Russian Themes in Jovan Raić’s Epic «Boj Zmaa s Orlovi» (1791)

Abstract

Researching Russian themes in Jovan Raić’s epic Boj Zmaja sa Orlovi is a continuation of up-to-date explorations of the language, versification, and intertextual relations of the poem with the texts of the Russian literature. We have approached the epic from a comparative perspective and analyzed it in parallel with The Tale of Igor’s Campaign and Osman by Dživo Gundulić. We were analytically focused on the heraldic symbols, as well as on the mythical and fairy-tale imagination. The images of Russia vary from dominant ones – distinctively commendable, uttered by gods from the Antiquity and shaped by Jovan Rajić, to derogatory ones, uttered by Muhammad. In the epic, the Russian Empire is materialized both through cities (Kherson, Ochakiv, Khotyn) and by stressing tsarina Catherine II and her courageous generals.