Dositej Obradovic
Encyclopedia
Dositej Dimitrije Obradović (Доситеј Димитрије Обрадовић, dɔsǐtɛːj ɔbrǎːdɔʋitɕ; 17 February 1742 - 1811) was a Serbian
author
, philosopher, linguist, polyglot and the first minister of education of Serbia
. An influential protagonist of the Serbian national and cultural renaissance, he advocated Enlightenment
and rationalist
ideas while remaining a Serbian patriot
and an adherent of the Serbian Orthodox Church
. Founder of modern Serbian literature
, he is commonly referred to by his mononym, first name alone. He became a monk
in the Serb Orthodox monastery of Hopovo, in the Srem region, and acquired the name Dositej (Dositheus). He translated many Europe
an classics, including Aesop's Fables
, into Serbian
. He was also a prominent Freemason, and was posthumously enrolled in German, English and Italian Masonic lodges.
, Timiş County
, Romania
) in the region of Banat
. His parents died when he was a boy and he began life as an apprentice in the town of Temesvar, not too far from his village. His passion for study was strong, and he spent his spare time reading as soon as the day's work in the shop was over. His reading was mainly restricted to lives of the saints and accounts of the miracles they performed. He became so engrossed in this literature that he considered living in the desert, becoming a saint, and working miracles himself. Once he tried to run away, but was dissuaded by a colleague. His desire for the saintly life was strong, however, and the next time he succeeded.
Obradović was certain he had found the ideal spot for his life of piety at the monastery in Hopovo, 60 miles (96.6 km) from Temesvar. A fellow-apprentice in his shop named Nikola Putin joined Obradović in his adventure. The two boys counted up their money; three grossi was all the capital Obradović possessed and Nikola had no money of his own. Three grossi worth of bread was enough for a two-day journey, but they spent four days on foot. In those days, travel such as this was not uncommon for young Serbians travelling in search of an education; writer and historian Jovan Rajić
travelled on foot from Hungary
to Russia
, a distance of 800 miles (1,287.5 km). Obradović and Nikola took the road along the river Begej until they reached the monastery at Hopovo towards the end of July 1757.
At the monastery, Obradović became a monk on 17 February 1757 and was very happy. No more work in the shop; he was free to devote all his time to reading, and since the library was full of sacred books he found himself in the surroundings he sought. His passion for the lives of the saints and his desire to become a saint himself reached their climax at this time. The longer he was there, the more his aspiration gradually waned. Finally, the desire for a saint's halo seemed so preposterous that Obradović dismissed it from his mind altogether. The beautiful, pleasant surroundings of the monastery were very different from the deserts for which Obradović had desired. The other monks fell short of sanctity, and Obradović was unable to overlook their shortcomings; he discovered that his thirst for knowledge was greater than his desire for sanctity. Obradović now desired to leave Hopovo for the world where great libraries abounded and good schools could be found.
After more than three years at Hopovo (where he learned Old Slavonic and classical Greek), Obradović left the monastery. On November 2, 1760 he went to Zagreb, where he mastered Latin. From there he planned to go further afield—perhaps to Russia, where several countrymen had already gone to pursue their studies or to Vienna, where the schools and libraries better suited his needs. Obradović was advised to go to Venetian-occupied Dalmatia
first, where he might obtain a position as a schoolmaster and save enough money for further studies abroad. On 2 November 1760 he left the monastery of Hopovo, bound for Hilandar
, Mount Athos
. He arrived in the Serbian-populated region of inland Dalmatia in the spring of 1761, and was received warmly; Serbian priests from the district of Knin
offered him a post as schoolmaster in Golubić
. Obradovic's life in this Dalmatian village was idyllic. He was beloved by the villagers and it was a serene, comfortable and kindly atmosphere in which he lived, similar to that which surrounded the Vicar of Wakefield
. From Dalmatia he went to Montenegro, then to Albania, Greece, Constantinople, and Asia Minor; stage by stage, always earning a living as a private tutor, Obradović visited all these lands (especially Greece, which was the most prosperous). Ten years (1761–1771) passed since he began his travels.
Obradović made great progress during this period. He learned Italian while in Dalmatia and acquired a thorough knowledge of Greek, both ancient and modern. He grew up bilingual (in Serbian
and Romanian
) and learned classical Greek, Latin, modern Greek, German, English, French, Russian, Albanian and Italian. For forty years he travelled throughout the Balkans
, the Levant
, Imperial Russia, and Europe: Albania
, Dalmatia
, Corfu
, Greece
, Hungary
, Turkey
, Germany
, Romania
, Russia
, Poland
, Italy
, France
and England
. He showed a liking for England and the English. Finally he went to Belgrade
at the invitation of Karađorđe Petrović, to become Serbia's first minister of education in the newly-organized government. But the issue which interested Dositej most was the Serbian language—the adoption of a national language for Serbia, distinct from the Russo-Slavonic (in which her literature had until then been written. His strong (and sometimes narrow) patriotism did not blind him to the risk of such a proposal, but his lectures and writings against the use of Russo-Slavonic did more than anything else to save the Serbian language. Dositej also gave an impetus to a new generation of Serbian scholars, who became ardent supporters of the Serbian vernacular as a literary language.
Dositej and a score of other well-educated Serbs from the territory of Austria-Hungary helped introduce Western knowledge to the Serbs living in the Turkish-occupied part of Serbia. He and Vuk Karadžić (whom Obradović influenced) are recognized as the fathers of modern Serbian literature. Because the Serbian populace often suffered famine
, Obradović also introduced potato
cultivation to Serbia. He died in Belgrade in 1811.
In 1765 in Smyrna, he studied theology, philosophy, Greek literature, rhetoric, and song as a pupil of the master teacher Hierotheos Dendrinos. This gave him a classical education that few of his countrymen could obtain.
In 1768 Obradović went to Hormovo, Albania, to study the Albanian language, build a school, worked in Corfu for a time, studied with Andreas Petritsopolos, and then returned to Dalmatia to continue teaching. He was a voracious reader, consuming books in Italian, Greek, and the Slavic languages while simultaneously writing and publishing his own moral works.
In 1771 he traveled to Vienna, and there for the first time he came into contact with the ideas and works of the Western Enlightenment movement. He supported himself by tutoring students in Greek and set about learning French, Latin, and German. He studied logic and metaphysics and tutored students in French and Italian once he had mastered those languages. He also studied French and English literature. In 1777 he took a position tutoring the nephews of Vidak, Archbishop of Karlovac, in Modra, near Bratislava.
Next, in 1779, he traveled to Trieste, continuing through Italy to the island of Chios. While there he taught Italian in a local school, then visited Constantinople briefly but had to leave because of plague outbreaks. He went next to Moldavia, where he spent a year tutoring for a wealthy Ghica family
. By 1782 he had saved enough money to make a trip to Halle, Germany, where he enrolled in a university to study physics and philosophy. During this time he composed and published his autobiography, a manifesto for his intended educational program titled Pismo Haralampiju (1783), and the moral advice book Sovjeti zdravago razuma (Counsels of Common Sense, 1784). The morals book advocated coeducation for boys and girls.
In 1784 he spent a year in Europe translating fables and studying English literature. He tutored for the next few years and by 1787 had saved enough money to take his long-desired trip to Russia. He spent six months in Shklov, teaching at a military academy (founded by lieutenant-general Semyon Zorich
), reading Russian literature and writing the second half of his autobiography.
In 1789 Obradović settled in Vienna. He stayed there for twelve years, writing and printing both original works and translations. In 1802 he traveled back to Trieste because a printing press there was publishing Serbian works. While there he heard of the Serbian uprising against the Turks, and Obradović raised money and donated funds of his own to the cause. He went to work for the victorious Karadjordje administration in 1806. He also wrote the first Serbian national anthem Vostani Serbije
.
At more than sixty years of age, Obradović became a champion of the effort to educate his people. He settled in liberated Belgrade in 1807, and in September 1808 he opened the Velika skola (Great School), later the University of Belgrade. His health started to decline in 1809, and he died on March 28, 1811, shortly after being appointed Minister of Education.
His work consisted mainly of translations, the most famous of which were his 1788 translations of some of Aesop's Fables. Obradović included corresponding moral instructions with each of the fables, as well as Serbian folk proverbs and popular expressions to help the reader relate to the message of each fable. His goal was to help the Serbian public realize their need for significant cultural enhancement.
During the Serbian uprisings he established the first Serbian school of higher learning. His most notable original work is his autobiography titled Zivot i prikljucenija Dimiteÿa Obradovića, narecenoga u kaludjerstvu Dositej, n'im' istim' spisan' I izdat (1793), which was translated in 1953 as The Life and Adventures of Dimitrije Obradović Who as a Monk Was Given the Name Dositej. It is believed to be the first book ever published in the Serbian popular language.
Cassell's Encyclopaedia of World Literature describes Obradović's writings as "permeated by enlightened common sense and sane patriotism, sincerity and integrity, keen intellectual curiosity and wide erudition." Cassell's states that Obradović's "influence on the development of Serbian literature has proved both far-reaching and constructive." He is considered the chief representative of the Serbian Age of Enlightenment. Through his work the Serbian literary world began to develop its modern literature and culture and to develop a sense of national consciousness.
To this day Obradović is seen as a champion of Serbian culture. In 1911, 100 years after his death, many essays were published in celebration of his life and works. One of the essays imagined Belgrade in the year 2011 with a cultural museum called the Dositej Building, "a magnificent palace, situated in the most beautiful spot in the city centre." Although less grand than imagined in that essay, the Dositej Museum in Belgrade was opened in an old, tiny Turkish home that preserved both Obradović's works and those of language reformer Vuk Karadzic (1787-1864). Obradović remains an admired and much celebrated figure in Serbian literary history.
reached the Balkans more in the form of literature than as abstract philosophy. In the second half of the eighteenth century a number of Serbian writers (especially in ethnic Serbian territories in Hungary) were anticlerical, fought the primitivism and ignorance of the time, and advocated the expansion of knowledge and education outside the church. Dositej Obradović gave philosophical expression to the main principles of the Enlightenment in his writings and teaching. He was a young Serbian monk disillusioned by monastic life in his youth, but not with the church and certainly not its theological teachings. He travelled extensively in Europe and the Serbian lands, then divided by two occupying states—Austria-Hungary and Turkey—and through his writings and teaching sought to reform the educational system in both empires. He was the first to establish a public school in Albania. After Karageorge's successful uprising against the Ottomans in 1804 Obradović opened the first Grande École (Velika škola) in Belgrade in 1808, and became the new country's first Minister of Education. His rationalistic, utilitarian philosophy was not original for the Enlightenment, but it was influential in Belgrade and parts of liberated Serbia (1804-1813) as well as among the Serbs who lived in foreign-occupied Serbian territories, including Bosnia and Herzegovina
, Old Serbia
, Rascia
, Montenegro
and parts of Dalmatia
).
The liberation of Serbia and the creation of the first higher schools that taught philosophy encouraged a number of philosophers. Since they were educated abroad, however, their works were for some time looked upon as adaptations of German, French and English philosophers. The strong influence of Kant
and Hegel was succeeded by the influence of positivism, thanks to Obradović. The authentic philosophical thought of this period is found not only in the work of the teachers of philosophy but also in poems, folk songs, scientific writings, and (later) in revolutionary political pamphlets. All these came to express ideas of national and social liberation. Banat-born Romanian political philosopher Dimitrie Tichindeal was greatly influenced by Dositej Obradović's writings.
and considered the best-educated Serb of his time. He founded the University of Belgrade
—first named Grande École (Velika Škola) the oldest and largest university in Serbia—and other institutions. The Museum of Vuk and Dositej
is one of the most important memorial museums in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. Founded in 1949, it depicts the life, work and legacy of Vuk Stefanović Karadžić
(1787–1864), the Serbian-language reformer, and Dositej Obradović. The Dositej Obradović Award is given for special contributions in the translation of literary works, and for promoting Serbian culture.
The house in which Obradović was born still stands today. It was owned by a Romanian family but with support from the Serbian corporation Hemofarm (in Vršac
), the house was bought and later renovated. Hemofarm, together with Matica Srpska
and the Institute for Literature and Art, established the Dositej Obradović Foundation in Vršac in 2004. The goals of the foundation are:
Serbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, philosopher, linguist, polyglot and the first minister of education of Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
. An influential protagonist of the Serbian national and cultural renaissance, he advocated Enlightenment
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
and rationalist
Rationalism
In epistemology and in its modern sense, rationalism is "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification" . In more technical terms, it is a method or a theory "in which the criterion of the truth is not sensory but intellectual and deductive"...
ideas while remaining a Serbian patriot
Patriotism
Patriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy...
and an adherent of the Serbian Orthodox Church
Serbian Orthodox Church
The Serbian Orthodox Church is one of the autocephalous Orthodox Christian churches, ranking sixth in order of seniority after Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Russia...
. Founder of modern Serbian literature
Serbian literature
Serbian literature refers to literature written in Serbian and/or in Serbia.The history of Serbian literature begins with theological works from the 10th- and 11th centuries, developing in the 13th century by Saint Sava and his disciples...
, he is commonly referred to by his mononym, first name alone. He became a monk
Monk
A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...
in the Serb Orthodox monastery of Hopovo, in the Srem region, and acquired the name Dositej (Dositheus). He translated many Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an classics, including Aesop's Fables
Aesop's Fables
Aesop's Fables or the Aesopica are a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a slave and story-teller believed to have lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BCE. The fables remain a popular choice for moral education of children today...
, into Serbian
Serbian language
Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....
. He was also a prominent Freemason, and was posthumously enrolled in German, English and Italian Masonic lodges.
Life
Dositej Obradović was born Dimitrije Obradović in 1739 to poor parents in the village of Čakovo, then part of the Habsburg Empire (now CiacovaCiacova
Ciacova is a town in Timiş County, western Romania.It is located at from Timişoara. It administers four villages: Cebza, Macedonia, Obad and Petroman.According 2002 census it had a population of 7285 inhabitants. It received the status of town in 2004...
, Timiş County
Timis County
Timiș , , Banat Bulgarian: ) is a county of western Romania, in the historical region Banat, with the county seat at Timișoara. It is the largest county in Romania in terms of land area....
, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
) in the region of Banat
Banat
The Banat is a geographical and historical region in Central Europe currently divided between three countries: the eastern part lies in western Romania , the western part in northeastern Serbia , and a small...
. His parents died when he was a boy and he began life as an apprentice in the town of Temesvar, not too far from his village. His passion for study was strong, and he spent his spare time reading as soon as the day's work in the shop was over. His reading was mainly restricted to lives of the saints and accounts of the miracles they performed. He became so engrossed in this literature that he considered living in the desert, becoming a saint, and working miracles himself. Once he tried to run away, but was dissuaded by a colleague. His desire for the saintly life was strong, however, and the next time he succeeded.
Obradović was certain he had found the ideal spot for his life of piety at the monastery in Hopovo, 60 miles (96.6 km) from Temesvar. A fellow-apprentice in his shop named Nikola Putin joined Obradović in his adventure. The two boys counted up their money; three grossi was all the capital Obradović possessed and Nikola had no money of his own. Three grossi worth of bread was enough for a two-day journey, but they spent four days on foot. In those days, travel such as this was not uncommon for young Serbians travelling in search of an education; writer and historian Jovan Rajić
Jovan Rajic
Jovan Rajić was a Serbian writer, historian, traveller, and pedagogue, considered one of the greatest Serbian academics of the 18th century...
travelled on foot from Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
to Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, a distance of 800 miles (1,287.5 km). Obradović and Nikola took the road along the river Begej until they reached the monastery at Hopovo towards the end of July 1757.
At the monastery, Obradović became a monk on 17 February 1757 and was very happy. No more work in the shop; he was free to devote all his time to reading, and since the library was full of sacred books he found himself in the surroundings he sought. His passion for the lives of the saints and his desire to become a saint himself reached their climax at this time. The longer he was there, the more his aspiration gradually waned. Finally, the desire for a saint's halo seemed so preposterous that Obradović dismissed it from his mind altogether. The beautiful, pleasant surroundings of the monastery were very different from the deserts for which Obradović had desired. The other monks fell short of sanctity, and Obradović was unable to overlook their shortcomings; he discovered that his thirst for knowledge was greater than his desire for sanctity. Obradović now desired to leave Hopovo for the world where great libraries abounded and good schools could be found.
After more than three years at Hopovo (where he learned Old Slavonic and classical Greek), Obradović left the monastery. On November 2, 1760 he went to Zagreb, where he mastered Latin. From there he planned to go further afield—perhaps to Russia, where several countrymen had already gone to pursue their studies or to Vienna, where the schools and libraries better suited his needs. Obradović was advised to go to Venetian-occupied Dalmatia
Dalmatia
Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....
first, where he might obtain a position as a schoolmaster and save enough money for further studies abroad. On 2 November 1760 he left the monastery of Hopovo, bound for Hilandar
Hilandar
Hilandar Monastery is a Serbian Orthodox monastery on Mount Athos in Greece. It was founded in 1198 by the first Serbian Archbishop Saint Sava and his father, Grand Prince Stefan Nemanja of the medieval Serbian principality of Raška...
, Mount Athos
Mount Athos
Mount Athos is a mountain and peninsula in Macedonia, Greece. A World Heritage Site, it is home to 20 Eastern Orthodox monasteries and forms a self-governed monastic state within the sovereignty of the Hellenic Republic. Spiritually, Mount Athos comes under the direct jurisdiction of the...
. He arrived in the Serbian-populated region of inland Dalmatia in the spring of 1761, and was received warmly; Serbian priests from the district of Knin
Knin
Knin is a historical town in the Šibenik-Knin county of Croatia, located near the source of the river Krka at , in the Dalmatian hinterland, on the railroad Zagreb–Split. Knin rose to prominence twice in history, as a one-time capital of both the Kingdom of Croatia and briefly of the...
offered him a post as schoolmaster in Golubić
Golubic
Golubić is a small village located 9 km north of Knin, in the continental part of Šibenik-Knin County, in inland Dalmatia, Croatia. it is situated along the Krka.The Golubić Hydroelectric Power Plant exists at the Butižnica river.-History:...
. Obradovic's life in this Dalmatian village was idyllic. He was beloved by the villagers and it was a serene, comfortable and kindly atmosphere in which he lived, similar to that which surrounded the Vicar of Wakefield
The Vicar of Wakefield
The Vicar of Wakefield is a novel by Irish author Oliver Goldsmith. It was written in 1761 and 1762, and published in 1766, and was one of the most popular and widely read 18th-century novels among Victorians...
. From Dalmatia he went to Montenegro, then to Albania, Greece, Constantinople, and Asia Minor; stage by stage, always earning a living as a private tutor, Obradović visited all these lands (especially Greece, which was the most prosperous). Ten years (1761–1771) passed since he began his travels.
Serbian language
Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....
and Romanian
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
) and learned classical Greek, Latin, modern Greek, German, English, French, Russian, Albanian and Italian. For forty years he travelled throughout the Balkans
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
, the Levant
Levant
The Levant or ) is the geographic region and culture zone of the "eastern Mediterranean littoral between Anatolia and Egypt" . The Levant includes most of modern Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian territories, and sometimes parts of Turkey and Iraq, and corresponds roughly to the...
, Imperial Russia, and Europe: Albania
Albania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
, Dalmatia
Dalmatia
Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....
, Corfu
Corfu
Corfu is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea. It is the second largest of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the edge of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The island is part of the Corfu regional unit, and is administered as a single municipality. The...
, Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
, Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. He showed a liking for England and the English. Finally he went to Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
at the invitation of Karađorđe Petrović, to become Serbia's first minister of education in the newly-organized government. But the issue which interested Dositej most was the Serbian language—the adoption of a national language for Serbia, distinct from the Russo-Slavonic (in which her literature had until then been written. His strong (and sometimes narrow) patriotism did not blind him to the risk of such a proposal, but his lectures and writings against the use of Russo-Slavonic did more than anything else to save the Serbian language. Dositej also gave an impetus to a new generation of Serbian scholars, who became ardent supporters of the Serbian vernacular as a literary language.
Dositej and a score of other well-educated Serbs from the territory of Austria-Hungary helped introduce Western knowledge to the Serbs living in the Turkish-occupied part of Serbia. He and Vuk Karadžić (whom Obradović influenced) are recognized as the fathers of modern Serbian literature. Because the Serbian populace often suffered famine
Famine
A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including crop failure, overpopulation, or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompanied or followed by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased mortality. Every continent in the world has...
, Obradović also introduced potato
Potato
The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species...
cultivation to Serbia. He died in Belgrade in 1811.
Traveling scholar
In 1763 he headed to Greece to visit Mount Athos, but fell ill and went instead to Montenegro, where he worked for a time as a schoolteacher. It was at this time, while traveling among his own people and teaching in various institutions, that Obradović recognized his culture's need for development. Here he declared, "Write as you speak and read as it is written." Dositej believed strongly that orthography of the written language should conform to the spoken language. He felt his people were backward and he wanted to raise their awareness of literature and culture. He began translating great works of other cultures into conversational Serbian.In 1765 in Smyrna, he studied theology, philosophy, Greek literature, rhetoric, and song as a pupil of the master teacher Hierotheos Dendrinos. This gave him a classical education that few of his countrymen could obtain.
In 1768 Obradović went to Hormovo, Albania, to study the Albanian language, build a school, worked in Corfu for a time, studied with Andreas Petritsopolos, and then returned to Dalmatia to continue teaching. He was a voracious reader, consuming books in Italian, Greek, and the Slavic languages while simultaneously writing and publishing his own moral works.
In 1771 he traveled to Vienna, and there for the first time he came into contact with the ideas and works of the Western Enlightenment movement. He supported himself by tutoring students in Greek and set about learning French, Latin, and German. He studied logic and metaphysics and tutored students in French and Italian once he had mastered those languages. He also studied French and English literature. In 1777 he took a position tutoring the nephews of Vidak, Archbishop of Karlovac, in Modra, near Bratislava.
Next, in 1779, he traveled to Trieste, continuing through Italy to the island of Chios. While there he taught Italian in a local school, then visited Constantinople briefly but had to leave because of plague outbreaks. He went next to Moldavia, where he spent a year tutoring for a wealthy Ghica family
Ghica family
The Ghica family were a Romanian noble family, active in Wallachia, Moldavia and in the Kingdom of Romania. In the 18th century, several branches of the family went through a process of Hellenization...
. By 1782 he had saved enough money to make a trip to Halle, Germany, where he enrolled in a university to study physics and philosophy. During this time he composed and published his autobiography, a manifesto for his intended educational program titled Pismo Haralampiju (1783), and the moral advice book Sovjeti zdravago razuma (Counsels of Common Sense, 1784). The morals book advocated coeducation for boys and girls.
In 1784 he spent a year in Europe translating fables and studying English literature. He tutored for the next few years and by 1787 had saved enough money to take his long-desired trip to Russia. He spent six months in Shklov, teaching at a military academy (founded by lieutenant-general Semyon Zorich
Semyon Zorich
Semyon Zorich or Simon Gavrilovitj Zoritj was a Serbian noble and a Russian officer and favorite, lover of Empress Catherine the Great from 1777 to 1778....
), reading Russian literature and writing the second half of his autobiography.
In 1789 Obradović settled in Vienna. He stayed there for twelve years, writing and printing both original works and translations. In 1802 he traveled back to Trieste because a printing press there was publishing Serbian works. While there he heard of the Serbian uprising against the Turks, and Obradović raised money and donated funds of his own to the cause. He went to work for the victorious Karadjordje administration in 1806. He also wrote the first Serbian national anthem Vostani Serbije
Vostani Serbije
Vostani Serbije , also known as Pesma na Insurekciju Serbijanov was the national anthem of revolutionary Serbia, written by Dositej Obradović during the First Serbian Uprising against the Ottoman Empire in 1804...
.
At more than sixty years of age, Obradović became a champion of the effort to educate his people. He settled in liberated Belgrade in 1807, and in September 1808 he opened the Velika skola (Great School), later the University of Belgrade. His health started to decline in 1809, and he died on March 28, 1811, shortly after being appointed Minister of Education.
Publishing pioneer
Obradović's most substantial contribution to the education of his people lay in his dedicated use of the Serbian popular language. In his lifetime, the Serbs were divided into three linguistic camps: the educated few who spoke and wrote in Russian Church Slavonic (a language of prestige), other educated people who spoke and wrote in slavenoserbski (a hybrid of Russian Church Slavonic, Old Church Slavonic, Russian, and local Serbian vernacular), and the masses, mostly illiterate, who spoke the local Serbian vernacular. As the Dictionary of Literary Biography explains, "Dositej considered the introduction of vernacular elements into the literary idiom necessary because he believed that only one in ten thousand people understood slavenoserbski well, whereas the language of the people was understood by all, peasants and educated people alike. With minor dialectal differences, the spoken language was the same in all the areas populated by the Serbs. If books were printed in the language of the people, they would reach broad segments of [the] population."His work consisted mainly of translations, the most famous of which were his 1788 translations of some of Aesop's Fables. Obradović included corresponding moral instructions with each of the fables, as well as Serbian folk proverbs and popular expressions to help the reader relate to the message of each fable. His goal was to help the Serbian public realize their need for significant cultural enhancement.
During the Serbian uprisings he established the first Serbian school of higher learning. His most notable original work is his autobiography titled Zivot i prikljucenija Dimiteÿa Obradovića, narecenoga u kaludjerstvu Dositej, n'im' istim' spisan' I izdat (1793), which was translated in 1953 as The Life and Adventures of Dimitrije Obradović Who as a Monk Was Given the Name Dositej. It is believed to be the first book ever published in the Serbian popular language.
Cassell's Encyclopaedia of World Literature describes Obradović's writings as "permeated by enlightened common sense and sane patriotism, sincerity and integrity, keen intellectual curiosity and wide erudition." Cassell's states that Obradović's "influence on the development of Serbian literature has proved both far-reaching and constructive." He is considered the chief representative of the Serbian Age of Enlightenment. Through his work the Serbian literary world began to develop its modern literature and culture and to develop a sense of national consciousness.
To this day Obradović is seen as a champion of Serbian culture. In 1911, 100 years after his death, many essays were published in celebration of his life and works. One of the essays imagined Belgrade in the year 2011 with a cultural museum called the Dositej Building, "a magnificent palace, situated in the most beautiful spot in the city centre." Although less grand than imagined in that essay, the Dositej Museum in Belgrade was opened in an old, tiny Turkish home that preserved both Obradović's works and those of language reformer Vuk Karadzic (1787-1864). Obradović remains an admired and much celebrated figure in Serbian literary history.
Thought
Ideas from the EnlightenmentAge of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
reached the Balkans more in the form of literature than as abstract philosophy. In the second half of the eighteenth century a number of Serbian writers (especially in ethnic Serbian territories in Hungary) were anticlerical, fought the primitivism and ignorance of the time, and advocated the expansion of knowledge and education outside the church. Dositej Obradović gave philosophical expression to the main principles of the Enlightenment in his writings and teaching. He was a young Serbian monk disillusioned by monastic life in his youth, but not with the church and certainly not its theological teachings. He travelled extensively in Europe and the Serbian lands, then divided by two occupying states—Austria-Hungary and Turkey—and through his writings and teaching sought to reform the educational system in both empires. He was the first to establish a public school in Albania. After Karageorge's successful uprising against the Ottomans in 1804 Obradović opened the first Grande École (Velika škola) in Belgrade in 1808, and became the new country's first Minister of Education. His rationalistic, utilitarian philosophy was not original for the Enlightenment, but it was influential in Belgrade and parts of liberated Serbia (1804-1813) as well as among the Serbs who lived in foreign-occupied Serbian territories, including Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
, Old Serbia
Old Serbia
Old Serbia is a modern name for the territory which was the core of medieval Serbia. It included Raška , Kosovo and Metohija and the Macedonia...
, Rascia
Rascia
Rascia was a medieval region that served as the principal province of the Serbian realm. It was an administrative division under the direct rule of the monarch and sometimes as an appanage. The term has been used to refer to various Serbian states throughout the Middle Ages...
, Montenegro
Montenegro
Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...
and parts of Dalmatia
Dalmatia
Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....
).
The liberation of Serbia and the creation of the first higher schools that taught philosophy encouraged a number of philosophers. Since they were educated abroad, however, their works were for some time looked upon as adaptations of German, French and English philosophers. The strong influence of Kant
KANT
KANT is a computer algebra system for mathematicians interested in algebraic number theory, performing sophisticated computations in algebraic number fields, in global function fields, and in local fields. KASH is the associated command line interface...
and Hegel was succeeded by the influence of positivism, thanks to Obradović. The authentic philosophical thought of this period is found not only in the work of the teachers of philosophy but also in poems, folk songs, scientific writings, and (later) in revolutionary political pamphlets. All these came to express ideas of national and social liberation. Banat-born Romanian political philosopher Dimitrie Tichindeal was greatly influenced by Dositej Obradović's writings.
Legacy
Dositej Obradović was a forerunner of Vuk Karadžić, the central figure of reformation of Serbian language and literatureand considered the best-educated Serb of his time. He founded the University of Belgrade
University of Belgrade
The University of Belgrade is the oldest and largest university of Serbia.Founded in 1808 as the Belgrade Higher School in revolutionary Serbia, by 1838 it merged with the Kragujevac-based departments into a single university...
—first named Grande École (Velika Škola) the oldest and largest university in Serbia—and other institutions. The Museum of Vuk and Dositej
Museum of Vuk and Dositej
The Museum of Vuk and Dositej is one of the most important memorial museums in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. Founded in 1949, it depicts the life, work and legacy of Vuk Stefanović Karadžić , the reformer of the Serbian language, and Dositej Obradović , a writer who was the country's first...
is one of the most important memorial museums in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. Founded in 1949, it depicts the life, work and legacy of Vuk Stefanović Karadžić
Vuk Stefanovic Karadžic
Vuk Stefanović Karadžić was a Serbian philolog and linguist, the major reformer of the Serbian language, and deserves, perhaps, for his collections of songs, fairy tales, and riddles to be called the father of the study of Serbian folklore. He was the author of the first Serbian dictionary...
(1787–1864), the Serbian-language reformer, and Dositej Obradović. The Dositej Obradović Award is given for special contributions in the translation of literary works, and for promoting Serbian culture.
The house in which Obradović was born still stands today. It was owned by a Romanian family but with support from the Serbian corporation Hemofarm (in Vršac
Vršac
Vršac is a town and municipality located in Serbia. In 2002 the town's total population was 36,623, while Vršac municipality had 54,369 inhabitants. Vršac is located in the Banat region, in the Vojvodina province of Serbia. It is part of the South Banat District.-Name:The name Vršac is of Serbian...
), the house was bought and later renovated. Hemofarm, together with Matica Srpska
Matica srpska
The Matica srpska is the oldest cultural-scientific institution of Serbia. Matica srpska was founded in 1826 in Budapest and moved to Novi Sad in 1864....
and the Institute for Literature and Art, established the Dositej Obradović Foundation in Vršac in 2004. The goals of the foundation are:
- Studying the life and work of Obradović, and his influence on education and science
- Transmission of Obradović's ideas, thoughts and message to Serbian youth
- Organisation of meetings of young writers and gifted students from Serbia and the Serbian diaspora
- Helping young, gifted writers and artists
- Helping gifted students in Slavic, Serbian and Romanian studies
- Connecting the local societies of Temišvar, VršacVršacVršac is a town and municipality located in Serbia. In 2002 the town's total population was 36,623, while Vršac municipality had 54,369 inhabitants. Vršac is located in the Banat region, in the Vojvodina province of Serbia. It is part of the South Banat District.-Name:The name Vršac is of Serbian...
, Čakovo and Sentmarton - Publishing the book Dositej, about Obradović's life and times
- Bestowing the Dositej's Staff Award
Works
- Slovo poučiteljno Gosp. Georg. Joakima Colikofera, LeipzigLeipzigLeipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
, 1774, 31 pp. - Pismo Haralampiju, 1783
- Život i priključenija D.O., Leipzig, 1783, 1788
- Sovjeti zdravago razuma, Leipzig, 1784, 119 pp.
- Ezopove i pročih raznih basnotvorcev basne, Leipzig, 1788, 451 pp.
- Pesme o izbavleniju Serbije, Beč, 1789, 4 pp.
- Sobranije raznih naravoučitelnih veščej, PécsPécsPécs is the fifth largest city of Hungary, located on the slopes of the Mecsek mountains in the south-west of the country, close to its border with Croatia. It is the administrative and economical centre of Baranya county...
, 1793, 2 + 316 pp. - Etika ili filozofija naravnoučitelna, VeniceVeniceVenice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
, 1803, 160 pp. - Vostani SerbijeVostani SerbijeVostani Serbije , also known as Pesma na Insurekciju Serbijanov was the national anthem of revolutionary Serbia, written by Dositej Obradović during the First Serbian Uprising against the Ottoman Empire in 1804...
, 1804. - Mezimac I Budim, 1818, 230 + 11 pp.
- Ižica, 1830
- Pisma Budim, 1829, 126 pp.
- Prvenac Karlštat, 1930, 17 + 168 pp.
- Jastuk roda moga (lost), 1813
Translations
- Slovo poučitelno, 1784.
- Istina i prelest, (short story), 1788
- Put u jedan dan, (short story), 1788
- Hristoitija
- Bukvica
- Etika
- Venac
- Damon
- Ingleska izrečenija
Further reading
- Obradović, Dositej. The Life and Adventures of Dimitrije Obradović. University of California Publications in Modern Philology 39. Berkeley; Los Angeles, 1953.
- Ćurčić, N. M. J. The Ethics of Reason in the Philosophical System of Dositej Obradovic A Study of His Contribution in This Field to the Age of Reason. London: Unwin Bros. Ltd, 1976.
- Petar Pijanović: Život i delo Dositeja Obradovića. Zavod za udžbenike i nastavna sredstva, Beograd 2000.
- Wladimir Fischer: Creating a National Hero: The Changing Symbolics of Dositej Obradović. In: Identität - Kultur - Raum. Turia + Kant, Wien 2001.
- Jovan SkerlićJovan SkerlićJovan Skerlić was a Serbian writer and critic. He is regarded as one of the most influential Serbian literary critics of the early 20th century, after Bogdan Popović.- Biography :...
, Istorija Nove Srpske Književnosti (Belgrade, 1914, 1921). - Fischer, Wladimir, "The Role of Dositej Obradovic in the Construction of Serbian Identities During the 19th Century," Space of * Identity (January 2, 2004).
- Cassell's Encyclopaedia of World Literature Volume 2, Funk & Wagnalls, 1954.
- Chambers Biographical Dictionary, Chambers Harrap, 1997.
- Merriam-Webster's Biographical Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, 1995.
- Sutch Slavic Writers Before World War II-Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 147, Gale Research, 1995.