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University Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian Languages: Theatre

Supplementary materials to support first year language program

Did You Know?

Yugoslav Drama Theater (Jugoslovensko dramsko pozorište) in Belgrade, Serbia was established in 1947 with the intention of consolidating actors and writers from the region. The theate was closed from 1997-2003 as a result of an electrical fire that destroyed the main stage.  The theater has since reopened and has a broad repertoire.

Regional Culture

SEEcult provides a portal to cultural information for southern Europe. There are sections on architecture, film, music, cultural politics, publishing, theater, technology and the visual arts.

Theater

Drama as a genre in the South Slavic region has a rich history and there are a number of overviews available.  If you are interested in a cursory background you might look at the article, available via Google books, in the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Drama, V.5 (1984).  The article has sections on Serbian, Croatian, and Macedonian drama and theater with a brief bibliography provided.

There are a number of resources on international theater and drama in English. However, you should be aware that they are sometimes unaware of materials that have been published in the vernacular.

English language material on the region and on this subject does exist but requires some knowldedge of the resources of the field.  There are extensive published print bibliographies, most famously by Vasa Mihailovich 's A Comprehensive Bibliography of Yugoslav Literature in English 1593-1980.  In the vernacular language the bibliographical materials are rich.  A good starting place is the Enciklopedija Jugoslavije which has an excellent and extensive article on dramatic literature.  This is divided into sections reflecting the various regions and each includes a bibliography.

MLA (Modern Language Association Bibliography) is also a useful source for information on Yugoslav theater before 1989.