Lyrical Love Songs in the Folklore Collection of Hussein Derdemez: From Tradition to Change

Folkloristics 10/2 (2025): 79–105
Author: Elma Halilović
Text:

In this paper, lyrical love songs from the folklore collection of Hussein Derdemez (1940–2011) have been analyzed, for which the material was gathered in the Sjenica–Pešter plateau region during the last decades of the 20th century. Derdemez's collection is compiled under the title Folklore Collection of Hussein Derdemez as part of the Biblioteka Usmene Književnosti edition by Matica Srpska (2023). The aim of this paper is to distinguish the subtypes of love songs based on the dominant motifs and thematic characteristics, and to analyze them in the context of lyrical songs from Vuk's collection and older collections from this region. The research is primarily based on descriptive and comparative methods, with sociological insights that should contribute to a clearer understanding of the themes and motifs, particularly those depicting a closed, economically and culturally isolated patriarchal world undergoing significant social and cultural changes. With this approach, it is aimed to highlight the transition that oral literature underwent in the 20th century and continues to undergo, adapting to the contemporary moment.

Keywords: oral poetry, love poetry, Husein Derdemez, tradition, culture, military songs, changes.