Psychoanalysis in Serbian Literary Criticism and Culture: Prolegomena

Abstract

Though the dialogue of psychoanalysis and literature spans more than a century, within Serbian literary criticism it largely remains unrecognized — systematic and nuanced research is yet to be done. Searching for a more credible representation of the forms of psychoanalytic presence in Serbian literary criticism, in this paper the authors opted for a panoramic yet synthetic platform that locates main methodological issues, historical zeniths and vectors of development, and main actors and approaches unavoidable and necessary for a reconstruction of the interdisciplinary dialogue between psychoanalysis and literature in twentieth-century Serbian culture. Outlining three waves and two zeniths of psychoanalytical tendencies, the paper historically situates and connects oeuvres, approaches and conceptual frameworks of a number of critics, from Belgrade surrealists and Dimitrije Mitrinović, to the contemporary hermeneutical coalescence of psychoanalytical, literary and cultural thought.