The Scholarly Oeuvre of Đenana Buturović: Between History, Oral Literature, and Cultural Memory

Apstrakt

Academician Professor Đenana Buturović, PhD (1934–2012), ranks among the most distin-guished Bosnian and Herzegovinian scholars of oral literature. Through her scholarly work, she made an outstanding contribution to the study of Bosniak oral epic poetry, ballads, and oral prose, significantly advancing the understanding of the relationship between historical reality, collective memory, and the processes of oral literary creation. The aim of this paper is to analyse and evaluate Đenana Buturović’s contribution to the development of oral literature studies through her authored works and edited scholarly publications. Using descriptive, analytical, and comparative methods, the paper examines her most important books and studies, with particular emphasis on her research on Hörmann’s collection, Bosniak oral epic poetry, the Morićs theme, and oral prose. The analysis demonstrates that Buturović established a methodologically grounded approach to the study of Bosniak oral literature by integrating literary-theoretical, folkloristic, cultural-historical, and cultural-anthropological perspectives. Her scholarly oeuvre represents one of the
principal foundations of contemporary Bosnian and Herzegovinian folklore studies and literary scholarship.