The Cultural Implications of the Migrations of Serbs in the Early Modern Era
The Cultural Implications of the Migrations of Serbs in the Early Modern Era

Research Project by Piotr Kręzel, University of Lodz (PI)

Overview

A research project financed by the National Science Centre (Poland) and realized by Piotr Kręzel from the University of Lodz (Faculty of Philology) in cooperation with Prof. Izabela Lis-Wielgosz from the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (Faculty of Polish and Classic Philology).

The subject of the research is the cultural consequences of the mobility of the Serbian population, which took place in several intervals (1689–90, 1737–39, 1750–53). The phenomenon will be considered in three categories: culture of existence, social culture, and symbolic culture. The principal aim of the research is to trace the factors that drove the Serbian population out of their former habitats (Kosovo, Rascia) to the lands of the Habsburg Monarchy (territories of the central Danube), and then to the south-western frontier of Russia. Moreover, the project aims to investigate the relationship between the migration and the transformation of Serbian lifestyles, including the changes within the Serbian family model. It will also endeavor to examine the hypothesis of the emergence of a “migration habit” among eighteenth-century Serbs, which generated their further mobility towards “sweet Orthodoxy” (Russia). Another important goal of the project is to compare the development of Serbian culture in the Habsburg state and the Romanov monarchy. In this part of the research, we will analyze the Serbian cultural model and its susceptibility to change in two different spaces (Austrian and Russian). In addition, the relationship between Serbian migration in the early modern era and their axiological sphere will be investigated. The project will also include a discussion of the meaning and role of religious symbols as signs for ethnic-confessional identification of Serbs in the examined period. 

The main result of the research will be the development of a monograph and scholarly papers, based on the broadest possible range of texts of culture. This will therefore make it possible to disseminate research results in the international scholarly community.