Isidora Sekulić ( sr-cyr, Исидора Секулић, 16 February 1877 – 5 April 1958) was a Serbian writer, novelist, essayist, polyglot and art critic. She was "the first woman academic in the history of Serbia" after she joined the
Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
The Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (; , SANU) is a national academy and the most prominent academic institution in Serbia, founded in 1841 as Society of Serbian Letters (, DSS).
The Academy's membership has included Nobel Prize, Nobel la ...
in 1950.
Biography
Sekulić was born in
Mošorin, a village of
Bács-Bodrog County
Bács-Bodrog County (, , ) was an administrative county () of the Kingdom of Hungary from 1802 to 1920. Most of its territory is currently part of Serbia, while a smaller part belongs to Hungary. The capital of the county was Zombor (present-day ...
, (now
Serbia
, image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg
, national_motto =
, image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg
, national_anthem = ()
, image_map =
, map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...
).
Apart from her studies in literature, Sekulić was also well versed in natural sciences as well as philosophy. She graduated from the pedagogical school in
Budapest
Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...
in 1892, and obtained her doctorate in 1922 in
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
.
Her travels included extended stays in
England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
,
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
and
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
. Her travels from
Oslo
Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...
through
Bergen
Bergen (, ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, second-largest city in Norway after the capital Oslo.
By May 20 ...
to
Finnmark
Finnmark (; ; ; ; ) is a counties of Norway, county in northern Norway. By land, it borders Troms county to the west, Finland's Lapland (Finland), Lapland region to the south, and Russia's Murmansk Oblast to the east, and by water, the Norweg ...
resulted in ''Pisma iz Norveške / Letters from Norway'' meditative travelogue in 1914. Her collection of short stories, ''Saputnici,'' are unusually detailed and penetrating accomplishment in self-analysis and a brave stylistic experiment. She also spoke several classical as well as nine modern languages.
Sekulić's lyrical, meditative, introspective and analytical writings come at the dawn of Serbian prose writing. Sekulić is concerned with the human condition of man in his new, thoroughly modern sensibility. In her main novel, ''The Chronicle of a Small Town Cemetery'' (), she writes in opposition to the usual chronological development of events. Instead, each part of the book begins in the cemetery, eventually returning to the time of bustling life, with all its joys and tragedies. Characters such as Gospa Nola, are the first strong female characters in
Serbian literature, painted in detail in all their courage, pride and determination.
Isidora Sekulić also wrote critical writings in the areas of music, theatre, art, architecture and literature and philosophy. She wrote major studies of Yugoslav,
Russian,
English,
German,
French,
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
,
Norwegian and other literatures.
Selected works
* ''Saputnici'' (1913)
* ''Pisma iz Norveške'' (1914)
* ''Iz prošlosti'' (1919)
* ''Đakon Bogorodičine crkve'' (1919)
* ''Kronika palanačkog groblja'' (1940)
* ''Zapisi'' (1941)
* ''Analitički trenuci i teme'', 1-3 (1941)
* ''Zapisi o mome narodu'' (1948)
* ''Njegošu knjiga duboke odanosti'' (1951)
* ''Govor i jezik, kulturna smotra naroda'' (1956)
Isidora Sekulić Award
Since 1968, the municipality of
Savski venac endows the literary prize
Isidora Sekulić Award annually, honoring contemporary authors for significant achievement in the field of literature, and encouraging their literary creativity in the sense of the work of Isidora Sekulić, who spent the last years of her life in a small house with garden on
Topčider Hill.
About the Sekulić House
Kulura Dobra Beograda, retrieved 2019-04-29.
See also
* Jelena Dimitrijević
* Mir-Jam
References
Bibliography
* Jugoslovenski Književni Leksikon (Encyclopedia of Yugoslav Literature), Matica Srpska, Novi Sad
Novi Sad ( sr-Cyrl, Нови Сад, ; #Name, see below for other names) is the List of cities in Serbia, second largest city in Serbia and the capital of the autonomous province of Vojvodina. It is located in the southern portion of the Pannoni ...
, 1984.
* Jovan Skerlić, ''Istorija Nove Srpske Književnosti'' (Belgrade, 1921) page 476.
*
Further reading
* Vladislava Ribnikar, ''Književni pogledi Isidore Sekulić'' (The Literary Views of Isidora Sekulić) 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 ...
, Prosveta, 1986.
* Magdalena Koch
Fellow Travellers Of A Serbian Woman
Academia.edu, retrieved 2019-11-24. Wrocław
Wrocław is a city in southwestern Poland, and the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. It is the largest city and historical capital of the region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the Oder River in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Eu ...
1998.
* Sonja Veselinović, ''Notes on Translation in the Work of Isidora Sekulić'', Srbistika danas, University of Banja Luka 2017.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sekulic, Isidora
1877 births
1958 deaths
20th-century Serbian women writers
People from Titel
Serbian non-fiction writers
Serbian travel writers
Writers from Austria-Hungary
Women travel writers
Yugoslav writers
Serbian short story writers
Serbian women short story writers