The Serbian experimental movement
Signalism had the luck that three doctoral dissertations
were defended on it.
The first dissertation with the theme SYGNALIZM
- PROPOZYCJA SERBSKIEJ POEZJI EKSPERIMENTALNEJ
(SIGNALISM - THE PROGRAM OF THE SERBIAN EXPERIMENTAL
POETRY) was defended, at the famous Jagiellónski
University of Krakow, by Julian, Kornhauser
(born 1946), in 1980. The University published
the Kornhauser’s thesis as a book in 1981.
Julian Kornhauser, a noted Polish poet, critic
and prose writer, is now a professor at the
department of Yugoslav studies of Krakow University.
In his dissertation he interprets the manifests
of Signalism very cleverly, and gives an outstanding.
stylistic analysis of all genres (both verbal
and visual ones) of signalist poetry.
The Second doctoral dissertation about Signalism
was defended by Zivan Zivkovic at the Philological
Faculty of Belgrade in 1991. His thesis SIGNALISM:
GENESIS, POETICS AND ARTISTIC PRACTICE was published
in 1994. Zivkovic (1952-1996) is was docent
at the department for modern Serbian literature
of the Philological Faculty of Belgrade. In
his voluminous dissertation (340 pages of great
format), this theorist analyzes carefully the
genres in Signalism, as well as numerous works
by signalist authors (artists). Besides the
dissertation he also published two books devoted
to this Serbian creative movement: ORBITS OF
SIGNALISM (1985) and TESTIMONIES ON AVANT-GARDE
(1992), and at soon his book FROM THE WORD TO
THE SIGN devoted to a new investigating of Signalism,
Visual Poetry and Mail Art will be published
by Signal.
In this thematic block of our journal, several
prominent Serbian theorists and critics of older
and middle generation elucidate the versatile
creative person of dr. Zivan Zivkovic with a
special regard to his dissertation (study) SIGNALISM:
GENESIS, POETICS AND ARTISTIC PRACTICE.
The third doctorial dissertation AVANT-GARDE,
NEO-AVANT-GARDE AND SIGNALISM was defended by
Milivoje Pavlovic (born 1947) at the Faculty
of Philosophy, Kosovska Mitrovica in 2002. Before
this dissertation this author published two
books on Signalism: “The World in Signals” (1966)
and “The Keys of Signalist Poetics” (1999).
Biserka Rajcic
KORNHAUSER'S STUDY
The study by Julian Kornhauser, a poet, critic
and professor of Yugoslav literature of XX century
at Jagiellónski University in Krakow, ‘'Signalism.
Program of Serbian experimental poetry’’, is
a result of several years of study of Serbian
avant-garde poetry, especially of its direction
Signalism. It has been published as a 47th volume
of the edition of Jagiellónski Universuty Habilitation
discussions. Kornhauser's study on Signalism
consists of three chapters: Convention of Artistic
Experiment, Signalism of Miroljub Todorovic
- Programs and Manifestos and Stylistic Approaches
to Signalist Poetry. In the first chapter the
author deals with the notion of artistic experiment,
kinds of experiments, notion of avant-garde
and neo-avant-garde, treating Signalism as an
avant-garde, i.e. as a direction originated
after the World War II, with the problem of
convergence in experimental verse. This chapter
is, therefore, a theoretical ascertaining of
the problem he deals with in the next chapters.
The second and main chapter, dedicated to Miroljub
Todorovic, follows the development of European
avant-garde poetry after the World War II and
connections, i.e. similarities and differences
of Todorovic's signalist poetry with avant-garde
directions in the world. Then it gives a cross-section
of basic phases of his poetry: Scientism, from
Scientism to Signalism, classification and typology
of Signalism: phenomenological, stochastic,
concrete, visual, computer, kinetic, slang etc.
The third chapter is dedicated to a stylistic
analysis of signalist poetry according to the
types cited, ie verbal and visual aspects of
that poetry, on the example of Todorovic's poetry
as well as that of other Yugoslav poets, linked
in different ways to Signalism: Resin - Tucic,
Despotov, Rosulj, Lj. Jocic, V. Radovanovic
and others.
In short, Kornhauser has dealt primarily with
the question of how a new quality of poetry
influences a change of mind, and whether there
is such an influence at all. For, as we have
known, the notion themselves have not changed,
but a different "speaking" about them
brings new contents in poetry. The awareness
of a change of literal material brought about
changes in the theory of literature area. The
basic preoccupation of that awareness is dealing
with action, i.e. with how a work originates.
Kornhauser's approach to signalist poetry belongs
right to that school, uses its methodology and
terminology. It does so very consequently. In
that sense his study is the most serious work
on the most essential questions of Signalism,
a work that could serve to other students of
the most recent poetry as an example how an
artistic work can be studied in a strictly scientific
way.
Dragoljub P. Djuric
DISSERTATION ON SIGNALISM
Zivan Zivkovic: Signalism: Genesis, Poetics,
and Artistic Practice, “Vuk Karadzic”, Paracin,
1994.
The study of Dr Zivan Zivkovic ‘’Signalism:
Genesis, Poetics and Artistic Practice’’ is
a somewhat summarized version of his doctoral
dissertation he defended at the Faculty of Philology
in Belgrade on April 29. 1991. where he is a
lecturer at the department of Serb Literature.
While working on this study, Dr Zivkovic had
two significant advantages which in the best
sense of the word reflected on the quality of
his work, i.e. the level of his scientific approach
to Signalism and the truly impressive exhaustive
information he has mastered as its author.
The first Zivkovic’s advantage is the result
of the fact that, being a literary critic, he
was compelled to follow the highly dynamic creative
practice of Signalism, which could be marked
as continuity of novelty, and which implies
continuous changes of creative methods and artistic
instruments. Founder of Signalism, Miroljub
Todorovic alone, published about thirty books
of poetry, hardly two among them by applying
the same method. This means that a critic must
first assess each book of a signalist creator
from the point of view of theory of literature,
to determine its true determinants and define
its aesthetic status, in order to be able to
evaluate it as a work of art. Moreover, this
cannot be done without a previously determined
criterion adapted to the new genre of artistic
creation, but this criterion must be narrower,
but at the same time a more precise measuring
instrument of a general aesthetic criterion.
In other words, Dr Zivkovic first had to be
a literary theoretician and a scientific interpreter
of Signalism, defining its criteria, and only
then a literary critic, and as such, a good
mediator between the new work of art and the
reading public. It should be emphasized that
Dr Zivkovic has acted like this for ten long
years before he defended his doctoral thesis.
Literary theoretical, aesthetic, criteria and
critical experience acquired in this way was
presented in a large number of reviews, essays,
articles and in two absolutely unavoidable books:
‘’Orbits of Signalism’’ (1985), and “Testimonies
on Avant-garde” (1992).
Scrupulous as a literary critic, in his text
“Anatomy of Anathematizing Avant-garde” (foreword
to the book by Miroljub Todorovic “Cocks from
Bajlon-Square”, Belgrade, 1986) Zivkovic energetically
defended Signalism against malevolent, in fact
plagiaristic claiming of the achievements of
Signalism by the so-called “poetry of change”
in Serb literature. In yet another text, more
expressive than in the others, ”Mixing Quicksand”
(1988), Zivkovic raises his voice in defense
of Signalism, against misconception, negligence
and misinformation. It refers to a paradox -
a text full of praise which, due to ignorance,
lack of knowledge and light-mindedness of its
author, is harmful because it presents the creative
spirit of Signalism in a distorted light. Based
on data, incontestable procedure of producing
evidence for his arguments, Zivkovic saved Signalism
from the “praise”. This is just another instance
which shows that Zivkovic in a certain sense
acts as a co-creator of Signalism. In fact,
that is what enabled him to write about this
movement with most directly experienced knowledge,
which is by no means a negligible advantage
when speaking of avant-garde experimental poetry
which he always had a subtle hearing and a reliable
eye for.
If Zivkovic has acquired the described advantage
solely by his own self-sacrificing diligent
work which made him a mature literary critic
and scholar, he owes the second advantage greatly
to the founder of Signalism Miroljub Todorovic,
actually the Signalist Documentation Centre
in Belgrade, a treasury of comprehensive data
on Signalism which was put at Zivkovic’s disposal
during his entire writing of this brilliant
book. This was a colossal time- saving opportunity
for its author, which enabled him to devote
the time and energy which would have been necessary
for collecting material entirely to writing.
It is self-understood that the data and documents
from this treasury demanded selection and classification,
which Zivkovic made expertly and faultlessly.
As evident from the title of the book – ‘’Signalism:
Genesis, Poetics and Artistic Practice’’ - Zivkovic
set out to illuminate these three fundamental
properties of the movement from the aspect of
literary history, literary theory and aesthetics.
The first part of the book is devoted to the
issues of genesis and explicit poetics of Signalism.
Introductory notes in the first chapter, Genesis
of Signalism, is a conditio sine qua non
of further studying of the movement: they are
introductory, but they are also a strong foundation
of this scientific creation. This chapter discusses
post-modernism or neo-avant-garde and denial
of tradition, among other. The second chapter
is actually a very careful determination of
demarcation defined by its title: Signalism
in Relation to Historic Avant-garde. Here too,
Zivkovic is on solid ground of scientifically
verified facts. His previous book ‘’Challenges
of Avant-garde’’ published in 1986, made him
quite familiar with this sphere. The chapter
which follows, Appearance and Development of
Signalism is devoted, among other, to manifestos
of Signalism, their meaning and reflection on
the artistic practice of the movement. The journal
“Signal” deserved, according to Zivkovic’s assessment,
a whole chapter. All nine volumes of this journal
which was published for three years, are carefully
studied and their significance objectively evaluated.
The last chapter of the first part of the book,
Poetics of Signalism (manifestos and others
meta-poetic texts) is a synthesis of explicit
poetics of the movement. All conclusions reached
here are convincingly explained and properly
verified.
The second, longer part of this book titled
Genres in Signalism deals primarily with artistic
practice of the movement, but also with implicit
poetics of this avant-garde creative orientation.
An abundance of genres, types and subtypes (small
groups) of artistic creations illustrates the
impressive creative energy of this movement.
The best creations in each genre are minutely
analyzed with the stress on essential characteristics
of the type they belong to. Zivkovic manifested
an understanding for novelty and innate gift
for observing aesthetic values of complex artistic
creations in the analysis of works of art belonging
to each genre. His excellent knowledge of aesthetics
and broad culture helped him to establish quickly
and reliably an experienced aesthetic attitude
to each work of art, regardless of its being
verbal, visual or complex.
Poetics of each individual genre was determined
by Zivkovic partly in reference to manifestos
of Signalism and adequate meta-poetical texts,
and partly in reference to minute analyses of
representative artistic creations for each individual
genre. Chapters in this part of the book follow
each other in the following sequence: Signalist
Scientific Poetry, Phenomenological, Technological
and Ready-Made Poetry, Stochastic Poetry, Apeironistic
Poetry, Computer Poetry, Permutational (Variational)
and Statistical Poetry, Slang (Jargon) Poetry,
Haiku in Signalism, Visual, Gesture and Object
Poetry, Mail-Art in Signalism.
And finally, as a conclusion: by its approach
to the subject, profoundness of analysis, synthesis,
joint effects of adequate scientific methods,
composition, presentation of evidence, systematic,
and excellent choice of appendices, the doctor’s
thesis of Zivan Zivkovic, “Signalism: Genesis,
Poetics and Artistic Practice” is an exceptionally
valuable scientific work. It is not just a brilliant
foundation for further studying dictated by
historical changes. It is much more than that:
it is a deeply founded scientific synthesis
on Signalism as an avant-garde creative movement
in Serbian poetry and culture.
Radovan Vuckovic
RADICAL DISPROVAL OF TRADITION
The monograph (dissertation) entitled AVANT-GARDE,
NEO-AVANT-GARDE AND SIGNALISM by Milivoje Pavlovic,
is a synthetically and, at the same time, analytical
scholarly and critical work. Pavlovic synthetically
sets out basic data on the avant-garde and neo-avant-garde
and various modifications of the term, which
called for theoretical and literary-historical
construal of their essence and classification
period-wise. Deriving from previous synthetically
accounts on the avant-garde and neo-avant-garde
a definition of Signalism as a form of neo-avant-garde
in the second half of 20th century, influenced
by socio-cultural factors, primarily a technological
boom and an expansion of communication systems,
in a second, more comprehensive part of the
monograph, Pavlovic analytically depicted a
variety of genres of Signalist poetry. In order
to present and essential aspirations of the
Signalist neo-avant-garde to forge a new poetic
language, the author was also coerced to deal
with the literary genres problem – so as to
present the diversity of a radical disproval
of the previous tradition.
As expected, in the light of the inter-disciplinary
and meta-textual character and openness of Signalist
poetry, Pavlovic interpreted it in an international
context and in relation to the interaction between
and close intertwining of various arts (primarily
visual arts and literature). To that end, he
referred to a vast number of works by domestic
and foreign authors and invested extensive efforts
into portraying, in the comprehensive manner,
the creative phenomenon which is still to be
fully comprehended and construed in the future.
Pavlovic did so competently and knowledgeably
so that, owning to its comprehensiveness as
well as his lengthy and studious research, in-depth
analysis and sound assessments and inferences,
his extensive monograph will be an unavoidable
point of reference for further research into
the topic and a reliable guide for the literary-minded
public to the subject which is by no means simple
to fathom and embrace.
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