The tradition of the so-called “great mothers” Macedonian literature conceives in its beginnings, i.e. more that a century ago. Its most distinguished talent, Gligor Prlicev (1830-1893), will note in his biography that “Neda, from The Serdar is no one else but my mother. (…) It is so true that the mother’s love helps even in writing.” (Prlicev, 1974). Prlicev is an example of a son who adores/worships his mother, judging his own actions (as well as the actions of those around him, including his fictional characters) by the high standards of his mother. The mythical mother Stalev claims to have been “courageous, just, determined to raise arms against the enemies of her people (…) her determination, Neda’s protest – that is a shadow of nature itself.” (Stalev, 1973; 24) Provided that these attributes were true for reality – since for literature they obviously were (Neda’s character was created to function according to the male concept for the ideal woman-mother) – it is highly probable that the psychoanalysts would have many interesting things to say of our “Second Homer”.
It is of a particular interest that also the other female character in The Serdar, Kuzman’s fiancée, Maria, impeccably functions in the advantage of the male concept of the ideal woman: “Brought up in a patriarchic atmosphere (how else could she be brought up) she manifests the features of this way of living” – Stalev says (Stalev, 1974; 60). Prlicev will assign her a destiny that is the only appropriate destiny an honest woman whose fiancé was killed is expected to fulfill: “I shall serve in the home of God, in black garment/ unhappy for all future times/ I shall not go in bed with another, despite his beauty/ for as long as I live. (Prlicev, 1973; 86)
If womanhood cannot be the epitome of motherhood as well – as it was in Genoveva’s case – the honest woman cannot but choose the way chosen long ago by Antigone: to be buried alive! Without a husband her life has no longer a purpose. She can neither look for her own – female – identity. On the Balkans the woman is (still?) identified through her husband (or, at least, her son) – in some areas in Macedonia the women are called not with their own names, but with the names of their husbands: Trpece-ica, Spase-ica, Krste-ica, Pasko-ica… In Risto Krle’s tragedy “Money Are Murderous” (1937) when ‘pater familias’, Mitre, addresses his wife, he always calls her “Mitreica”.
In the patriarchic world the issue of “considering a woman’s characteristics in literature” (Kristaeva) is never raised. Within the hundred years that it dominated, the drama of everyday life constantly supports and exploits the female archetype, reduced to the already “classical” triad:
virgin-mother-saint.
It is only when it enters the so-called contemporary/modern period, arriving in Macedonia in 1957 with the play “The Winnow of the Wind” by Kose Čašule (1921), that Macedonian dramatics displays certain changes. It is for the first time that a woman (Winnow-Magda) takes the central part of a play, a play in which the search for the woman’s identity is differently is differently treated, a play whose author (learning from the experiments of the then modern American drama, interested also for psychoanalysis) makes an effort to convert the dogmatic “female” codes of his own cultural/literary heritage. Winnow-Magda is the first woman character in Macedonian drama that cannot be associated (at all) with the existing female archetype virgin-mother-saint! We may even say that Winnow-Magda is a character who threatens to finally destroy this sacramental archetype.
Although some still falsely consider it “a modern variant of the fortuneseeking theme”, this compact “play in three parts” (as its author terms it) could freely be called a love play. The respectable Macedonian theatrologist Nada Petkovska is right in insisting on its emotional, extremely tense basic matrimonial dramatic situation in the form of a triangle (man-woman-lover), but also on a whole row of subtle forms of lovewhich logically emerge from this trigonometry. Petkovska carefully examines the relations that develop – in any complex love (isn’t every love complex?) – between the man and the woman, whether they be in a matrimonial, love, of (as in “The Winnow”) potentially incestuous relationship: devotion, impatience, gentleness, hate, fear, hope, owning, care, repulsiveness, compassion… in the same time. Petkovska is also interested in those kinds of love that in the triangle situation are ostensibly secondary, the relations: father-son, stepmother-stepson, mother-son, father-mother… (Petkovska, 1996; 25-44). There is no doubt that these analyses confirm that “The Winnow” is a true play about love, a play whose dramatic preoccupation is exactly love: all three main characters are constantly in a vain, absurd quest for it! Condemned never finding it!
Unfortunately, neither did its author Kole Čašule in his later plays continue this Jungic quest for the identity, excellently commenced in “The Winnow of the Wind”.
the art is inside
