Edited by Aleksandar Bo\u0161kovi\u0107 and Steven Teref<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Published by Academic Studies Press<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is the first-ever English language anthology of zenithism, an eclectic avant-garde movement unique to the Yugoslav region that existed 1921\u20131927. Zenithism\u2019s founder Ljubomir Mici\u0107 envisioned the movement as a fusion of futurism, dada, constructivism, expressionism, and proto-surrealism, driven by what he called the \u201cbarbarogenius.\u201d A hallmark of the movement was its embrace of cross-genre writing, from Ljubomir Mici\u0107\u2019s cin\u00e9-poem Rescue Vehicle<\/em> and Branko Ve Poljanski\u2019s lyric novel 77 Suicides<\/em> to MID\u2019s lyric philosophic treatise The Sexual Equilibrium of Money<\/em>. The zenithists promoted their ideas through their journal Zenit<\/em> and press Biblioteka Zenit. Reaching American readers for the first time, this anthology sheds light on an untapped chapter in European modernism ideal for the general and academic reader alike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe editors and translators of this volume\u2014barbarogeniuses every one\u2014bring to life the zany revolutionary spirit and exuberance of Zenithism. The anthology is a feast of energy and creativity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2013 Ellen Elias-Bursa\u0107, Literary Translator and Independent Scholar<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBo\u0161kovi\u0107\u2019s and Teref\u2019s expertly edited and well-translated anthology will contribute to the creation of a fuller picture of the European avant-garde. By demonstrating how original movements were flourishing outside of the main European languages, this anthology invites us to re-map an important period in literary history.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2013Zoran Milutinovi\u0107, Professor of South Slav Literature and Modern Literary Theory, University College London<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe publication of Zenithism (1921\u20131927)\u2014A Yugoslav Avant-Garde Anthology<\/em> adds an important piece to the complex picture of interwar avant-garde in Europe. For a long time, zenithism was a missing piece in this history. Centered on the journal Zenit<\/em>, this movement was the most prominent and internationally active avant-garde formation in Yugoslavia between World Wars. Aleksandar Bo\u0161kovi\u0107\u2019s and Steven Teref\u2019s excellent selection and expert translation of texts published in Zenit<\/em> offer a vivid portrayal of the literary and visual production of this group. Their critical framing of the whole zenithist enterprise is essential. It situates this group within the European avant-garde at its peak, and places it within the dynamic social, cultural, and economic processes in the interwar Yugoslavia. As a result, we finally have a comprehensive, well-researched, and documented portrayal of zenithism in English. This volume will be indispensable for future research of the avant-garde currents in Central Europe, across the continent, and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2013 Branislav Jakovljevi\u0107, Sara Hart Kimball Professor of the Humanities, Department of Theater and Performance Studies, Stanford University<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is the first English translation of almost the entire opus of zenithism (1921\u20131927), the original Yugoslav contribution to high modernist movements. \u2013 Tatjana Aleksi\u0107, Associate Professor of South Slavic and Comparative Literature, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The zenithist concept of the \u2018barbarogenius\u2019 and barbarism challenged the notions of cultural value that, as the collection\u2019s editors state, ‘has been created, reproduced, and re-capitalized as a cultural means for colonial oppression and economic domination.’
Through carefully done translations and exhaustive introductions, the anthology spans a variety of texts\u2014from poetry to the short novel, to flyers, to critical reviews, constructing a narrative about zenithism as an authentically Balkan utopian cultural project, as well as a socially oriented art. It contextualizes zenithism in a novel way that has not been done in previous studies of this movement, by emphasizing not only the zenithists\u2019 practices of textual hybridity and their relations to film and radio, but also their so-called cultural banditry and conceptual writing, as well as by creating a connection with Yugoslav neo-avant-garde literary and artistic practices from the second half of the twentieth century. This is a definitive collection that should become an essential text for anybody interested in modernism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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