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Barbarogenius and Utopia
Barbarogenius and Utopia

Author(s): Zorica Đergović-Joksimović
Subject(s): Studies of Literature, Theory of Literature, Sociology of Art
Published by: Институт за књижевност и уметност
Keywords: the Balkans;Barbarogenius;Ljubomir Micić;nation;nationalism;utopia;Zenit;Zenithism;

Summary/Abstract: The paper investigates the utopian aspects of Ljubomir Micić’s novel "Barbarogénie le Décivilisateur" [Barbarogenius Decivilizer] (1938). Three years after the end of WW I Ljubomir Micić and his associates launched the avant-garde journal "Zenit" [Zenith], which was to enunciate their revolutionary ideas concerning the future of Europe. They saw the cause of the war in the decadent European culture, which, if wars were to be avoided in the future, were to be replaced by a radically different one. Surprisingly, the solution was to be found in the concepts of barbarization and decivilization. The main personification of Micić’s utopian ideas was to be the revolutionary "Barbarogenius Decivilizer" originating from the Balkans. Contrary to its usual stereotipical derisive perception as backward, in Micić’s view, Balkan culture was vital, vibrant and capable of bringing enlightenment and rebirth to the rest of Europe

  • Issue Year: 47/2015
  • Issue No: 156
  • Page Range: 107-119
  • Page Count: 13
  • Language: English