Андреј Митровић као историчар културе и историчар политичких идеологија
Andrej Mitrović As A Cultural Historian And Historian Of Political Ideas

Summary/Abstract: The paper deals with contribution of Prof. Andrej Mitrović to the cultural history of Serbia and Europe and the history of 20th century political ideologies. Particular attention has been given to three of his monographs: The Age of the Intolerant (1974), Historical in the Magic Mountain (1977) and The Engaged and the Beutiful (1983) as well as to a series of his scholarly papers and articles published in dailies and weeklies. In dealing with a wide scope of topics covering political, cultural and economic history Mitrović continued fruitful tradition established at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade by his predecessors such as professors Vasilj Popović, Jorjo Tadić and Georgy Ostrogorsky. The last two historians had personal influence on him both in terms of various field of historiography that they covered and in terms of wide geographic scope they covered. In dealing with arts Mitrović was particurarly dedicated to analysis of German and Serbian/Yugoslav cutlures in the frist half of the 20th century. He was careful not to fuse qualities of history with qualities of art but was rather inclined to identify melting of the two in historical reality. In analysing the overlapping of politics and arts he was able to preceive patterns of that process. That paved the way for the Belgrade school of art historians that continued analysis in the wake of his ideas. His humanistic objectivity is closely connected with his concept of historian’s task. Following Leopold von Ranke he demands objectivity from historians but at the same time he sees a humanistic value in truth. The author was in search for and was able to identify humanistic responses of artists in the difficult Age of the Intolerant (this is Mitrović’s appellation for the inter-war period). Identifying these humanistic responses was author’s way to warn the public about phenomena of the time in which he lived and in certain cases, e.g. in 1990s, to condemn events and processes that he witnessed. By his emphasis on the relevance of analysis of political ideologies for the understanding of the Age of the Intolerant Mitrović created a canon in Serbian historiography on how to approach analysis of the predomination of the political sphere over individuals. This had profound influence on many of his disciples and followers.

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