Dejan Stojanović (Author)

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Dejan Stojanović, 1999

Dejan Stojanović ( Serbian : Дејан Стојановић, pronounced [dɛjan stɔjanɔvitɕ]; born March 11, 1959 in Peć , Yugoslavia ) is a Serbian- American poet , writer , essayist , philosopher , businessman and former journalist . His poetry is characterized by a recognizable system of thought and a poetic doctrine that borders on philosophy , and overall it has a highly reflective sound. According to some critics, "Stojanović belongs to the small and autochthonous circle of poets who have been part of the most important creative and artistic force in Serbian poetry in recent decades."

biography

family

The Stojanović family originally came from Montenegro . Stojanović's paternal grandmother, Andja, came from a respected Montenegrin family, the Lubarda family, the most prominent member of which was Petar Lubarda, arguably the best and most famous painter in the former Yugoslavia ; Sir Herbert Read wrote about him with pleasure.

The early years

Stojanović was born in Peć , Kosovo (former Yugoslavia ), the administrative and cultural center of Metohija , where the Patriarchate of Peć is located. Growing up in a socialist country and in a multi-ethnic community of Kosovo, he encountered all the paradoxes of communism in the former Yugoslavia at a very young age .

In 1972 he moved with his family to Sutomore (a small town on the Adriatic coast , near Bar , Montenegro) and he finished the school year there. Even after moving back to Peć, he spent the long summer holidays with his family every year in their summer house in Sutomore and frequently visited the neighboring towns of Bar, Petrovac , St. Stefan , Budva , Kotor , Tivat , and Herceg Novi .

The overwhelming presence of water and the sea in his poetry can probably be explained by the fact that he lived very close to the Adriatic coast . Further, when he moved to Chicago , he was fascinated by Lake Michigan (which is more than twice the size of the Adriatic Sea). In addition, the mountains of Montenegro and Peć (Prokletije) also influenced his poetry, as evidenced by the fact that they became the other recurring themes in his works.

His first creative urge, which lasted throughout his life, was directed towards philosophy. At the age of 14 he became interested in acting and directing. Shy by nature, he never told anyone about his secret interests, but was certain that one day he would be able to research them. He would watch at least one film and sometimes two or three films a day.

In 1976 he visited Paris , and during that visit the Serbian political émigré Jovan Brkić promised to arrange admission to the Sorbonne for him. Stojanović had not used the offer, which he said he later regretted.

Adulthood

Dejan Stojanović, Chicago , 2000

Although Stojanović was mainly interested in philosophy and the humanities, he studied law and received a diploma from the University of Pristina in Kosovo. He planned to continue his other interests later.

His first urge to write was evident at the age of ten, but he started writing poetry at the age of 18. He always knew he would be a writer , although he assumed it would be more in the field of philosophy than in literature , since he established a number of elaborate philosophical thoughts very early in his life. He began writing poetry in early 1978, and there is some evidence that he was likely motivated by the deep infatuation he felt for a girl who lived in the same town. He woke up one morning with a short but complete poem in his head. The same thing happened a few days later, and it happened a third time after a few more days. He took this experience as a clear sign that he should write poetry, which he did, but he hid his work for over three to four years.

After this period of secrecy, he began to express his poems more openly and published them in some of the most important literary magazines of the former Yugoslavia, such as: B. Oko (The Eye) in Zagreb , Croatia , Jedinstvo (Unity) and Stremljenja (Trends) in Pristina . In 1982 or 1983 he became secretary of a literary club (Karagač) in his hometown of Peć, and later he became the club's president. He was offered the opportunity to become editor-in-chief of the local radio station in Peć, but he declined; however, he conducted some interviews with some important artists from Kosovo. His first volume of poetry, The Circles (Krugovanje), was ready for publication in 1983, but it was not published until 1993. By this point, some of the older poems had been removed and some new poems written between 1983 and 1986 were added, along with the last poem in the book written in Chicago in 1991. In 1986, as a young writer, he was recognized among 200 authors at the Bor Literature Festival (Serbia, former Yugoslavia). At the end of 1980 he became a member of the Board of the Serbian Literary Youth.

In 1990 he founded his private company in Peć and planned, among other things, to enter the publishing business. He named his company Metoh (the land of the Church) and planned to publish a literary magazine of the same name. Although he intended to publish the magazine in Kosovo, the writing staff came from Belgrade , one of whom was Alek Vukadinović, a famous Serbian poet who was an avid supporter of Stojanović's idea of ​​publishing the magazine.

In the past few years Stojanović has started writing in English and has already written several books that have not yet been published, as well as some purely philosophical writings. Many of his new poems are less elliptical and rigid from both linguistic and poetic aspects.

journalism

Saul Bellow and Dejan Stojanović, University of Chicago , 1992
Nikola II. Petrović-Njegoš (HRH Titular King Nikola II of Montenegro) and Dejan Stojanović, Paris, May 1990

In the early 1990s, Stojanović began writing for the first opposition magazine in Serbia, Pogledi (Views). He interviewed many prominent Serbian writers in Belgrade such as Momo Kapor , Alek Vukadinović and Nikola Milošević. During his second visit to Paris, in May and June 1990, he interviewed several internationally recognized artists, e. B. Ljuba Popović, Petar Omčikus, and Miloš Šobajić, who were of Serbian origin, as well as some French intellectuals, e.g. B. Jacques Claude Villard.

In December 1990 he went to the United States as a foreign correspondent , where he planned to stay for anywhere from six months to a year. The goal was to have interviews with some important literary figures and then return to Yugoslavia. He achieved this goal, if not entirely, because the war in the former Yugoslavia began in mid-1991.

He received the prestigious Rastko Petrović price by the Association of Serbian writers for his book of interviews with 1990 and 1992, Europe and America , entitled talks, the interviews with several major American writers, including Nobel laureates Saul Bellow , Charles Simic and Steve Tesich , included .

style

Stojanović's poetry collections are characterized by sequences of compact, dense poems, simple yet complex in carefully organized, general structures, and this is why some, more visible than others, appear as long poems. This is particularly characteristic of the books, The Sign and His Children, The Form and The Creator ( Znak njegova Deca, Oblik, Tvoritelj ), in which Stojanović created his own poetic with a relatively small number of words repeated in different contexts Cosmogony built up. For this reason, the writer and critic David Kecman called him a cosmosophist .

In his poems he treats the smallest and the largest subjects with equal attention, often juxtaposing them on a level of paradox and absurdity, gradually building up new perspectives and meanings that are not only poetic, be it in origin or in purpose. Some themes and biases, be they stones or galaxies, are present in all of his books, and it can be said that his books of poetry are long poems in themselves, and that they all serve as the ingredients of a hyper-poetry book that is still in the making is located.

He used many poetic forms that had never been used in Serbian poetry and also created some new forms. "When elegance is represented by simplicity, these are some of the most elegant verses imaginable," explained Branko Mikasinovich.

Poetry collections

Dejan Stojanović, portrait by Zoran Tucić
  • Krugovanje: 1978–1987 (The Circle ) (Narodna knjiga, Alfa, Belgrade, 1993)
  • Krugovanje: 1978–1987 (The Circle ), second edition, (Narodna knjiga, Alfa, Belgrade, 1998)
  • Sunce sebe gleda (The sun watches itself) (Književna reč, Belgrade, 1999)
  • Znak i njegova deca (The Sign and its Children) (Prosveta, Belgrade, 2000)
  • Oblik (The Form) (Grammar, Podgorica , 2000)
  • Tvoritelj (The Creator) (Narodna knjiga, Alfa, Belgrade, 2000)
  • Krugovanje (The Circling ), third edition, (Narodna knjiga, Alfa, Belgrade, 2000)
  • Ples vremena (Dance of Time) (Konras, Belgrade, 2007)

Interviews

  • Razgovori (Conversations) (Književna reč, Belgrade, 1999)

credentials

Quotes

  1. ↑ Miloslav Šutić: Significant achievements of the short poem form (Značajni dometi kratke lirske forme, Književna reč, broj 515, July 2001 .; Odzivi, str. 67, Konras, biblioteka Groš), 2002, Belgrade
  2. ↑ Alek Vukadinović: The poetic circles of Dejan Stojanović, The circles . (Afterword) p. 69 (Krugovanje, Pogovor), 1993, Belgrade
  3. ↑ Petar V. Arbutina: The solar circle of truth, the sun observes itself . (Afterword) p. 155 (Sunce sebe gleda, Solarni krug istine, Književna reč, 1999), Belgrade
  4. ↑ Zoran Mišić: Pogledi . Broj 159, August 1994, Kragujevac
  5. ↑ Dušan Vidaković: The Art of Interviewing (Umetnost intervjuisanja, Zbilja, broj 62/63), November / December 2000.
  6. ↑ Aleksandar I. Popović: Razgovori (Conversations, Belgrade, 1999)
  7. ^ R. Popović: Novo u knjižarskim izlozima, Pogled sa visine (conversations). Politika, January 24, 2000, Belgrade
  8. ↑ Petar Arbutina: The Sign and its Children (Znak i njegova deca), 2000, Belgrade
  9. ^ Draginja Urošević: Borba. 2001, Beograd
  10. ↑ Oliver Janković: The whites of the world and of paper . Borba, 28, 29, 30 November 2000, Belgrade
  11. ↑ Nevena Vitosevic: Symphony of a character or a family in harmony . Knjizevna reč, broj 513, st. 49, February 2001, Belgrade
  12. ↑ David Kecman Dako: Znakovi smisla . Borba, March 15, 2001, Belgrade
  13. ↑ Branko Mikasinovich: The Sun Observes Itself (Sunce sebe gleda) [The Sun Watches Itself, WLT, World Literature Today , A Literary Quarterly of the University of Oklahoma , Norman , Oklahoma , Volume 74, Number 2, Page 442, Spring 2000]

bibliography

  • Branko Mikasinovich, The Sun Observes Itself (Sunce sebe gleda) [The Sun Watches Itself, WLT, World Literature Today, A Literary Quarterly of the University of Oklahoma , Norman , Oklahoma , Volume 74, Number 2, Page 442, Spring 2000]
  • Miloslav Šutić, Significant Achievements of the Short Poem Form (Značajni dometi kratke lirske forme, Književna reč, broj 515, July 2001 .; Odzivi, str. 67, Konras, biblioteka Groš), 2002, Belgrade
  • Alek Vukadinović, The Poetic Circles of Dejan Stojanović, The Circles, Afterword, p. 69 (Krugovanje, Pogovor), 1993, Belgrade
  • Petar V. Arbutina, The Sun Circle of Truth, The Sun Observes Itself, Epilogue, p. 155 (Sunce sebe gleda, Solarni krug istine, Književna reč, 1999), Belgrade
  • Miroslav Mirković Buca, Prkos tamnim silama, Ilustrovana politika, rubrika Čitati ili ne čitati, broj 2177, 7. X 2000, Belgrade
  • Aleksandar Petrov, A Poet at the Open Door, Amerikanski Srbobran (American Srbobran), Književni dodatak, December 2000, Pittsburgh
  • Petar Arbutina, The Sign and its Children (Znak i njegova deca), 2000, Belgrade
  • David Kecman Dako, Znakovi smisla, Borba, March 15, 2001, Belgrade
  • Oliver Janković, The Whites of the World and Paper, Borba, 28, 29, 30 November 2000, Belgrade
  • Nevena Vitošević, The symphony of signs or a family in harmony, Knjizevna reč, broj 513, str. 49, February 2001, Belgrade
  • Zoran Mišić, Pogledi, broj 159, August 1994, Kragujevac
  • Dušan Vidaković, The Art of Interviewing (Umetnost intervjuisanja, Zbilja, broj 62/63), November / December 2000.
  • Dušan Vidaković, Slabiji sastav dijaspore, (interview with Dejan Stojanović), Blic, rubrika Kultura, str. September 15, 16, 1999. broj 947, Belgrade
  • Dušan Vidaković, Tužan svet plutokratije, robota i klovnova (interview with Dejan Stojanović), Nedeljni dnevnik, rubrika Kultura, str. 29, godina IV, broj 153, January 14, 2000, Novi Sad , Vojvodina
  • ZR, Četiri naša pisca, Politika, rubrika Kulturni život, December 8, 2000, Belgrade
  • R. Popović, Novo u knjižarskim izlozima, Pogled sa visine (Conversations), Politika, January 24, 2000, Belgrade
  • R. Popović, Novo u knjižarskim izlozima, Ovako je bilo (The Sun Circle of Truth), Politika, January 17, 2000, Belgrade
  • Dragan Bogutović, Pesme simboli, Sedam knjiga (Kultura, književnost, pozorište, film), Večernje novosti, str. 10, August 15, 1999, Belgrade
  • Zorica Novaković, Pitanja i nedoumice, Svet knjige, Borba, March 30, 2000, Belgrade
  • Dušan Cicvara, Snovi iz dijaspore (The Sun Circle of Truth), Beogradske novine, September 17, 1999, Belgrade

Web links

Commons : Dejan Stojanović  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Stojanović, Dejan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Stojanovic, Dejan; Стојановић, Дејан
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Serbian-American writer
DATE OF BIRTH March 11, 1959
PLACE OF BIRTH Peć , Yugoslavia