NATIONAL AND RELIGIOUS CONFRATERNITIES
NOEL MALCOLM: Races, myths, the beginning. Bosnia since 1180
The first chapter of the book "Bosnia. A Short History" (next articles are also from this book) by historien Noel Malcolm from Cambrige, who is now a political columnist on the "Daily Telegraph".
The author presents the ethnically complicated origin of Bosnians. He comes to a conclusion that the then Bosnians were Slavs, whose home was Bosnia.
NOEL MALCOLM: The Bosnian Church
An attempt to historically explain the connections between the Church of Bosnia and the Bogomil movement, which took its birth as a heretic movement in the 10th century. In time it had covered Macedonia and a part of Serbia. Even today many facts concerning Bogomils have remained unexplained.
Duologue about a book
"Bosnia. A Short history", the outline, by Noel Malcolm serves as the subject of a literary dispute between: Krsto Cviić (a journalist from London, the editor in the Central and Eastern Europe department of "The Economist", the editor-in-chief of the monthly "The World Today", an employee of the Royal International Politics Institute in London and a co-operator of "Erasmus" in Zagreb) and Srećko Dľaja (a writer, the author of dissertations on the literature of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a co-operator of "Erasmus" in Zagreb; he lives in Munich).
NOEL MALCOLM: The Gypsies of Bosnia
The author analyses the routes of Gypsy travels, on the basis also of the visible influence of the Greek language and the group of south Slavic languages on Romany. In the 19th century in Bosnia there were three separate Gypsy groups: "White Gypsies" - the oldest community of settlers, "Black Gypsies" - the nomadic community, orthodox (they tended to convert to Islam in time), and "Black Walachs", whose ancestors were Romanians.
RAJKO DJURIĆ: The prayer of an ungodly father and the cry of a Gypsy mother
The author is a Rom (a Yugoslav Gypsy), a poet, journalist, social activist, Secretary General of Romani Union (the World Gypsy Council). He conducts the cultural department of "Politika" in Belgrade; he is the editor-in-chief of the social-cultural periodical "Krlo e Romengo" ("The Voice of Romanies"). Today he lives in Berlin.
JOSIP OSTI: Jews in Bosnia and Herzegovina
The well-known poet, essayist and translator proposes to meet the Hagada of Sarajevo - one of the most beautiful and most interesting illuminated manuscripts dating back to the late 14th century in Spain. The book is a collection of songs, prayers and religious texts designed for reading during the greatest Jewish festival - Passover, to be celebrated on the anniversary of the liberation of Jews from the Egyptian enslavement. The Hagada of Sarajevo was written in Hebrew.
The author also touches on the history of Sephardic Jews, Jewish associations operating in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the literature of Spanish Jews.

OUT OF PRINT
Fragments of old books containing the description of journeys to Bosnia Stanisław Sapieha undertaken in the years 1804-5, and Stanisław Rospond and Halina Siennicka in the 30s of our century. The description are full of abundant historical and cultural information, social gossip and subtle observations of day-to-day life and the political situation.

PERIPHERIES
JULIAN KORNHAUSER: Conflicting Cultures
According to the axiom that The history of the literary language reveals the model of the national culture the author traces mutual influences of the languages and literatures of the nations of Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
MIŁOSZ OKUKA: Farewell, Serbo-Croatian! (The old and new winds, or is Bosnia trilingual?)
The conflict in the Balkans intruded practically into all aspects of life, including the language. Along with new states to have been established, the official positions on the languages of respective nations have changed. The author scrutinises the constitutional articles and decrees of the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Croatia. Is a language a political instrument then?
STANKO CEROVIĆ: Andrić's political testament.
An attempt to recover the artistic portrait of Ivo Andrić on the basis of fragments from his best known work "The bridge on Drina".

CIRCLES OF INITIATION
JASMINKO ARNAUTOVIĆ: The Walk of Goodness
An attempt to interpret the Bogomil religion by a modern man. The author puts himself among the followers of the religion.

ODDS AND ENDS
DANILO KIŠ: Censorship - Self-censorship
Censorship can manifest in a variety of forms: a friendly piece of advice, editorial criteria, public opinion. According to the author, the most effective and most dangerous censorship is invisible self-censorship.
DRAGO JANČAR: Tribes or Europe
A reflection on the conference featuring European politicians, intellectuals, artists, which took place on 28-29 Jan. 1992 in Paris. The subject of the discussion was the opposition: universalism v. particularism.
DRAGO JANČAR: On books and other demons
DRAGO JANČAR: Television or blethering about cultural pluralism
Putting the modern domains of television and books against each other, Drago Jančar writes: (...) the abode that in our consciousness was once occupied by the image of a lonesome reader holding a book, has been replaced by the image of a man with headphones covering his ears and a remote controller in his hand; where there were once thoughtful eyes inspecting the deeps of the human soul, there is now a thoughtless, blank look.
ALEŠ DEBELJAK: An intellectual heaven in Budapest
The title "heaven" denotes - in the author's eyes - Collegium Budapest, the Institute for Advanced Study - the Hungarian Research Centre with world-wide aspirations.
KATARINA ŠALAMUN-BIEDRZYCKA: Slovene epiphanies or from Preąern to Zupan
A revised version of this text has been published in Silver and moss, Anthology of Slovene Poetry. Selected, translated and edited by the author. Sejny 1994.
UROŠ ZUPAN: Ljubljana and a poet
I know, each of us has got his own expanses, soul-soothing landscapes. There are some of mine in Ljubljana. The renown Slovene poet proposes a literary wandering around "his" Ljubljana.

CULTURAL CIRCLES
DANUTA CIRLIĆ-STRASZYŃSKA: On the side of life - Studio Sarajevo and Circle '99
Studio Sarajevo '99 was established in 1992 as a commercial radio station, in time turning its main interest to the news, it also started to publish aspiring literature. In 1994, the supporters of Studio Sarajevo formed the Independent Intellectuals Association - Circle '99. The Circle '99 issues "Free Thought Periodical '99". It co-operates with non-government and alternative organisations in Tuzla, Belgrade, Banja Luka.
STUDIO SAGA - an independent artistic group, established in 1989 to protect the rights and works of filmmakers. SAGA's splendid documentaries focus on day-to-day life of the inhabitants of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who have been accompanied by the filmmakers equipped with a camera since the start of the conflict. In 1994 the group was awarded the prize Felix for the whole of their works.
PETER JANJATOVIĆ, RUEDIGER ROSSIG: Rock's role in war and peace (in former Yugoslavia); "Transition" No. 14/1996.
I've grown up watching color movies about World War II
I've grown up fighting in school very often
I've grown up listening to folk songs filled with pain
I'm really a lucky child.
It is a fragment of the lyrics by Jasenko Houra.
ZINKA BARDIĆ, SILVIJA ŠEPAROVIĆ: Radio 101
Radio 101 based in Zagreb started in 1983 as a pirate radio station. Although at present the radio is broadcasting legally, its operation is not deprived of many problems.
DANUTA CIRLIĆ-STRASZYŃSKA: On Zagrebian "Erasmus"
It is a social-cultural biweekly assembling eminent writers and scholars from Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Bosnia; its editor-in-chief is Slavko Goldstein.
SLAVKO GOLDSTEIN: The open letter to President Tudjman
It is a letter that the editor of "Erasmus" addressed to the president of Croatia, Franjo Tudjman. It is concerned with the controversial incident of moving the ashes to a Jewish cemetery.
DANUTA CIRLIĆ-STRASZYŃSKA: "Feral Tribuna" or satire and humour
"The weekly of Croatian anarchists, protestants and heretics" is issued in Split with the circulation of 60 thousand. The editors connected with Studio "VIVA LUDE(R)" (ludeű is tomfoolery, craziness) have been persecuted for many times by the Croatian authorities.
MAGDALENA PETRYŃSKA: There would be less hope without "The Republika"
The periodical identifies itself as "an organ of citizenship self-liberation and a periodical opposing the elements of fear, hatred and violence". The periodical has been published since 1989, its editor-in-chief is Nebojąa Popov.
ALEŠ DEBELJAK: Nova Revija and the Slovene intellectual forum
Practically since the very beginning, this independent periodical has constituted a discussion forum for Slovene and European intellectuals. Up until now, the editors of the publication have been successful in mitigating the disparate political views of their co-operators. Is this going to change?

THE DISPLAY - PUBLICATIONS
It is a presentation of books, publishing series and CD's concerning the culture as well as the issues of former Yugoslavia. There are discussions about recent publications: albums, books, periodicals and musical recordings having been revealed in Poland and abroad, which are concerned with former Yugoslavia and Central and Eastern Europe.

CANDLES IN THE WIND
This is devoted to Prof. JAN WIERZBICKI - an eminent specialist on Slavism, an expert at the southern Slavonic literature. He wrote about his abundant critical-literary work: I have been trying to describe for Polish readers and acquaint them with this complex tissue of mutual relations between several literatures sharing the same historical fate.

THE HOUR OF THOUGHT
JOSIP OSTI: A trip with Peter Handke to Sarajevo
A polemic article, criticising P. Handke's position. The author reproaches him for taking the side of war criminals. He writes this about "A winter trip...": Thanks to his text however, Handke has accomplished his objective. Once again he attracted attention of the world, confirming his expressed earlier need to say no when the others say yes.
RAFAŁ MRÓWCZYŃSKI: A crusade against "the media consensus". Peter Handke is looking for justice on the rivers of Serbia
An attempt to analyse the discussion stirred up by P. Handke's text, an important facet of which is a mutual relation between literature and journalism. Restating ironically P. Handke's statement, the author so describes the context of the discussion: One pole is occupied by "littérateurs", the other one by "hacks" driving the mass-media roadroller, which completely crushes anything that stands out in the press-prosaic world.