The Contributions of Svetolik Ranković to the Structural Development of the Serbian Novel

In Serbian literary histories and critical scopes, Svetolik Ranković (1863-99) is recognized as an important nineteenth-century novelist.² A surprising fact then arises from the critics ambivalence towards his work. It is surprising, then, that critics remain ambivalent toward his work. Whereas some of the early reviewers stressed the quality of form in Ranković's first novel, Gorski car (The Mountain Tsar), 1898,³ well-established contemporary critic Jovan Skerlić⁴ recognized and acknowledged only the novel's content. The fact that other reputable Serbian critics had identified subjective, nonliterary, and anti-literary approaches can be connected to the nationalistic orientation⁵ which, as usual, discusses non-applicable aspects of fictional depiction.⁶ A typical example is found in the report of Bogdan Popović, who as a university professor, a powerful critic, and a member of the jury SANU helped create national opinion. Popović identified Ranković's Gorski car as the best Serbian novel, but criticized the presence of criminal story elements. The critic did not support his statements with any kind of specific argument but, paradoxically, chose to read, in front of an audience, the excerpt of Ranković's novel Gorski car which describes the very first criminal act of the main hero as the very best part of the novel.⁷

In the twentieth century many critics⁸ just recycled the authoritative opinions of Jovan Skerlić who, indeed, was a dominant Serbian critic but instead of raising critical consciousness, created a confusing question: was Ranković a talented and original author or a mediocre writer and a weak plagiarist? What are the exact reasons for which Ranković should be remembered as a writer in Serbian literature?

Toward the end of the twentieth century emerging literary critics praised Ranković's craft in plotting stories, judging his work to be a new step in the direction of establishing a modern, novelistic, and psychological approach.⁹ However, a comparative analysis of Ranković's three novels—Gorski car, Seoska učiteljica (The Village Female Teacher), and Porušeni ideali (Demolished Ideals)—is still lacking. The discourse on these novels has been superficial. The critics and scholars simply listed literary motives and themes, rarely opening new and fresh ways for understanding Ranković's radical contribution in changing the Serbian novel, and his turn toward a pessimistic and tragic vision of fictional heroes.¹⁰ From one perspective, Serbian readers wholeheartedly accepted the evolution of the novel into a new genre; from the other, the critique's cliché could not recognize new aesthetic values. Consequently, the standpoint and value of Ranković's novels, and particularly the art of their structure, remain obscured.¹¹ The aim of this paper is to provide a descriptive poetics of plot in Svetolik Ranković's novels.

Composition and Motivation: Procrustes' Solutions to the Main Problems of Serbian Nineteenth Century Novels

To point out Ranković's contributions to the development of the nineteenth century Serbian novel, let us begin with the historical poetics of the Serbian novelistic plot. In the first century of the birth of the Serbian novel fraud,¹² ambition, and love were the three dominant types of plot¹³ while others, such as criminal acts, the hero's maturation, and quarrels with blood brothers played minor or secondary roles in the novelistic structure. From the beginning till the end of the nineteenth century, Serbian novels dealt with the same structural problems of composition and motivation/characterization. Jakov Ignjatović (1822-89) provides an example. He is considered to be the creator of Serbian realist novels by establishing important themes of nineteenth century's realism. These are: contrasting village and city, describing the slow degradation of villages, stressing the role of money, etc. Providing realistic and colorful social descriptions and using colloquial language, he made certain characters more complex than those of his literary predecessors. Despite these facts, Ignjatović's novels present actions which are not compact or logically constructed. Rather, they are formed as cumulative and dry reports. In that manner, the diminishing role of dramatic gradation forces melodramatic turns to emerge as...