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JOVAN SKERLIĆ: THE NEW YOUTH MAGAZINES AND OUR NEW GENERATION Title: Novi omladinski listovi i naš novi naraštaj (The new youth magazines and our new generation) Originally published: Srpski književni glasnik, 1913, XXX/3, pp. 212–224. Language: Serbian The excerpts used are from Jovan Skerlić, Pisci i knjige, vol. V (Belgrade: Prosveta, 1964), pp. 263–277. About the author Jovan Skerlić [1877, Belgrade – 1914, Belgrade]: literary critic, historian of literature . He was born into a middle-class family with origins in Šumadija and Vojvodina . While attending the gymnasium in Belgrade, he was introduced to the socialist ideas of Svetozar Marković. In 1895, Skerlić began to work for various socialist and opposition newspapers, such as Socijaldemokrat (Social democrat), Radničke novine (Workers’ news), and Delo (Work). At Belgrade University, he studied history and French philology. There he met professor Bogdan Popović, who would have a strong impact on his personality. After graduating from Belgrade University, Skerli ć continued his studies in Lausanne, Paris and Munich, becoming a specialist in French language and literature, and in literary theory. In 1905, he was appointed as a professor at Belgrade University and became the editor of the respectable literary magazine Srpski književni glasnik (Serbian literary messenger). As a critic, he stood for the importance of the content of the literary text, and less for its expressive and artistic form. The method of his analysis involved the reconstruction of the social, cultural and political circumstances that formed the background and context of literary creativity. Skerlić became famous for his style of writing, which was clear, picturesque , and concise. At the beginning of the twentieth century, he became a member of the Independent Radical Party (a group which had broken off from the Radical Party; see Pera Todorović, Speech at the Assembly of the People’s Radical Party in Kragujevac). As such, he was one of the ideologists of Jugoslavenska nacionalna omladina (Yugoslav national youth), and advocated a common Serbo-Croatian language and national unity. Skerlić is considered to be one of the most prominent names of Serbian modernism, and remains a key reference point within the field of literary criticism. Main works: Pogled na današnju francusku književnost [A view of contemporary French literature] (1902); Jakov Ignjatović (1904); Omladina i njena književnost [The ‘Youth’ movement and its literature] (1906); Srpska književnost u 18. veku JOVAN SKERLIĆ: THE NEW YOUTH MAGAZINES AND OUR NEW GENERATION 133 [Serbian literature in the eighteenth century] (1909); Svetozar Marković (1910); Istorijski pregled srpske štampe [Historical overview of the Serbian press] (1911); Istorija nove srpske književnosti [History of new Serbian literature] (1912, 1914); Pisci i knjige 9 vols. [Writers and books] (1907–1926). Context The text in question, concerning the new youth magazines and the patriotism of the new generation, was published in 1913, simultaneously in Serbia and Croatia. It was written in the period when Serbia was engaged in the Balkan Wars, thus a substantial part of it was dedicated to the rise of patriotic feelings among the younger generation. Skerlić compared the attitudes and feelings of youth in the first decades of the twentieth century to the Romantic ‘Serbian Youth’ movement, which he had already examined and criticized extensively. The critique of the cultural and political conditions of the period between the 1840s and the 1860s in Serbia had already been the subject of Skerlić’s Omladina i njena književnost, which was a part of Skrelić’s longlasting investigation of the literary and political history of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Serbia. Omladina i njena književnost particularly examines the dynamics of literary and political life at the late 1860s and early 1870s. According to Skerlić, the period marked the heyday of Serbian Romanticism, with a strong and long-lasting resonance in Serbian politics and literature that he sought to challenge. At the end of the 1860s, through the activities of the United Serbian Youth (see Draga Dejanović, To Serbian mothers), the idealization of national cultural traits had gained popularity. The representatives of this National Romantic movement worshipped everything that could be connected to village life, peasant culture, folk customs, “ancient traditions” and folk heroes . The ‘Youth’ generated a large stock of representations, ideas, literary and political texts, which consolidated “the new cult of nationality.” Skerlić was critical of these mythical political ideas and identified himself with the enlightened, rational, and realistic traditions in Serbian literature, epitomized by Dositej Obradović and Svetozar Marković. In many, if not most of his writings, Skerli...

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