The 19th Century Macedonian Awakening

This book is the first effort to present to the English speaking world the life and work of a writer who is regarded by many as the founder of modern Macedonian literature, Kiril Pejcinovik. The study involves direct engagement with primary texts and seeks to establish and define Pejcinovik's role in the transformation from the region's traditional Church Slavic literature to a modern Macedonian one. The author discusses how Pejcinovik used Turkisms in his writings in order to emphasize Orthodox Slavic separateness from Islamic Turkish culture and to emphasize the lawlessness and oppression associated with Turkish rule. By raising new questions and reexamining old ones, the study sheds new light on how the Slavic people of Macedonia became increasingly aware of their shared values, a process that is significant because this Slavic awareness has since grown into a Macedonian national identity which has asserted itself fully in the latter half of the 20th century.