Joksim Nović-Otočanin (15 March 1807, in

Zalužnica Zalužnica ( sr-Cyrl, Залужница) is a village in the Gacka valley in present-day Lika-Senj County, Croatia. It is located around the road between the market town of Otočac and the Plitvice Lakes National Park. It was likely mainly popu ...

– 18 January 1868, in

Novi Sad Novi Sad ( sr-Cyrl, Нови Сад, ; hu, Újvidék, ; german: Neusatz; see below for other names) is the second largest city in Serbia and the capital of the autonomous province of Vojvodina. It is located in the southern portion of the P ...

) was a Serbian adventurer, freedom fighter, and romantic writer of verse and prose.

Biography

Joksim Nović was born in Zalužnica, in

Lika Lika () is a traditional region of Croatia proper, roughly bound by the Velebit mountain from the southwest and the Plješevica mountain from the northeast. On the north-west end Lika is bounded by Ogulin-Plaški basin, and on the south-east by ...

, on 15 March 1807. He completed his secondary education at the Serbian Gymnasium in Sremski Karlovci, studied philosophy at

Jena Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a po ...

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a list of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's ad ...

, and law in

Sárospatak Sárospatak (german: Potok am Bodroch; la, Potamopolis; sk, Šarišský Potok or ; ) is a town in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County, northern Hungary. It lies northeast from Miskolc, in the Bodrog river valley. The town, often called simply ''Pa ...

and in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. Very little is known about him after graduation. We know he was in the royal guard of

Mihailo Obrenović Prince Mihailo Obrenović III of Serbia ( sr-Cyrl, Михаило Обреновић, Mihailo Obrenović; 16 September 1823 – 10 June 1868) was the ruling Prince of Serbia from 1839 to 1842 and again from 1860 to 1868. His first reign ended w ...

in the

Principality of Serbia The Principality of Serbia ( sr-Cyrl, Књажество Србија, Knjažestvo Srbija) was an autonomous state in the Balkans that came into existence as a result of the Serbian Revolution, which lasted between 1804 and 1817. Its creation was ...

for a while. Then he went to

Bosnia Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

to fight the Ottoman occupiers and was captured. He was subsequently loaded with irons and sent a prisoner to a Turkish goal at

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see names in other languages'') is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its administrative limits. The Sarajevo metropolitan area including Sarajev ...

. For the next two years, he was kept in close confinement. When he was released he was famous for defying the authorities. In 1847 he wrote a book of verse called ''Lazarica'' and had it published in

. With Joksim Nović, now nicknamed ''Otočanin'' (the Incarcerated), a new voice seems to enter Serbian writing, or an old voice speaking virtually a new language. The advice was given to him years back by

Vuk Karadžić Vuk Stefanović Karadžić ( sr-Cyrl, Вук Стефановић Караџић, ; 6 November 1787 (26 October OS)7 February 1864) was a Serbian philologist, anthropologist and linguist. He was one of the most important reformers of the mode ...

(to write as common folk speak) and

Adam Mickiewicz Adam Bernard Mickiewicz (; 24 December 179826 November 1855) was a Polish poet, dramatist, essayist, publicist, translator and political activist. He is regarded as national poet in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. A principal figure in Polish ...

(the exiled Polish poet who suggested that he take the Kosovo cycle and turn it into a national epic) now bore fruit. Before the 1848 Revolution, the Serbs in the Habsburg Monarchy were being faced by grave challenges. Otočanin played an important part in the revolutionary events of 1848/4, first as a member of a delegation to

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

and later joining a group of Serbs formed to draft the constitution of

Serbian Vojvodina The Serbian Vojvodina ( sr, Српска Војводина / ) was a short-lived self-proclaimed Serb autonomous province within the Austrian Empire during the Revolutions of 1848, which existed until 1849 when it was transformed into the new (o ...

. Prominent among them was the young lawyer Mojsije Georgijević of Osijek, and

physician writer Physician writers are physicians who write creatively in fields outside their practice of medicine. The following is a partial list of physician-writers by historic epoch or century in which the author was born, arranged in alphabetical order. An ...

Jovan Stejić Jovan Stejić (Stari Arad County (former), Arad, Habsburg monarchy, 1803 – Belgrade, Principality of Serbia, 23 November 1853) was a Serbian writer, philologist, critic of Vuk Karadžić's reform and medical doctor. Biography Jovan Stejić is t ...

. Joksim Nović-Otočanin was exposed to some of the dangers of the 1848 Revolution, and, it is said, escaped getting killed only by his presence of mind. In 1849 he moved to

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hung ...

, and resided in

till his death. There he wrote some of the most memorable romantic poems about Hajduk Veljko,

Vasa Čarapić Vasilije "Vasa" Čarapić, known as the Dragon from Avala ( sr-Cyrl, Василије Васа Чарапић, Змај од Авале; 1768–1806) and Vasso Tscharapitsch was a Serbian ''voivode'' (military commander) that participated in the ...

Janko Katić Janko Katić ( sr-cyr, Јанко Катић; fl. 1795–1806†) was a Serbian voivode and one of the organizers of the First Serbian Uprising (1804–1813). He participated in the uprising since day one, and was an important ''oborknez'' of the ...

Stanoje Glavaš Stanoje Stamatović ( sr-cyr, Станоје Стаматовић), known as Stanoje Glavaš (Станоје Главаш; 21 February 1763 – 15 February 1815) was a Serbian hajduk and hero in the First Serbian Uprising. Life Glavaš was born i ...

(1860–61),

Ilija Birčanin Ilija Birčanin ( sr-cyr, Илија Бирчанин; 12 August 1764 – 4 January 1804) was a Serbian '' knez'' (Prince) who was killed during the ''Slaughter of the Dukes'', the incident that sparked the First Serbian Uprising of the Serbian Re ...

(1862), ''Dušanija: Znati Dogadjaji za Vremena Carstva'' (Dušan and the Matter of the Serbian Empire; 1863), ''Moskovija: Krimski Rat'' (Moscow: the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included t ...

; 1863), ''Karađorđe izbavitelj Srbije'' (Karageorge: Emancipator of Serbia, 1865).

Prose

* ''Sila turči Bosnu'' (1864) * ''Kapetan Radič Petrović i pokrštenica Zorka'' (1866) * ''Hajdučki život'' (1861-1863) * ''Starine od Starina Novaka ili školovanje narodnjeg pjevanja i pripovijedanja'' (1867) * Translation of Homer's Illyad (unfinished)

References

* Translated and adapted from

Jovan Skerlić 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 ...

's ''Istorija nove srpske književnosti'' (Belgrade, 1914, 1921) pages 292-294. {{DEFAULTSORT:Novic-Otocanin, Joksim 1807 births 1868 deaths 19th-century Serbian people Serbs of Croatia Habsburg Serbs People from Vrhovine Serbian writers