Stevan Sremac

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Stevan Sremac

Stevan Sremac (November 11, 1855, Senta – August 13, 1906, Sokobanja) was a Serbian realist and comedian writer.

He spent his early childhood in the city of his birth, and moved to study in Belgrade after his parents died. After his education was complete, he became a teacher, working in this profession for the rest of his life - in the Southern Serbia's cities of Niš and Sokobanja. He started writing relatively late, at 33, with novelized chronicles of events and personages from Serbian history. These weren't published until 1903 under title "Iz knjiga starostavnih" (From ancient books).

Most of his works are short stories and novels. He depicted the partiarchal atmosphere of Serbia of his time, mostly in a humorous and satiric manner, but seldom mocking (except when he ridiculed his politic opponents, in his less-successful work). The stories reveal his love for the slowly disappearing "old way" of life. The plots are placed in his native Bačka, Belgrade, and mostly, Southern Serbia.

His long-term life in Niš was his most productive period. During that period, he published "Božićna pečenica" (1893.), "Ivkova slava" (1895.), "Vukadin" (1903.), "Limunacija na selu" (1896.), "Pop Ćira i pop Spira" (1898.) (his best work), and "Zona Zamfirova" (1906.).

In political sense, he was an activist of Liberal party, which was pretty conservative with strong nationalist ressentment and supported the rule of Obrenović dynasty.

Many of his works were turned into films; his most popular novel "Pop Ćira i pop Spira" was a TV series in 1980s, while feature films "Zona Zamfirova" (2002.) and "Ivkova slava" (2005.) by director Zdravko Šotra were big hits in Serbia and Montenegro.