Jovan Skerlić (, ; 20 August 1877 – 15 May 1914) was a Serbian writer and literary critic.''Jovan Skerlić u srpskoj književnosti 1877–1977: Zbornik radova''. Posebna izdanja, Institut za knjizevnost i umetnost, Belgrade. He is seen as one of the most influential Serbian literary critics of the early 20th century, after Bogdan Popović, his professor and early mentor. Skerlić was buried in the Novo groblje cemetery in

Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...

.Jovan Skerlić
at the New Graveyard

Biography

Skerlić's paternal family originated from

Šumadija Šumadija ( sr-Cyrl, Шумадија, ) is a geographical region in the central part of Serbia. The area used to be heavily covered with forests, hence the name (from ''šuma'' 'forest'). The city of Kragujevac is the administrative center of t ...

while maternal was from

Vojvodina Vojvodina ( ; sr-Cyrl, Војводина, ), officially the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, is an Autonomous administrative division, autonomous province that occupies the northernmost part of Serbia, located in Central Europe. It lies withi ...

. Already in high school he got interested in socialist ideas of Svetozar Marković and joined various groups and publications. In 1895 he enrolled into the Grand School of Belgrade (from 1905 known as the

University of Belgrade The University of Belgrade () is a public university, public research university in Belgrade, Serbia. It is the oldest and largest modern university in Serbia. Founded in 1808 as the Belgrade Higher School in revolutionary Serbia, by 1838 it me ...

) where he was strongly influenced by French language and comparative literature course held by Bogdan Popović. During the university education he initiated correspondence with foreign socialist including professor Georges Renard (1847-1930) at the

University of Lausanne The University of Lausanne (UNIL; ) in Lausanne, Switzerland, was founded in 1537 as a school of Protestant theology, before being made a university in 1890. The university is the second-oldest in Switzerland, and one of the oldest universities ...

. He graduated in 1899 when he moved to

Lausanne Lausanne ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, city of the Swiss French-speaking Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud, in Switzerland. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway bet ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

to work on his doctoral dissertation subsequently moving to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

where he spent a couple of months before returning to Belgrade. In early 1904, Skerlić spent two months in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

, then went to Paris again and returned to Belgrade in July 1904 where he received a job offer at the University of Belgrade in 1905 (he lost his job at the

Grande école A (; ) is a specialized top-level educational institution in France and some other countries such as Morocco and Tunisia. are part of an alternative educational system that operates alongside the mainstream List of public universities in Franc ...

in 1903 for his political engagement). With secured

tenure Tenure is a type of academic appointment that protects its holder from being fired or laid off except for cause, or under extraordinary circumstances such as financial exigency or program discontinuation. Academic tenure originated in the United ...

, Skerlić took the ambitious and voluminous projects of writing the authoritative history of contemporary Serbian literature. His opus magnum, the ''History of the Contemporary Serbian Literature'' (''Istorija nove srpske književnosti''), was completed two months before his early death in 1914.

Bibliography

His collected works include: * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

References

External links

Biography
on SANU website

Bibliography

*Midhat Begić, ''Jovan Skerlić et la critique littéraire en Serbie'', Paris, Institut d’Études slaves 1963. {{DEFAULTSORT:Skerlic, Jovan 1877 births 1914 deaths People from the Principality of Serbia Serbian literary critics Literary critics of Serbian Members of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts Academic staff of the University of Belgrade People from the Kingdom of Serbia Serbian writers