Koreni ("The Roots") is the second novel of Serbian author Dobrica Ćosić. The novel was published in 1954. [1] Its literary genre is epics. It is also a psychological novel.
Novel is set in the late 19th century Kingdom of Serbia, a time of great political turbulence between central, modern government and local power holders as well as political parties. Main character of the novel is Acim Katic, a prominent member of the People's Radical Party and an informal chieftain of the village Prerovo. Living in a large homestead with his loan shark son Djordje, daughter-in-law Simka and her mother, he is concerned by two things - the childless marriage of Djordje as well as the upcoming wedding of his other son, a western-educated and modern Vukasin, to the daughter of his political enemy. Colorful group of other characters are also present. Novel deals with both political and societal aspects of the time, with things as patriarchy, family, female sexuality, political alliances, conflict between central and local power all being discussed.
Acim Katic - Head of the family. And old, stubborn, conservative man, he is obsessed with politics, personal principles and with prolonging his family's existence.
Djordje Katic - Older son of Acim. He's a drunkard, a cheat and an occasional loan shark. In his mid-thirties, he is in an unhappy marriage with Simka, a marriage that failed to produce a child after 15 years. Pressures imposed on him and Simka, as well as complexes Vukasin bears because of it, create one of the central parts of the plot of the novel
Vukasin Katic - Younger son of Acim. He was educated in best schools of France, which taught him modern ideas of strong centralized government, anti-traditionalism and individualism. With a mixed feeling of disdain and admiration towards his people, he enters the politics on the opposite side of his father.
Simka Katic - Djordje's wife, accused of being a nerotkinja, a derogatory term for infertile women.
Tolo Dacic - A peasant living near the Katic homestead, works as a caretaker and occasional laborer for the Katic's. Dimwitted, simple and content with his very modest life, having four children but no money he is the polar opposite of Vukasin in nearly every way. [2]
Vuk Branković was a Serbian medieval nobleman who, during the Fall of the Serbian Empire, inherited a province that extended over present-day southern and southwestern Serbia, entire Kosovo, the northern part of present day Republic of North Macedonia, and northern Montenegro. His fief was known as Oblast Brankovića or simply as Vukova zemlja, which he held with the title of gospodin, under Prince Lazar of Serbia. After the Battle of Kosovo (1389), Vuk was briefly the de facto most powerful Serbian lord.
Marko Mrnjavčević was the de jure Serbian king from 1371 to 1395, while he was the de facto ruler of territory in western Macedonia centered on the town of Prilep. He is known as Prince Marko and King Marko in South Slavic oral tradition, in which he has become a major character during the period of Ottoman rule over the Balkans. Marko's father, King Vukašin, was co-ruler with Serbian Tsar Stefan Uroš V, whose reign was characterised by weakening central authority and the gradual disintegration of the Serbian Empire. Vukašin's holdings included lands in north-western Macedonia and Kosovo. In 1370 or 1371, he crowned Marko "young king"; this title included the possibility that Marko would succeed the childless Uroš on the Serbian throne.
Saint Stefan Uroš V, known in historiography and folk tradition as Uroš the Weak, was the second Emperor (Tsar) of the Serbian Empire (1355–1371), and before that he was Serbian King and co-ruler with his father, Emperor Stefan Dušan.
Vukašin Mrnjavčević or Vukašin of Serbia was King of Serbia as the co-ruler of Stefan Uroš V from 1365 to 1371. He was also a nobleman. Principal domains of king Vukašin and his family were located in southern parts of medieval Serbia and northwestern parts of the modern region of Macedonia. He died in the Battle of Maritsa in 1371 with his brother, Jovan Uglješa.
Serbian literature, refers to literature written in Serbian and/or in Serbia and all other lands where Serbs reside.
Jakov Ignjatović was a novelist and prose writer, who primarily wrote in Serbian but also in Hungarian. He was also an active member of Matica Srpska.
Dobrica Ćosić was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician, writer, and political theorist.
Radoman Božović is a Serbian politician and former Prime Minister of Serbia.
Filip Hristić was a Serbian politician serving as the Prime Minister of Serbia, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Education, Governor of National Bank, ambassador of Serbia in Ottoman Empire, Austrian Empire, German Empire and United Kingdom.
Jovan Ćirilov was a Serbian theatrologist, philosopher, writer, theatre selector, and poet.
The fall of the Serbian Empire was a decades-long process in the late 14th century. Following the death of childless Emperor Stefan Uroš V in 1371, the Empire was left without an heir and the magnates, velikaši, obtained the rule of its provinces and districts, continuing their offices as independent with titles such as gospodin, and despot, given to them during the Empire. This period is known as the dissolution or the beginning of the fall of the Serbian Empire.
The Dejanović or Dragaš, originates from a medieval noble family that served the Serbian Empire of Dušan the Mighty and Uroš the Weak, and during the fall of the Serbian Empire, after the Battle of Maritsa (1371), it became an Ottoman vassal. The family was one of the most prominent during these periods. The family held a region roughly centered where the borders of Serbia, Bulgaria and North Macedonia meet. The last two Byzantine Emperors were maternal descendants of the house.
Ljubomir Kovačević was a Serbian writer, historian, academic, and politician. He is one of the early creators of the Serbian critical historiographical school and fighters for the separation of historical science from tradition. Kovačević directly influenced the political and cultural activity of Serbia at the end of the nineteenth century. He and Ljubomir Jovanović were the authors of the well-known two-volume "Istorija srpskog naroda za srednje škole" in the Kingdom of Serbia. Both Kovačević and Jovanović were Ministers of Education at one time and, as historians, using a wealth of verified information, professionally and convincingly refuted many myths that were passed down through the ages.
Darko Hudelist is a Croatian journalist, non-fiction writer and researcher of contemporary history.
Dragutin Ilić was a Serbian playwright, poet, novelist, journalist and politician. Along with Matija Ban and Djordje Maletić, Ilić dominated the Serbian stage during the late 19th century.
Danilo Magnum Stefanović was a Serbian politician who served as the Prime Minister of Serbia.
Milan Dedinac was a Serbian poet, the most expressive lyricist among the Surrealists. Similar to Crnjanski, although in a different way, he was a follower of the creator of the Serbian lyric song Branko Radičević. He didn't write much. Almost all of his poetic work is collected in the book Od nemila do nedraga (1957). He also dealt with theatre criticism. He was one of the thirteen who signed the Beogradski nadrealizam in the Almanac Nemogučeg-L'Impossible in 1930.
Bora Ćosić is a Serbian, Croatian and Yugoslav novelist, essayist, translator, public intellectual, and dissident. He wrote about 50 books, as well as several theater plays, which were played with great success in the Belgrade Atelje 212. For the novel The Role of My Family in the World Revolution, he received the NIN Award for Novel of the Year in 1970. Ćosić strongly denounced the rise of Serbian nationalism in the 1990s and the politics of Slobodan Milošević. Born in 1932 in Zagreb, he lived in Belgrade from 1937 to 1992, when he moved to Berlin.
Nicholas J. Miller is an American Professor of History at Boise State University.