Serbo-Croatian as a language of Sephardic literature: the cases of Isak Samokovlija and Jacques Confino

Abstract

The early twentieth century saw a rise in Jewish writers in what is traditionally considered non-Jewish languages in the Balkans like in the rest of Europe. In light of this phenomenon’s significance, we pose the question of why and how Serbo-Croatian became a language of Sephardic literature. The article questions the accepted narrative of the ‘linguistic acculturation’ of Sephardic Jews in the Balkans and unearths the complex cultural, but also political background of this Jewish phenomenon using the examples of two prolific, recognized, and celebrated writers of Sephardic background, Isak Samokovlija and Jacques Confino. Through the historicization of Sephardic multilingualism in Serbia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina from the 1890s to the 1920s, it argues that the adoption of Serbo-Croatian was motivated equally, if not dominantly, by Jewish political aims in the region rather than the pressures of emancipation only. Samokovlija and Confino’s biographies and cultural choices, therefore, illuminate an unlikely Sephardic history.

Početkom dvadesetog veka došlo je do porasta broja jevrejskih pisaca na onome što se tradicionalno smatra nejevrejskim jezicima na Balkanu, kao i u ostatku Evrope. U svetlu značaja ovog fenomena, postavljamo pitanje zašto je i kako srpskohrvatski postao jezik sefardske književnosti. Članak dovodi u pitanje prihvaćeni narativ „jezičke akulturacije“ sefardskih Jevreja na Balkanu i otkriva kompleksnu kulturnu, ali i političku pozadinu ovog jevrejskog fenomena na primerima dvojice plodnih, priznatih i proslavljenih pisaca sefardskog porekla, Isaka Samokovlije i Žaka Konfina. Kroz istorizaciju sefardske višejezičnosti u Srbiji i Bosni i Hercegovini od 1890-ih do 1920-ih, on tvrdi da je usvajanje srpsko-hrvatskog podjednako, ako ne i dominantno, motivisano jevrejskim političkim ciljevima u regionu, a ne samo pritiscima emancipacije. Biografije Samokovlije i Konfina i kulturni izbori, stoga, verovatno osvetljavaju i sefardsku istoriju.