Stanislav Vinaver
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Stanislav Vinaver ( sr-Cyrl, Станислав Винавер; 1 March 1891 – 1 August 1955) was a Serbian writer, poet, translator and journalist. Vinaver was born to affluent
Ashkenazi Jewish Ashkenazi Jews ( ; he, יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכְּנַז, translit=Yehudei Ashkenaz, ; yi, אַשכּנזישע ייִדן, Ashkenazishe Yidn), also known as Ashkenazic Jews or ''Ashkenazim'',, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singu ...
parents that had immigrated to Serbia from Poland in the late 19th century. He studied at the University of Paris, volunteered to fight in the
Balkan Wars The Balkan Wars refers to a series of two conflicts that took place in the Balkan States in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan States of Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria declared war upon the Ottoman Empire and defe ...
and later took part in World War I as an officer in the Royal Serbian Army. In 1915, he lost his father to typhus. He travelled to France and the United Kingdom the following year, delivering lectures about Serbia and its people. In 1917, he was assigned to the Serbian consulate in
Petrograd Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
, where he was to witness the
Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and ad ...
and its aftermath. Following World War I, Vinaver briefly worked for the Ministry of Education of the newly created Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia). In the 1930s, he worked for Radio Belgrade and was appointed chief of Yugoslavia's central press bureau. This period was defined by his tumultuous relationship with his ethnic
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
wife, who held
anti-Semitic Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...
and
anti-Slavic Anti-Slavic sentiment, also known as Slavophobia, a form of racism or xenophobia, refers to various negative attitudes towards Slavic peoples, the most common manifestation is the claim that the inhabitants of Slavic nations are inferior to othe ...
views, as well as his inclusion in Rebecca West's acclaimed
travel book The genre of travel literature encompasses outdoor literature, guide books, nature writing, and travel memoirs. One early travel memoirist in Western literature was Pausanias (geographer), Pausanias, a Greek geographer of the 2nd century CE. In ...
''
Black Lamb and Grey Falcon ''Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: A Journey Through Yugoslavia'' is a travel literature, travel book written by Dame Rebecca West, published in 1941 in two volumes by Macmillan Publishers, Macmillan in the UK and by The Viking Press in the US. The ...
''. In April 1941, Vinaver was mobilized to fight in the Royal Yugoslav Army, following the
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
-led Axis
invasion of Yugoslavia The invasion of Yugoslavia, also known as the April War or Operation 25, or ''Projekt 25'' was a German-led attack on the Kingdom of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers which began on 6 April 1941 during World War II. The order for the invasion was p ...
. Vinaver survived the invasion, but was captured by the Germans and interned at a prisoner-of-war camp near Osnabrück. His status as a former Royal Yugoslav Army officer saved him from probable death, but his elderly mother was not as fortunate, and was murdered in the gas chambers the following year. After the war, Vinaver returned to Yugoslavia, but given his service in the interwar government, he did not receive a warm welcome. The Yugoslav monarchy had been replaced with a
communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
government under the leadership of
Josip Broz Tito Josip Broz ( sh-Cyrl, Јосип Броз, ; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980), commonly known as Tito (; sh-Cyrl, Тито, links=no, ), was a Yugoslav communist revolutionary and statesman, serving in various positions from 1943 until his deat ...
, and Vinaver's works were blacklisted due to his Serbian nationalist views and modernist style. He worked as a translator in the immediate post-war years and served as the editor of a literary journal until his death in 1955, aged 64. He is considered one of the key representatives of the Serbian and Yugoslav literary avant-garde.


Life

Stanislav Vinaver was born in Šabac on 1 March 1891. He came from an affluent family. His father Josif was a physician and his mother Ruža was a pianist and
Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...
-language translator. Both of his parents were Ashkenazi Jews. They had relocated to Serbia in the 1880s amid a wave of
anti-Semitic Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...
pogroms in the Russian Empire. Vinaver completed his
primary education Primary education or elementary education is typically the first stage of formal education, coming after preschool/kindergarten and before secondary school. Primary education takes place in ''primary schools'', ''elementary schools'', or first ...
in Šabac. He attended high school in Šabac until 1908, when he transferred to a high school in the Serbian capital,
Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...
. Upon completing high school, he enrolled at the University of Paris, where he studied mathematics and physics. He also attended the lectures of the philosopher
Henri Bergson Henri-Louis Bergson (; 18 October 1859 – 4 January 1941) was a French philosopherHenri Bergson. 2014. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 13 August 2014, from https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/61856/Henri-Bergson
and the anthropologist Lucien Lévy-Bruhl, and studied music under Wanda Landowska. It was during this time that he became interested in contemporary literature and art. Bergson's philosophical teachings left a strong impression on the young Vinaver. In 1912, Vinaver returned to Serbia to enlist in the Royal Serbian Army ( sr-Latn, Vojska kraljevine Srbije; VKS) and fight in the
Balkan Wars The Balkan Wars refers to a series of two conflicts that took place in the Balkan States in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan States of Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria declared war upon the Ottoman Empire and defe ...
. During the First Balkan War, he served as a lieutenant in the Students' Battalion. By 1914, he had published three books. Following the outbreak of World War I, he reenlisted and again fought with the Students' Battalion, which played an important role in defending Serbia from Austria-Hungary in the early months of the conflict. Vinaver distinguished himself in action and was deemed a war hero by his contemporaries. His father, an officer in the medical corps, died of typhus in 1915. That November, Serbia was overwhelmed by a combined Austro-Hungarian,
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
and Bulgarian invasion, forcing the VKS to retreat across Albania to the Greek island of
Corfu Corfu (, ) or Kerkyra ( el, Κέρκυρα, Kérkyra, , ; ; la, Corcyra.) is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea, of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the margin of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The isl ...
. Vinaver took part in the retreat, and in 1916, he was appointed the editor-in-chief of ''Srpske Novine'' (The Serbian Newspaper). Later that year, Vinaver was dispatched to France and the United Kingdom by Slobodan Jovanović, the head of the Serbian military press bureau, to deliver lectures about Serbia and the Serbian people. He was accompanied by the philosopher
Branislav Petronijević Branislav "Brana" Petronijević (sometimes styled as Petronievics) (Serbian Cyrillic: Бранислав "Брана" Петронијевић; 6 April 1875 – 4 March 1954) was a Serbian philosopher and paleontologist. His major work is the two- ...
and the bishop
Nikolaj Velimirović Nikolaj Velimirović (Serbian Cyrillic: Николај Велимировић;  – ) was bishop of the eparchies of Ohrid and Žiča (1920–1956) in the Serbian Orthodox Church. An influential theological writer and a highly gifted orato ...
. In 1917, Vinaver joined the Serbian diplomatic mission in Petrograd (modern-day Saint Petersburg), working as a translator. He arrived in Petrograd about a month before the outbreak of the
Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and ad ...
, and witnessed the political and social upheaval that it caused. His time in the Russian capital was spent gathering volunteers for the
Macedonian front The Macedonian front, also known as the Salonica front (after Thessaloniki), was a military theatre of World War I formed as a result of an attempt by the Allied Powers to aid Serbia, in the autumn of 1915, against the combined attack of German ...
. At the war's end, Vinaver held the rank of
lieutenant colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...
. In 1919, he joined the Ministry of Education of the newly created Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, working alongside fellow writers
Branislav Nušić Branislav Nušić ( sr-cyr, Бранислав Нушић, ;  – 19 January 1938) was a Serbian playwright, satirist, essayist, novelist and founder of modern rhetoric in Serbia. He also worked as a journalist and a civil servant. Life Bra ...
and
Borisav Stanković ) , honorific_prefix = , honorific_suffix = , image =Bora Stanković.jpg , image_size = , alt = , caption = Stanković's statue in Vranje , native_name = , native_name_lang = sr , pseudonym = , birth_name = Борисав Стан ...
at the ministry's artistic department. He nearly lost his job following a dispute with the country's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ante Trumbić. In 1920, the artistic department was shut down following a government reshuffling, and Trumbić's antagonism precluded Vinaver from taking up further government positions. Vinaver took up journalism full-time and became one of interwar Yugoslavia's most prolific columnists. In the 1930s, he began working at Radio Belgrade and was appointed chief of Yugoslavia's central press bureau. Vinaver was a convert to
Serbian Orthodoxy The Serbian Orthodox Church ( sr-Cyrl, Српска православна црква, Srpska pravoslavna crkva) is one of the autocephalous (ecclesiastically independent) Eastern Orthodox Christian churches. The majority of the population in ...
and identified as a Serb, despite his Jewish heritage. He was married to an ethnic
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
woman named Elsa. As a result of Elsa's anti-Semitic and
anti-Slavic Anti-Slavic sentiment, also known as Slavophobia, a form of racism or xenophobia, refers to various negative attitudes towards Slavic peoples, the most common manifestation is the claim that the inhabitants of Slavic nations are inferior to othe ...
views, the marriage was a tumultuous one. The couple had two children. Vinaver features prominently in Rebecca West's acclaimed 1941 travel guide ''
Black Lamb and Grey Falcon ''Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: A Journey Through Yugoslavia'' is a travel literature, travel book written by Dame Rebecca West, published in 1941 in two volumes by Macmillan Publishers, Macmillan in the UK and by The Viking Press in the US. The ...
'', appearing under the pseudonym Constantine. His wife appears under the pseudonym Gerda. In April 1941, Vinaver was mobilized to fight in the Royal Yugoslav Army, following the
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
-led Axis
invasion of Yugoslavia The invasion of Yugoslavia, also known as the April War or Operation 25, or ''Projekt 25'' was a German-led attack on the Kingdom of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers which began on 6 April 1941 during World War II. The order for the invasion was p ...
. He survived the invasion, but was captured by the Wehrmacht and interned at a prisoner-of-war camp near Osnabrück. Vinaver's status as a former Royal Yugoslav Army officer saved him from probable death. His elderly mother was not as fortunate and was killed in the gas chambers in 1942 as part of the Final Solution. Following the war, Vinaver returned to Yugoslavia, but given his service in the interwar government, he was not warmly received. The Yugoslav monarchy had been replaced with a
communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
government under the leadership of
Josip Broz Tito Josip Broz ( sh-Cyrl, Јосип Броз, ; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980), commonly known as Tito (; sh-Cyrl, Тито, links=no, ), was a Yugoslav communist revolutionary and statesman, serving in various positions from 1943 until his deat ...
, and the publication of Vinaver's works was discouraged, alongside those of writers such as Jovan Dučić and Miloš Crnjanski. Vinaver was a Serbian nationalist. In addition, his overtly modernist style conflicted with that of socialist realism, which was officially sanctioned by the government. Vinaver worked as a translator in the immediate post-war years. While he did establish a literary journal called ''Republika'', which was viewed with suspicion by the communist authorities, he did not make any effort to reclaim his former esteemed position within the Yugoslav literary milieu. Vinaver wrote for ''Republika'' from 1950 until his death. He died in Niška Banja on 1 August 1955.


Style and themes

Vinaver was an avant-gardiste. He authored the first avant-garde programmatic text in Serbian literature, ''Manifest ekspresionističke škole'' (Manifesto of the Expressionist School; 1920). He often resorted to
burlesque A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.
and used parody as a means of mocking both friends and enemies, the weak and the powerful, as well as the avant-garde, and even himself. This is best exemplified in his 1920 anthology ''Pantologija novije srpske pelengirike'' (The Pantology of New Serbian Peasant Trousers), which takes aim at the conservative writer
Bogdan Popović Bogdan Popović (Serbian Cyrillic: Богдан Поповић; 20 December 1863 – 7 November 1944) was one of the most important literary critics and university professors in Serbia and later Yugoslavia and an academic. He was the brother of ...
's influential 1911 compendium ''Antologija novije srpske lirike'' (Anthology of New Serbian Poetry). "The parodies were not just a game of virtuosity," the literary scholar Svetlana Slapšak writes. "They challenged the accepted literary chronologies, genre schemes and value systems." Vinaver continued writing parodies even after the war, despite his Holocaust experience, this time targeting Yugoslavia's new communist authorities. Slapšak describes Vinaver as a "unique and versatile" writer. In his journalistic endeavours, the biographer Branko Šašić writes, Vinaver wrote in a manner that was "concise, brief and clear". Most prolific as an essayist and a poet, Vinaver made his literary debut in 1911, with a collection of poetry titled ''Mjeća''. His poetry was written in free verse, with exclusive emphasis placed on sound rather than semantics. "He excelled in metrics and prosody and was capable of writing a
pastiche A pastiche is a work of visual art, literature, theatre, music, or architecture that imitates the style or character of the work of one or more other artists. Unlike parody, pastiche pays homage to the work it imitates, rather than mocking it ...
of any poetic form," Slapšak writes, "though he went beyond the pastiche by deliberately slipping into the carnivalesque or even into nonsense." Slapšak believes that Vinaver used nonsense as a means of magnifying non sequiturs and logical fallacies, thereby exposing academic discourse and even the avant-garde itself to mockery and ridicule. Vinaver sporadically resorted to Greco-Roman mythology as a literary device, referring to the
Classics Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...
ironically, naming texts after well known myths, or referencing them to reinforce an argument. This is best exemplified by his 1937 lecture ''Ikarov let: Sudbina današnje književnosti'' (The Flight of Icarus: The Fate of Contemporary Literature), in which Vinaver used the myth of
Icarus In Greek mythology, Icarus (; grc, Ἴκαρος, Íkaros, ) was the son of the master craftsman Daedalus, the architect of the labyrinth of Crete. After Theseus, king of Athens and enemy of Minos, escaped from the labyrinth, King Minos suspe ...
and Daedalus as a metaphor for the state of modern poetry. He argued that contemporary poets were "flying between the sun of metaphysics and the water of social conformity," and that if they were not careful, they were "doomed to perish without a trace." "Vinaver," the historian
Milan Ristović Milan Ristovic (Serbian: ''Milan Ristović'' or ''Милан Ристовић'') is Serbian historian and university professor. Ristovic was born in 1953 in Pristina, Kosovo, then SFRY. He graduated from the department of Contemporary History, Un ...
writes, "was in favour of a complete break with the traditional understanding of literature and of a radically avant-garde, new literature, a new poetics and a new understanding of language."


Legacy

Vinaver is considered one of the key representatives of the Serbian and Yugoslav literary avant-garde. Literary critics consider his ''Pantologija'' to be the best avant-garde parody in all of Serbian literature. In September 2011, the
Government of Serbia The Government of Serbia ( sr, Влада Србије, Vlada Srbije), formally the Government of the Republic of Serbia ( sr, Влада Републике Србије, Vlada Republike Srbije), commonly abbreviated to Serbian Government ( sr, ...
unveiled a commemorative plaque dedicated to Vinaver on the façade of the Belgrade building in which his apartment was located. The Stanislav Vinaver Award is presented for artistic excellence in the writing of short stories. Notable recipients include the Serbian-Jewish writer
David Albahari David Albahari (, ; born 15 March 1948)Biography
at
.


Works

* ''Mjeća'', 1911. * ''Priče koje su izgubile ravnotežu'', 1913. * ''Varoš zlih volšebnika'', 1920. * ''Pantologija novije srpske pelengirike'', 1920. * ''Varoš zlih volšebnika'', 1920. * ''Gromobran svemira'', 1921. * ''Jezičke mogućnosti'', 1922. * ''Nova pantologija pelengirike'', 1922. * ''Čuvari sveta'', 1926. * ''Goč gori, jedna jugoslovenska simfonija'', 1927. * ''Šabac i njegove tradicije'', 1935. * ''Ikarov let'', 1937. * ''Čardak ni na nebu ni na zemlji'', 1938. * ''Momčilo Nastasijević'', 1938. * ''Najnovija pantologija srpske i jugoslovenske pelengirike'', 1938. * ''Živi okviri'', 1938. * ''Ratni drugovi'', 1939. * ''Pokušaji ritmičkog proučavanja muškog deseterca'', 1940. * ''Godine poniženja i borbe, život u nemačkim „oflazima“'', 1945. * ''Evropska noć'', 1952. * ''Jezik naš nasušni'', 1952. * ''Nadgramatika'', 1963. * ''Zanosi i prkosi Laze Kostića'', 1963 . * ''
One Thousand and One Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' ( ar, أَلْفُ لَيْلَةٍ وَلَيْلَةٌ, italic=yes, ) is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the ''Arabian ...
'', translation.


Footnotes


References


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Vinaver, Stanislav 1891 births 1955 deaths 20th-century Serbian people Burials at Belgrade New Cemetery Converts to Eastern Orthodoxy from Judaism Royal Yugoslav Army personnel of World War II Royal Serbian Army soldiers Serbian Ashkenazi Jews Serbian literary critics Serbian military personnel of the Balkan Wars Serbian military personnel of World War I Serbian people of Polish-Jewish descent Serbian science fiction writers University of Paris alumni World War II prisoners of war held by Germany Writers from Šabac Yugoslav prisoners of war Yugoslav science fiction writers