RESEARCH ACTIVITY, DEPARTMENTS


The Institute of Macedonian Literature is realizing research activity in the area of the historical development of the Macedonian Literature, the contemporary literary processes, its relations and influences with the other literatures and the theory of literature.
The activity of the Institute of Macedonian Literature in Skopje is realized according to the Law for Research activity (“Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia” No.13/96 and 29/02). According to this law, the Institute’s activity is of specific public interest because it comprises of research activities in the field of historical and cultural identity of the Macedonian nation and the representatives of the other communities that reside in the Republic of Macedonia.
The research activity of the Institute is accomplished through the activities of eight departments:
Department of Medieval Macedonian Literature
Department of Macedonian Folk Literature
Department of Macedonian Literature of the 19th Century
Department of Macedonian Literature of the 20th Century
Department of Macedonian-Balkan Literary-historical Relations
Department of the Literatures of the Nationalities in Macedonia
Department of Theory of Literature and Comparative Literature
Department of the Contributing Scientific Activities - Bibliography, Documentation, Library and Informatics


The Department of Medieval Macedonian Literature
researches the Macedonian manuscript inheritage from the period between the 9th and the 18th century, researches done from literary-historical, textological, paleographical and comparative aspect. In the frames of the projects, the Department traces the genre structure and the manifestations of the manuscript inheritage produced on Macedonian territory, the scriptorium centres, the authors of the Macedonian Medieval literature, the Biblical books of Macedonian provenience, the relations with the Byzantine and the other Slavic and Balkan literatures from the medieval period.
Head of the Department: Ilija Velev, Ph.D., Research Councillor
Member: Maja Jakimovska-Toshich, Ph.D., Senior Research Fellow (top)

The Department of Macedonian Folk Literature
researches the Macedonian Folk Literature from all the genres and with diverse methodology. Special attention is being given to the research of the history of folklore, followed by research of the motifs and the poetics of the folklore, and particularly aims to the relation between the folklore and the literature. Regarding the fact that the Macedonian contemporary literature is mostly created upon the foundation taken from the folklore tradition, particular attention is being pointed towards the relation of the writers from the Renaissance period (brothers Miladinovci, J. H. Djinot, R. Zhinzifov etc.) with the contemporary ones (B. Koneski, P. M. Andreevski, Zh. Chingo etc.)
Head of the Department: Marko Kitevski, Ph.D., Research Councillor
Members: Lenka Tatarovska, Ph.D., Research Councillor; Ana Martinoska, M.A., Research Assistant (top)

The Department of Macedonian Literature of the 19th Century
researches, interprets and evaluates the literary phenomenon and the results of all the generations from this period, the founding of newspapers, magazines and books, the librarianship and the beginning of the struggle for the creation of the Macedonian literary language. The Enlightenment system as one of the key topics of both the social and the cultural development reflects the goals and the objectives of the realization of the vital existential problems: the state, the authority, the church, the religion, the education, the ethics etc. Therefore, the Macedonian authors from the 19th century are being regarded as warriors with weapons and with written words. Although they belong to the most contradictory Macedonian literary chapter, they are the most persuasive verification of its tradition and continuity.
Head of the Department: Vasil Tocinovski, Ph.D., Research Councillor
Member: Valentina Mironska-Hristovska, Ph.D., Research Fellow (top)

The Department of Macedonian Literature of the 20th Century
uses the development processes, authors and their creations that made a special mark in this period as a subject matter of their scientific interest. The employees of the Department research several significant phases in the Macedonian literature: the literature from the first decade of the century (the characteristics of the literary phenomenon in the transition from the 19th to the 20th century), the Ilinden period, the Macedonian literature between the two World Wars, the literature created during the Second World War, the after war period and the period of the standard development. The object of their interest and interpretation are also the characteristics of the genres (poetry, prose, drama, criticism), as well as the issues coming out from the motif-thematic and stylistic features of the literary works created in the different phases (also dependable on the social circumstances) of the growth of the Macedonian literature during the 20th century.
Head of the Department: Vele Smilevski, Ph.D., Research Councillor
Members: Jovanka Stojanovska-Drugovac, Ph.D., Research Councillor; Loreta Georgievska-Jakovleva, Ph.D., Senior Research Fellow; Mishel Pavlovski, Ph.D., Research Fellow (top)

The Department of Macedonian-Balkan Literary-historical Relations
is engaged in research and adherence of the contacts, the interferences and the relations between the Macedonian literature and the other Balkan literatures. The priority topics of interest are the tangency points and the insights between the Balkan literatures on typological, literary-historical and notional level, the aspects of the cultural pluralism in the past, as well as the intercultural and interliterary relations in the previous, but also in the most recent literary-historical epochs.
Head of the Department: Jasmina Mojsieva-Gusheva, Ph.D., Senior Research Fellow (top)

The Department of the Literatures of the Nationalities in Macedonia
deals with the theory and the esthetics of the literature of the representatives of the ethnic communities in Republic of Macedonia as its primary preoccupation, while regarding the genres, the research have been concentrated on the novel (Luan Starova, Murat Isaku and Ismail Kadare). In the frames of the research activity of the Department, special attention is being given to the comparative research pragmatics between the Macedonian and the Albanian literatures.
Head of the Department: Afrim Redjepi, Ph.D., Research Fellow (top)

The Department of Theory of Literature and Comparative Literature
researches the culturologic aspects of the Otherness that appear in a literary communication. The culturological postulation of the researches enables different approaches in the understanding of the Macedonian literature in the context or opposed to other literatures. At the same time, the notion of the Otherness provides intrasystematic research of the aspects of the Otherness in the context of the Macedonian literature itself (genres, ethnical, ideological aspects etc.).
Head of the Department: Aleksandar Prokopiev, Ph.D., Research Councillor
Members: Sonja Stojmenska-Elzeser, Ph.D., Senior Research Fellow; Natasha Avramovska, Ph.D., Research Fellow (top)

The Department of Bibliography, Documentation, Library and Informatics
represents a basic precondition for the activity and the development of the Institute. The library funds total app. 5000 books, bought or gained by means of exchange or donations. In addition it contains separate funds with scientific periodical publications, encyclopedia editions, bibliographical bulletins, microfilm collection, old printed books, topic card index etc. The entire library fund is professionally recorded and catalogued according to the latest methodology and it is available for the research pursuit of the employees and associates of the Institute.
Head of the Department: Ilija Velev, Ph.D., Research Councillor (top)