Nenad Fejić
HISTORY VERSUS MYTH: NARRATIVE AND DOCUMENTARY SOURCES
ON THE ATTITUDE OF THE RAGUSANS TOWARDS THE NEMANJIĆ RULERS
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DOI: 10.34298/ZR9788677431600.F055
UDC: 327(497.5:497.11)“11/13“:930.1
pp. 55–82
language: english
Abstract:
In the mirror of the Ragusan chronography, Serbian sovereigns, with the exception of Stefan Dušan, are portrayed as figures lacking benevolence towards Dubrovnik. This biased approach in the Ragusan narrative sources regarding Serbian rulers prompted the author to turn to documentary sources, both Serbian and Ragusan, which relate to topics addressed in narrative sources. Indeed, when Ragusan chroniclers discuss the political and military aspects of the relations between Dubrovnik and Serbia, they draw extensively from documentary sources. However, these documentary sources often lean towards economic rationality and the pursuit of mutual benefits rather than towards a state of perpetual conflict driven by the irrationality of Serbian sovereigns. This raises the question of the gap in the interpretation of documentary sources by the chroniclers. The article’s author seeks the causes of this gap in the more than two centuries separating the events described from the time of their recording in the chronography. These two centuries witnessed the emergence of new frameworks for historical discourse, influenced by the literary works of the Ragusan Baroque, the spirit of Counter-Reformation, and the communal patriotism fuelled by the pervasive Ottoman and Venetian threat. By incorporating these new frameworks into their narratives, Ragusan chroniclers and historians constructed a new interpretative grid, in which objective discourse gave way to a mythical interpretation of the relationships between Dubrovnik and the medieval Serbian state. According to this framework, the relationship is reduced to the daily resilience of the Ragusan authorities, who are exposed to the arbitrary and unpredictable nature of the Serbian sovereigns from the Nemanjić dynasty.
Keywords:
Serbia, Dubrovnik, Ragusans, Nemanjić dynasty, chroniclers, documentary sources, narrative sources, history, myth.
