of being translated
and published.
In the period 1986-1990 on average over 700 books and
booklets as well as 74 periodicals were published each year in Macedonia, but
the number of copies steadily dropped. In 1990 it was 1,683,000 printed books
and booklets.
It is interesting that the past five years have seen the
emergence of a large number of private publishers. |
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