The Serbian-Byzantine heritage and attitude towards tradition in postwar modernism Cover Image

Српсковизантијско наслеђе и однос према традицији у послератном модернизму
The Serbian-Byzantine heritage and attitude towards tradition in postwar modernism

Author(s): Marko M. Radulović
Subject(s): Literary Texts
Published by: Институт за македонска литература
Keywords: Vasko Popa; Miodrag Pavlović; Ivan V. Lalić; Ljubomir Simović; Byzantium; medieval literature; postwar modernism; tradition; lyrical memory; archetype; new medievalism

Summary/Abstract: This paper examines the attitude towards tradition, especially medieval heritage in the poetry of Serbian postwar modernism, particularly in the poetry of Vasko Popa, Miodrag Pavlović, Ivan V. Lalić and Ljubomir Simović. We establish a definition of the term “Serbian-Byzantine heritage” and discuss its position in the history of Serbian literature. Since a reactivation of medieval lyrical patterns takes place within a creative tradition renewal in postwar poetry, the paper defines the inner impulses and forms of this renewal. Subsequently, it examines the nature of the lyrical return to medieval literature. We discuss the extent that the activation of poetic, aesthetic and ideological particularities of old Serbian literature owes to the tradition of European modernism and how much it actually represents an autochthone process determined by the internal logic of Serbian literature. Finally, we determine the distinctive medieval poetic views – lyrical totality, a desire for completeness, the idea of history – that were reactivated in the poetry of postwar modernism as a nanswer to contemporary poets’ questions.

  • Issue Year: 13/2015
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 221-239
  • Page Count: 19
  • Language: Serbian
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