and Visual Arts 1900 – 1918 ) ] by Jelena Milojković Đurić

The voluminous monographic study by Jelena Milojković Đurić (Sremski Karlovci – Novi Sad, Izdavačka knjižarnica Zorana Stojanovića, 2008, 238) is dedicated to presenting the development of Serbian literature, music, visual arts and theatre at the beginning of the 20th century. It searches for the spirit of the time, which can be recognized primarily through comparativist research. The aim of this study, in the author’s words, is the desire to read and understand more accurately the works of art which were emerging at the time because in that way one can also gain a perception of the artists who created them, and define the ‘extent of their belonging to their time (...), which they authenticated and made relevant by their views and choices in their artistic lives, and often in their personal and socialpolitical ones too’ (5). Although the contents and the manner of thematization through the seven chapters of this study imply that the development trends in various areas – visual arts, literature, music and theatre (chapters two to five) – are analyzed as separate entities, the comparativist approach is consequently applied in all the parts of the book, and parallels are drawn on the notional and semantic plane of various phenomena in different branches of artistic activity. However, the comprehensiveness of the approach is the most prominent in the first chapter of the study (Skerlić’s, Jovanović’s and Mokranjac’s period in the development of Serbian culture, a suggestion for new periodization) and in the last two, which integrally illuminate artistic events in the beginning of the second decade of the century and during the First World War. As the result of such a set-up, the reader encounters a very interesting problematized study of the development processes in Serbian culture and art during a period of tumultuous changes and intensive growth. Jelena Milojković Đurić possesses a unique literary talent. Using some of the language constructions and expressions from the times she writes about, without the standard reference apparatus (the sources are referred to parenthetically, but in an unusual way, with integral data instead of abbreviations), she shapes a dynamic text which enlivens the images of a by-gone era, the portraits of the protagonists, their mutual relationships, the social circumstances and broader context of events. Attention is focused on the key events and thus the material is chosen carefully. The selected opuses of numerous creators are skilfully examined, usually in a dialogue with the critics who lived during that period. Reviews