Bastions

CENTER OF SERBIAN STUDIES IN BANJALUKA, THREE VOICES AND SIX YEARS
Strength in Self-Creation
Without thunderous proclamations and self-praises, two university professors and a poet from Banjaluka, together, in a short time, published more than eighty important books, held more than fifty programs throughout the Serbian cultural space and established the ”Serbian Review” magazine. The presented authors include Zaharije Orfelin, Njegoš, Ljubomir Nedić, Stojan Novaković, Slobodan Jovanović, as well as many contemporary ones, such as Lompar, Basta, Danojlić, Nogo, Nenadić, Sladoje… They realize that the essential problems of Serbian culture today are the absence of connection and pressures for deserbianization. And that there is a lot to do, to create

By: Bane Velimirović
Photo: Archive of ”Srpska NR”, Archive of CSS

We return to the same thing again. In difficult times, when value systems are disturbed and orienteers are lost, when horizons are misty and many important institutions reduced to empty shells, self-aware personalities become crucial for the survival of a nation and culture. Descent individuals and groups, upright and responsible, capable (educated) and honest, ready to step out of the mass and do what they can, create without selfish and vulgar calculations, without excuses, despite everything.
Such an example lit us up this spring, during our visit to Banjaluka, capital of Srpska. Two full-time professors of the local Faculty of Philology (Ranko Popović and Duško Pevulja) and a fine poet (Zdravko Miovčić) formed the Center of Serbian Studies six years ago. As they humorously say, ”a publishing association with exclusively friendly responsibility, unlimited”. They receive their post at the Faculty of Philology, they don’t have constant financial means, sales network, headquarters. Still, in a bit more than half a decade, they published more than eighty titles. ”With God’s help, we hope to publish our hundredth title this year or the beginning of next.” They organized more than fifty lectures, public discussions, throughout the Serbian cultural and linguistic area.
– Just as it is the seed and catalyst of this entire endeavor, the Serbian Review magazine at the same time faithfully reflects the entire publishing concept, which we prefer to call mission. Our magazine really is and wants to be Serbian and deals with Serbian books as a review of what it was in the past and what it is today. It is enough to see who certain issues are dedicated to and it will immediately be clear to the reader that we equally care about Orfelin, Njegoš, Nušić and Slobodan Jovanović, as we do for Danojlić, Nogo, Nenadić and Sladoje. In the arch of time connecting them, we are convinced that we can see answers to questions who we are, what we were and what we should be, but we’re not. That is why, with our editions, we are committed to remind of very important, but, unfortunately, almost forgotten authors – says professor Ranko Popović, PhD, academician and one of the founders of the Center. – Who would, if it weren’t for the Center of Serbian Studies, publish in contemporary Serbian language the contents of the first and only issue of the Slavic-Serbian Magazine, our oldest magazine, observing its 250th anniversary? Who would make the first collection of works about Ljubomir Nedić, who would reprint Novaković’s History of Serbian Literature, Ostojić’s Serbian Literature since the Great Migration to Dositej Obradović, or Ivan Stojanović’s Dubrovnik Literature? Who would even remember Damjan Pavlović, Nikanor Grujić, Vasa Živković and Đorđe Natošević, Isaija Mitrović and Tomo Smiljanić Bradina, today when all those names don’t mean absolutely anything to an average Serbian reader? And on the other side, with very important subjects, are our contemporary authors such as Milo Lompar, Goran Maksimović, Milivoj Nenin, Milutin Mićović, Zoran Arsović, Danilo Basta, Dragan Stojanović, Petar and Vera Milosavljević, Bogoljub Šijaković, Đorđe Sladoje… Thanks to the basic, initial idea, all those different voices are in a very high degree of unison, philological, philosophical or poetical, which we care about the most.

FORMS OF UNIFICATION

Everyone in this ”association which doesn’t exceed number three” (as with Zaharije Orfelin) emphasize that the foundation of their activity and lasting is in the energy of friendship and book loving, in mutual respect, good faith and pure intentions, in the awareness of Serbian values and shortcomings we should persistently work on, in the conviction that we must act, not wait. They wave their hands in dismissal to assumptions that there must be great financial support of the state behind such quality and quantity.
– Paradoxically, the secret is in the fact that there is no such support behind the Center. The secret is in self-creation. The Center of Serbian Studies is a self-born organization, which grew unthinkably far from the centers of actual political and cultural life. Where else would something so vital grow but on the margins. Our people from the old times knew it better than we do today, so, as Branko Letić reminds us, important warnings were stated on the margins of old handwritten books: ”zri zdes!” – tells us poet Zdravko Miovčić, one of the three. – The Center of Serbian Studies is managed by a small team of mature and realized authors, who have passed and overcome a long time ago the traps of personal affirmation, promotion, idealism and unbased enthusiasm. Their basic motivator, which led to establishing the Center, is caring about Serbian language and literature, for the new thought rooted in tradition, spiritual uniting of the territorially and state-wise disintegrated national being. (...)
Self-creation – explains Miovčić – carries within a wondrous strength of sustainability, despite everything, and vitality, which is not based on planning and institutional inertia, but on creative freedom and intuition.
– At the time we started this little endeavor of ours, we didn’t plan to have so many issues in five or six years. We always just tried to do the next best thing, the best thing reachable at the moment, which is on the limit of our present possibilities, for which we can get real authors and readers, as well as to convince someone to support us, without asking anything in return except for a few copies of the magazine or book. Everything that has been done up to now and the way it was done is our obligation to continue – says Miovčić. – Although self-created, the Center had a clear idea since the very beginning about its role in bringing closer and connecting what is separated in scattered in the Serbian cultural, literary and linguistic being. We are working on creating new forms and points that lead towards spiritual unification. The fact that we are self-created, free and small, enables us to easily and quickly connect with others, older, bigger and more important, accepting from them a part of their importance and giving them a part of our vitality. (…) Since, only connecting preserves from disunion and only creation defends from decay.

FATE OR FEATURE OF THE EPOCH

Their endeavors are smart and farsighted, their books are purely and professionally edited. The validity of this cultural-publishing activities in Banjaluka, of this exemplary contribution to the Serbian idea ”in the misery of the epoch”, are recognized throughout the Serbian cultural and linguistic space. Hence joint editions and programs with the Serbian Literary Cooperative from Belgrade, Serbian National Association from Montenegro, Serbian Cultural and Informational Center ”Bridge” from Northern Macedonia, Serbian Cultural and Educational Association ”Prosvjeta” from Zagreb, as well as the Academy of Sciences and Arts of the Republic of Srpska.
– Zaharije Orfelin was a sad loner, both in his life and in the culture of his ”wandering nation” in the eighteenth century. when he published the Slavic-Serbian Magazine in 1768 in Venice, the single issue of the first Serbian literary magazine. Humble as hard-working people have always been, he didn’t sign his name anywhere. Literary historians later determined that the Magazine was published thanks to his efforts, and that ”the association which doesn’t exceed number three”, which he mentions in the introductory text, didn’t exist, that it was only an expression of Orfelin’s awareness about the necessity of unity in working and need for friends and likeminded people, which he longed for his entire life. Our reminder of the Serbian 18th century loner is doubly motivated. First of all, because our Center truly represents ”an association which doesn’t exceed number three”, and then because one of our first important issues was Orfelin’s Slavic-Serbian Magazine, nicely prepared in a contemporary publishing form and translated (transferred) into contemporary Serbian language – says professor Duško Pevulja, PhD, editor-in-chief of the Center of Serbian Studies editions. – Since our work started with establishing the Serbian Review magazine, the interest in the roots of Serbian magazine publishing imposed itself as a natural thing. Trying to think of a name for the paper, we decided for Serbian Review, which was, edited by Ljubomir Nedić, published for a while in 1896. We decided for a conservative editorial platform, which, before all, implies moving away from any Bologna pointomania, upside-down procedures placed above content and essence of published articles. Those rushing for points are not our associates! We designed Serbian Review as a national and collective newsletter. We always accentuate its national character and the Serbian philological program and Serbian national thought based on it as a reliable orientation. Since my colleague Ranko Popović and I are philologists by vocation, it’s natural to, in our understanding of literary and cultural present, seek a bastion in scientific truths about our nation and solutions which passed a demanding test of time. Philological awareness had a decisive influence in critically perceiving certain ”truths” about our language and literature, and in certain cases also expressively reshaping them. We opened the pages of our newsletter for such articles, whereas this decision also focused our publishing concept.
Duško Pevulja also mentions a series of important titles published by the Center of Serbian Studies, and particularly emphasizes one.
– From the register of our publications up to now, I will particularly underline Stojan Novaković’s Serbian Book. Published in 1900, that discussion, not large in volume, seems to summarize the state of Serbian literature in our times. Cultural disconnectedness, absence of literary traffic, quite a spiritual disunity, seems to be the fate of Serbian culture, not only a mark of Novaković’s and our time. What we have attempted so far is on the traces of ideas and thoughts of Stojan Novaković, one of the founders and first president of the Serbian Literary Cooperative. Both as people and authors, we are more prone to small steps than big ones, as a rule marked by empty words, behind which there are no actions.

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Ranko
Professor Ranko Popović, PhD (Zalom near Nevesinje, 1961) teaches Serbian 20th century literature at the Faculty of Philology in Banjaluka. He is author of books ”Covenant Memory of a Poem” (2007), ”The Act of Recognizing” (2009), ”Bitter Serenity of the East. Humor in Andrić’s Novels” (2012), ”Paradoxes and Prayers” (2013), ”Tragedy without Catharsis” (2014), ”Words for Meeting” (2014), ”The Poet of Great Reconciliation. Features of Branko Ćopić’s Artistic Expression” (2015), ”Reading and Being” (2017), ”Settled in Word. Writings about Đorđe Sladoje’s Poetry” (2020)... He created the anthology of Serbian poetry about national sufferings (”We Know Our Fate”). He also edited works of Nikola Koljević, Branko Ćopić, Tomo Bratić… He was member of the editorial boards of ”Krajina” and ”Nova Zora” magazines, now editor of ”Serbian Review” and ”Contributions”. Winner of ”Đorđe Jovanović”, ”Nikolaj Timčenko” awards… Corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of the Republic of Srpska.

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Zdravko
Zdravko Miovčić (Ledići near Trnovo, 1958), poet. He completed elementary school in Vojkovići, gymnasium in Ilidža, studied philosophy, comparative literature and sociology at the Faculty of Philosophy in Sarajevo. Master of management, author of nine books with the subject of strategic management and managing development. Books of poetry: ”Why Haven’t I Written To You” (2011), ”What Trembles, Disappears” (2013), ”Chest and Whisper” (2015), ”What the Soul Collected” (2017), ”In the Mercy of Moments” (2019), ”The Love of Wine Singers” (2020), ”Daily Dose of Nostalgia” (2021), ”Threads of Grandfather’s Stories” (2021), ”Book of Leaves” (2023). Winner of the ”Skender Kulenović” award for 2018.

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Duško
Professor Duško Pevulja, PhD (Banjaluka, 1976) is full-time professor at the Faculty of Philology in Banjaluka, at the Serbian language and literature study program. He worked as vice president of the Republic of Srpska Association of Serbian Language and Literature Teachers. He was editor in chief of the ”Zmijanje” literary review and ”Krajina” magazine for literature and culture. He is member of the ”Contributions to Serbian language and literature classes” editorial board and editor in chief of the ”Serbian Review” magazine for philosophy, philology, science and art. He edited about fifty works of Serbian writers and published the following books as author: ”Renewal of Serbistics. Chrestomathy” (2013), ”Return to Serbistics” (2015), ”Conversations” (2015), ”The Motif of Freedom in the Literary Works of Petar Kočić” (2018), ”Reading Procedures” (2018), ”The Narrative World of Svetozar Ćorović” (2019), ”Reading Poetics” (2020), ”Literary History and National Philology” (2020) and ”Reading Writings” (2021).

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Joy
– Since I’m younger than my friends Ranko Popović and Zdravko Miovčić, I always underline how much I have constantly learned from them during our cooperation – says Duško Pevulja. – Likeminded in many aspects, we subtly complement each other in our work, each keeping the right to own shades. And we’re not tired yet. On the contrary, we expect each following issue, promotion or discussion with joy, delighted also with the fact that ”everything requests a toast”!