Stanislav Vinaver
Encyclopedia
Stanislav Vinaver (1891–1955) was a man of letters from Serbia
.
He was born on March 1st 1891, in Šabac
, Serbia
, in a well-to-do Jewish family. His father Josif was a physician and mother Ruža a pianist. Vinaver finished elementary school in Šabac, attended high school in both Šabac and Belgrade
, and studied mathematics and physics at the University of Sorbonne, Paris
. There he became a follower of Henri Bergson
's philosophical ideas, and in 1911. his thoughts and ideas were published in a collection of symbolic poems Mjeća.
Vinaver volunteered in the Balkan wars
and took part in World War I
as one of the “1,300 corporals” famous students’ battalion, in which he was a lieutenant
. He went through the horrors of the Serbian army retreating through Albania
and found himself on the island of Corfu
, where he became the editor of “Serbian newspaper” working as a state press-bureau clerk. In the year of 1916 he was sent on an lobbying mission to France
and Great Britain
on behalf of Serbia to garner public support for the fighting on the Balkan front. During the Russian Revolution he was a Serbian diplomatic envoy in St. Petersburg.
Erudite and literate, Stanislav Vinaver was briefly employed at the Ministry of Education in Belgrade after World War I, but soon his restless and wondering spirit led him into journalism
, translation work, and writing. In the newly formed Kingdom of Yugoslavia
he became quite an outstanding person among young and modern Serbian writers and poets (Miloš Crnjanski
, Dragiša Vasić, Rastko Petrović, Ljubomir Micić, Rade Drainac, Velibor Gligorić, Marko Ristić), and Croat literati who had come to Belgrade after Kingdom of Yugoslavia
was formed (Tin Ujević
, Gustav Krklec, Sibe Miličić).
and essay writer, he was one of the leaders of the expressionist movement as well as the author of “Manifesto
of expressionism
”, strongly pleading for abandoning traditional artistic expression, disclaiming routine “patriotic canons” established by honourable literary critics Jovan Skerlić
and Bogdan Popović.
Vinaver spent World War II
in captivity in the German POW camp Osnabrück
. During the last years of his life (1945-1955) he worked in Belgrade as a writer, satirist and translator from French, English, German, Russian, Polish and Czech. His unique translations, in which he would often step away from the original text in order to describe and keep the essence and spirit of the original, were sometimes rejected by publishing houses, but to this day have not been overtop and have become almost an individual works of literature. For example, Vinaver wrote and added up to 200 new pages to his translation of François Rabelais
' "Gargantua and Pantagruel
". Another famously modified translation was Lewis Carroll
's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
" and "Through the Looking-Glass
" where he diverts and twists the original novel going farther away from the literal translation, while keeping and cherishing Carroll's brilliant humor, puns and most importantly Carroll's message and the tale's essence. Vinaver himself never said "Alice" was a translation, and preferred to call it "re-telling".
As for satire, Vinaver’s style was endlessly witty and humorous, with unexpected turnovers, fresh and innovative expression and a subtle sense of grotesque, most apparent in his “Panthology of new Serbian Pelengyrics” (pelen, sr. – wormwood
), a mockery of Bogdan Popović’s “Anthology of new Serbian lyrics”.
Among his works, the best known are “Stories that lost their balance” (1913), “Thoughts” (1913), “Lightning rod of the Universe” (1921), “Worlds keeper” (1921), “Evil wizards' small town”, “Icarus
’ flight”, “War friends”, “European night”, “Our needed language” and his famous work “Laza Kostić
’s enchantments and spites”. In the latter book, for which he had a hard time to publish it and did not manage to do so during his lifetime, Vinaver showed his master skills for debate and reached heights in criticizing Serbian cultural mediocrity and mythomania.
Even though he was rather modernist, particularly vis-à-vis national culture, he remained miscomprehended for half of a century, suppressed and concealed, and his book “Enchantments” was not republished until 2006. In this significant book, Vinaver manages to represent complete Serbian artistic and spiritual heritage that includes both culture and mythology
, and beside portraying famous poet Laza Kostić, the book is an auto-poetic work, combining artistic-intellectual curiosity, encyclopedic knowledge as well as Vinaver's own strong and distinct identity. It contains complete Kostić’s biography and writings, historical context which they originated from and notes of his contemporaries, but the book also contains Vinaver's writings of music, verses structure, linguistic possibilities, melody of language and contemporary poetry
in general.
Stanislav Vinaver died in Niška Banja
, Serbia, on 1st August 1955.
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...
.
He was born on March 1st 1891, in Šabac
Šabac
Šabac is a city and municipality in western Serbia, along the Sava river, in the historic region of Mačva. It is the administrative center of the Mačva District. The city has a population of 52,822 , while population of the municipality is 115,347...
, 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...
, in a well-to-do Jewish family. His father Josif was a physician and mother Ruža a pianist. Vinaver finished elementary school in Šabac, attended high school in both Šabac and 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...
, and studied mathematics and physics at the University of Sorbonne, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. There he became a follower of Henri Bergson
Henri Bergson
Henri-Louis Bergson was a major French philosopher, influential especially in the first half of the 20th century. Bergson convinced many thinkers that immediate experience and intuition are more significant than rationalism and science for understanding reality.He was awarded the 1927 Nobel Prize...
's philosophical ideas, and in 1911. his thoughts and ideas were published in a collection of symbolic poems Mjeća.
Vinaver volunteered in the Balkan wars
Balkan Wars
The Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe in 1912 and 1913.By the early 20th century, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia, the countries of the Balkan League, had achieved their independence from the Ottoman Empire, but large parts of their ethnic...
and took part in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
as one of the “1,300 corporals” famous students’ battalion, in which he was a lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
. He went through the horrors of the Serbian army retreating through 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...
and found himself on the island of 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...
, where he became the editor of “Serbian newspaper” working as a state press-bureau clerk. In the year of 1916 he was sent on an lobbying mission to 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 Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
on behalf of Serbia to garner public support for the fighting on the Balkan front. During the Russian Revolution he was a Serbian diplomatic envoy in St. Petersburg.
Erudite and literate, Stanislav Vinaver was briefly employed at the Ministry of Education in Belgrade after World War I, but soon his restless and wondering spirit led him into journalism
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
, translation work, and writing. In the newly formed Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a state stretching from the Western Balkans to Central Europe which existed during the often-tumultuous interwar era of 1918–1941...
he became quite an outstanding person among young and modern Serbian writers and poets (Miloš Crnjanski
Miloš Crnjanski
Miloš Crnjanski was a poet of the expressionist wing of Serbian modernism, author, and a diplomat...
, Dragiša Vasić, Rastko Petrović, Ljubomir Micić, Rade Drainac, Velibor Gligorić, Marko Ristić), and Croat literati who had come to Belgrade after Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a state stretching from the Western Balkans to Central Europe which existed during the often-tumultuous interwar era of 1918–1941...
was formed (Tin Ujević
Tin Ujevic
Augustin "Tin" Ujević is considered to be one of the greatest Croatian poets of all times.Ujević was born in Vrgorac, a small town in the Dalmatian hinterland, and grew up in what were then the provincial towns of Imotski and Makarska. He completed classical gymnasium in Split...
, Gustav Krklec, Sibe Miličić).
Oeuvre
Vinaver is an important figure in Serbian literature and culture. As a poetPoet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
and essay writer, he was one of the leaders of the expressionist movement as well as the author of “Manifesto
Manifesto
A manifesto is a public declaration of principles and intentions, often political in nature. Manifestos relating to religious belief are generally referred to as creeds. Manifestos may also be life stance-related.-Etymology:...
of expressionism
Expressionism
Expressionism was a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas...
”, strongly pleading for abandoning traditional artistic expression, disclaiming routine “patriotic canons” established by honourable literary critics Jovan Skerlić
Jovan Skerlić
Jovan 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 :...
and Bogdan Popović.
Vinaver spent World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
in captivity in the German POW camp Osnabrück
Osnabrück
Osnabrück is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, some 80 km NNE of Dortmund, 45 km NE of Münster, and some 100 km due west of Hanover. It lies in a valley penned between the Wiehen Hills and the northern tip of the Teutoburg Forest...
. During the last years of his life (1945-1955) he worked in Belgrade as a writer, satirist and translator from French, English, German, Russian, Polish and Czech. His unique translations, in which he would often step away from the original text in order to describe and keep the essence and spirit of the original, were sometimes rejected by publishing houses, but to this day have not been overtop and have become almost an individual works of literature. For example, Vinaver wrote and added up to 200 new pages to his translation of François Rabelais
François Rabelais
François Rabelais was a major French Renaissance writer, doctor, Renaissance humanist, monk and Greek scholar. He has historically been regarded as a writer of fantasy, satire, the grotesque, bawdy jokes and songs...
' "Gargantua and Pantagruel
Gargantua and Pantagruel
The Life of Gargantua and of Pantagruel is a connected series of five novels written in the 16th century by François Rabelais. It is the story of two giants, a father and his son and their adventures, written in an amusing, extravagant, satirical vein...
". Another famously modified translation was Lewis Carroll
Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...
's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is an 1865 novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells of a girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures...
" and "Through the Looking-Glass
Through the Looking-Glass
Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There is a work of literature by Lewis Carroll . It is the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland...
" where he diverts and twists the original novel going farther away from the literal translation, while keeping and cherishing Carroll's brilliant humor, puns and most importantly Carroll's message and the tale's essence. Vinaver himself never said "Alice" was a translation, and preferred to call it "re-telling".
As for satire, Vinaver’s style was endlessly witty and humorous, with unexpected turnovers, fresh and innovative expression and a subtle sense of grotesque, most apparent in his “Panthology of new Serbian Pelengyrics” (pelen, sr. – wormwood
Wormwood
Wormwood may refer to:*Various plants of the genus Artemisia but commonly Artemisia absinthium, also called grande wormwood or absinthe wormwood...
), a mockery of Bogdan Popović’s “Anthology of new Serbian lyrics”.
Among his works, the best known are “Stories that lost their balance” (1913), “Thoughts” (1913), “Lightning rod of the Universe” (1921), “Worlds keeper” (1921), “Evil wizards' small town”, “Icarus
Icarus
-Space and astronomy:* Icarus , on the Moon* Icarus , a planetary science journal* 1566 Icarus, an asteroid* IKAROS, a interplanetary unmanned spacecraft...
’ flight”, “War friends”, “European night”, “Our needed language” and his famous work “Laza Kostić
Laza Kostic
Laza Kostić was a Serbian poet, prose writer, lawyer, philosopher, polyglot, publicist, and politician, considered to be one of the greatest minds of Serbian literature.-Biography:...
’s enchantments and spites”. In the latter book, for which he had a hard time to publish it and did not manage to do so during his lifetime, Vinaver showed his master skills for debate and reached heights in criticizing Serbian cultural mediocrity and mythomania.
Even though he was rather modernist, particularly vis-à-vis national culture, he remained miscomprehended for half of a century, suppressed and concealed, and his book “Enchantments” was not republished until 2006. In this significant book, Vinaver manages to represent complete Serbian artistic and spiritual heritage that includes both culture and mythology
Mythology
The term mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths. As examples, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece...
, and beside portraying famous poet Laza Kostić, the book is an auto-poetic work, combining artistic-intellectual curiosity, encyclopedic knowledge as well as Vinaver's own strong and distinct identity. It contains complete Kostić’s biography and writings, historical context which they originated from and notes of his contemporaries, but the book also contains Vinaver's writings of music, verses structure, linguistic possibilities, melody of language and contemporary poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
in general.
Stanislav Vinaver died in Niška Banja
Niška Banja
Niška Banja is a spa town in southern Serbia, located east of its third largest city, Niš. The municipality of Niška Banja is one of the five urban municipalities of the City of Niš...
, Serbia, on 1st August 1955.