Jovan Sterija Popović

Jovan Sterija Popović
Born (1806-01-13)13 January 1806
Werschetz (Serbian: Vršac), Austrian Empire (today Serbia)
Died 10 March 1856(1856-03-10) (aged 50)
Werschetz (Serbian: Vršac), Austrian Empire (today Serbia)
Occupation Playwright, poet, pedagogue
Literary movement Classicism, Romanticism, Realism
Signature

Jovan Sterija Popović (pronounced [jɔ̌v̞an stɛ̂ːrija pɔ̌pɔv̞it͡ɕ]; Serbian Cyrillic: Јован Стерија Поповић; 13 January 1806 – 10 March 1856) was a Serbian playwright, poet and pedagogue who taught at the Belgrade Higher School. Sterija was recognized by his contemporaries as the one of the leading Serbian intellectuals. He is regarded as one of the best comic playwrights in Serbian literature.

Life

Popović was born in Werschetz (Vršac), in the Temesch County of Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary (now Serbia). His father Šterija (meaning "star" in Greek), after whom he was nicknamed,[1] was a Greek merchant.[2] His maternal grandfather was known painter and poet Nikola Nešković,[1] whom he would later write the biography of.[3]

Popović attended grammar schools in Vršac, Karlowitz (Sremski Karlovci), Temeschwar (Timișoara) and Ofenpesth (Budapest).[4] He studied law at Käsmark (Kežmarok). After he finished his studies (1830), he worked as a professor, and from 1835, when he passed his bar examination, he returned to his hometown where he first taught Latin, then opened his law practice.[4] Like many other intellectuals of Vojvodina, driven by patriotic feelings, he decided to work in the Principality of Serbia.[4] He began to write historical dramas but soon switched to comedy. In 1840 he went to Kragujevac to study at the pedagogic school of natural law. In the same year, he moved to Belgrade, where he would spend eight years, teaching at what was then the most advanced school in Serbia, Grande École (Belgrade Higher School, future University).[4]

He was instrumental in founding the Serbian Academy of Sciences and the National Museum.[5] He continued to write dramas, which he also organized, staged, and directed. He was appointed head of the Ministry of Education by the constitutional government in 1842. He remained in this position until 1848, working on organizing the school system and education in Serbia. His continued disagreement with the leading politicians of the day and ill health would soon force him to withdraw from public life. At the beginning of the same year (1848) he decided to tender his resignation and return to Vršac (1848-9 part of Serbian Vojvodina, 1849-60 Serbia and Temeschwar), where he lived till his death in 1856, deeply disappointed with people and life in general. He is buried at the Orthodox cemetery in Vršac.

Drama

Jovan Sterija Popović is undoubtedly one of the most significant figures of Serbian literature. With good reason he has been given the name "the father of Serbian drama". Following the example of the great French and German tragedians, he described events from the history of the Serbian people. The Belgrade theatre Theater on Đumruk opened with his tragedy Smrt Stefana Dečanskog in 1841. The first Sterija's tragedy Svetislav i Mileva is worth mentioning, then Miloš Obilić ili Padnuće serbskog carstva, Nesrećno supružestvo ili Naod Simeon, Skenderbeg and Lahan. Miošić's poems about Skanderbeg from his most important work A Pleasant Discourse of the Slavic People were basis for Život i viteška voevanja slavnog kneza epirskog Đorđa Kastriota Skenderbega written by Sterija Popović in 1828.[6]

Sterija showed a real artistic value as the writer of comedies. His comedian talent has created strong and great literary works, which are even greater because it was, in fact, Sterija who paved the way to the Serbian comedy in general. The first period of Sterija's writing of comedies falls on the time of his life in Vršac, between 1830 and 1840. Sterija eternalized his home-town with the characters of Kir Janja, Fema Ružić and others. His comedies Laža i Paralaža (1830), Pokondirena tikva (1830), Tvrdica (1837) and Zla žena (1838), have brought him the appreciation of his contemporaries and the reputation of being "Serbian Molière". In 1841, 1842 and 1847 some less important Sterija's comedies were also performed: Ženidba i udadba, Simpatije i antipatije, Volšebni magarac, Džandrljiv muž, Sudbina jednog razuma, and Prevara za prevaru. His comedy Beograd nekad i sad which describes the environment of 19th century Belgrade was published in 1853. The last comedy Sterija wrote was the satire Rodoljupci. He did not print this important comedy at all, so it remained in manuscript long after his death. Sterija found the inspiration for this comedy in the revolutionary events of 1848-1849.

Poetry

Jovan Sterija Popović frequently returned to the theme: the discrepancy between what was being proclaimed and actual behaviour was always the focus of his criticism. In his poem Godine 1848 (Year 1848) it is the betrayal of the ideals of the American Revolution—legal slavery in the land of the free; in Izobraženiku (To an Enlightened One) it is the hypocrisy of those who condemn the Ottoman Empire as barbaric, while at the same time engaging in conquest and the slave trade themselves.

Legacy

Jovan Sterija Popović monument in the Russian park in Vršac

Sterija was recognized by his contemporaries as the one of the leading Serbian intellectuals.[7] He is regarded as one of the best comic playwrights in Serbian literature.[8]

Sterija's comedies are artistically authentic pictures of one part of the Serbian society in Vojvodina, in the first half of the 19th century. They bring a very rich gallery of characters. Sterija's comedies have passed the framework of their time, have gotten the everlasting value, and have become a part of the Serbian cultural inheritance. Diverse as a writer, Sterija also wrote satires, novels, dissertations about literature and language and reflexive poetry, published in the book Davorje, considered one of the best books of reflexive poetry in the Serbian literature. Living in Serbia as Minister of Education, Sterija was the founder of The Society of Serbian Letters (now Serbian Academy of Science and Art) and the National Museum of Serbia. He laid the foundation of the modern Serbian school system and he was the author of many textbooks.

A documentary about his life was produced in Yugoslavia in 1956.[9] He is included in The 100 most prominent Serbs.

Notable works

References

  1. 1 2 Pavlović 1999.
  2. ↑ Mihailovich & Mikasinovich 2007, p. 41, Mikasinovich, Milivojević & Mihailovich 1973, p. 26
  3. ↑ Südost-Forschungen. 24. S. Hirzel. 1965. p. 169.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Norris 2008, pp. 107–108.
  5. ↑ Hochman 1984, p. 154.
  6. ↑ Šurmin, Đuro (1898), Povjest književnosti hrvatske i srpske (History of Croatian and Serbian literature) (in Croatian), Zagreb: Tisak i naklada knjižare L. Hartmana, Kugli i Deutsch, p. 260, OCLC 11356363, retrieved 26 November 2011, "Život i viteška voevanja slavnog kneza epirskoga Đorđa Kastriota Skenderbega" imade i Kačićevih pjesama po kojima je pisac i radio to svoje djelo.
  7. ↑ Norris 2008, p. 107.
  8. ↑ Politikin Zabavnik 2014.
  9. ↑ [Jovan Sterija Popovic on IMDb]
  10. ↑ Miljković 1956, p. 278.

Sources

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