Godina izdanja: 2021
ISBN: 978-86-80706-70-2
Autor: Domaći
Jezik: Engleski
Oblast: Istorija umetnosti

Igor Borozan

Galerija Matice Srpske 2021 286 strana : ilustrovano u bojama

odlična očuvanost

Serbian Symbolism developed at the turn of the 20th century as part of a broader European cultural movement. Although shaped by specific local conditions, it is deeply rooted in the aesthetic, philosophical, and poetic trends that spread across Europe from the 1880s onward. Its formation reflects a dynamic synthesis of French, Russian, Central European, and Balkan influences, reinterpreted through the experiences of Serbian society and literature.

1. European Intellectual Background

French Symbolism (e.g., the poetics of Verlaine and Mallarmé) served as a primary foundation: emphasis on musicality, suggestion, synesthesia, and the idea that poetry expresses hidden realities beyond the visible world.

Russian Symbolism contributed metaphysical depth, mysticism, and interest in eschatology and spiritual renewal.

Central European cultural centers—Vienna, Budapest, Prague—influenced Serbian writers through education, translation networks, and vibrant periodicals.

2. The Serbian Cultural Context

Serbian literature entered Symbolism during a period of modernization after the 1878 independence recognition.

Intellectual exchange with European capitals intensified through:

Students studying abroad

Literary journals that translated European authors

Diplomatic and cultural contacts

Symbolism emerged as a reaction against positivist realism and the dominance of social themes in 19th-century Serbian prose.

3. Literary Features Adopted from Europe

Serbian Symbolists adopted and transformed key European symbolic principles:

Musicality and rhythm as central poetic elements

Motifs of twilight, dream, and interior space

Mysticism and metaphysical longing

Use of symbols instead of direct description

Aestheticism and the idea of art as a self-contained world

These devices connected Serbian poetry to the broader fin de siècle spirit.

4. Serbian Writers in the European Symbolist Network

Several Serbian authors consciously positioned themselves within European Symbolism:

Despite not naming individuals here (per your pattern so far), the movement includes poets who engaged with French and Russian Symbolist ideas, translated key Symbolist texts, and contributed to European-style literary manifestos and reviews.

Their work appeared in journals influenced by European modernist periodicals.

5. Specificity of the Serbian Variant

While grounded in European models, Serbian Symbolism retained:

Strong national and historical imagery

Interest in Orthodox spirituality and Byzantine cultural memory

Fusion of Balkan folklore with modernist poetics

Themes of political instability and cultural transition characteristic of the region

This produced a version of Symbolism that was simultaneously European and distinctly local.

6. Place within European Modernism

Serbian Symbolism represents:

The first fully modernist movement in Serbian literature

A bridge between late Romanticism and upcoming avant-gardes (Expressionism, Surrealism)

A cultural opening toward European intellectual currents before World War I

Thus, the European framework of Serbian Symbolism is best understood as a crossroads of international modernist ideas and domestic cultural transformation, shaping a unique and influential literary identity.