Author

Aida Hrustić

Date of Award

5-2022

Document Type

Undergraduate Honors Thesis

Department

History

Advisor/Committee Chair

Nadieszda Kizenko

Committee Member

Michitake Aso

Abstract

This paper explores how musicians and scholars contributed to the development of a modern Bosniak identity during the mid-twentieth century through their utilization of the sevdalinka. Many historians and scholars have studied the relationship between the sevdalinka and the Bosniaks and recognized its significance but have overlooked the impact sevdalinka musicians and scholars of the mid-twentieth century had in ushering in a modern Bosniak identity. This paper discusses how the growth of the music industry elevated the status of sevdalinka musicians in society and within the Bosniak community, deepening the Bosniak community’s tie to the sevdalinka through their musical work which came to be representative of their cultural heritage. Scholars of the period further deepened this tie by rapidly publishing scholarship that directly tied the origin of the sevdalinka back to the Bosniaks, providing the Bosniak community with the literary evidence to legitimize their claim to the sevdalinka. Drawing upon interviews, music videos, and twentieth century scholarship, I argue that without the work of both musicians and scholars of the mid-twentieth century the relationship between the sevdalinka and the Bosniaks would not exists within as profound or strong a manner, nor would the modern Bosniak identity been established and sustained as effectively.

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