Poetic Dicta as Memory Connectors

Abstract

The culture of a nation on the spatial and temporal axis is marked by the connecting units – the figures of memory, which transmit and connect the memory material through various cultural media, and therefore ensure the persistence of the cultural memory. We name these figures memory connectors precisely because of this characteristic of the preservation, transmitting and connecting. This paper deals with the specific memory connectors in the diwan poetry of Bosniaks in Persian, as a segment of the Islamic literary tradition. The image of text as the space of memory in Islamic literary tradition gives a mnemonic art par excellence dimension to the poetry – it is the interactive transfer of the traditon’s practice of intertext and literary scenery.