A new reception of Miloš Crnjanski – the rightist ideas and the literary oeuvre of the 1930 s.

Abstract

Background: In the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, leftist ideologies were promoted under the shadow of pacifism, as opposed to which Crnjanski, a right-wing writer and nationalist, was placed. Unfortunately, even after the Second World War, such position cost Crnjanski a decades-long exile, the political stigmatisation of his literary work in school curricula and in historical reviews of the then Yugoslav literatures, all the way until the writer’s return to Belgrade in 1965, when such perception slowly started to change. Even though Crnjanski, as a right-winger, nationalist and fascist, would bear this mark for quite a while, his literary works, at least those written before 1934, have since the early 1970s returned to the sphere of scientific interpretations. Purpouse: This paper adopts an interdisciplinary method to approach the work of Miloš Crnjanski from the 1930s in light of the two latest publications – Diplomatic Papers (1936–1941) and Political Articles (1919–1939). Based on the hitherto unknown historical materials and Crnjanski’s reports from the diplomatic missions in Berlin and Rome, and from his travels across Spain at the time, we will present a complex network of prejudices about a writer who was declared a right-winger. By analysing a work published in this period, Crnjanski’s Love in Tuscany, and the reports written in the capacity of a press and culture attaché in Berlin from 1935 to 1938 and in Rome from 1938 to 1941, we will present Crnjanski in the framework of a new reception that has been shifting in scientific circles and memories Embahade. Milo Lompar’s book Crnjanski – Biography of One Feeling (2018) and Gorana Raičević’s latest study Agon and Melancholy. The Life and Work of Miloš Crnjanski (2021) bring a new reception of the work and life of Crnjanski. Results: With the development of interdisciplinary studies and certain forms of awakening and strengthening of the right in Europe since the beginning of the 21st century, bolder and bolder studies, statements and interpretations of fascism have been appearing. In this vein, Umberto Eco published the essay ‘Ur-Fascism’ in English in 1995, which has been translated into the Serbian language. An important text by Enco Traverso was also translated. The study in question poses a modern understanding of the strengthening of right-wing movements in Europe at the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century. In this manner, the Italian literary historian Alessandra Tarquini in the study History of Fascist Culture gives a precise view of the breadth of fascism in the entire Italian society from its first appearances in the early 1920s to its collapse in 1943. In this study, fascism is interpreted as an ideology, but also as a form of culture and a way of living determined by myths, old and new. By taking into account the latest findings in historical documents and literature on fascism in Italy, this paper show the connections between literature, political ideas and basic writings of Crnjanski as a diplomat in the period between 1935 and 1941. In this text we show new reception in Serbian literature science and history after printed – Diplomatic Papers (1936–1941) and Political Articles (1919–1939) and Milo Lompar’s book Crnjanski – Biography of One Feeling (2018) and Gorana Raičević’s latest study Agon and Melancholy. The Life and Work of Miloš Crnjanski (2021). In conlusion we can see that Crnjanski has been writer and diplomatic atase for culture and information but that he is on rightets in political and any other way with fascism in Europe. 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