Tema ljubavi i strategija idile u poeziji Mihaila Vitkovića

Abstract

The introductory part of the paper gives an insight into the history of the poetical work and the genre diversity of Vitkovic's poetry in Serbian language, with a review of its critical reception in different epochs. The central part of the text defines the corps of love poems and the corps of reflexive ones, in the second group outlining those with the theme of idyll. The discussion is primarily dedicated to the poetry of love, and through the interpretation of individual poems it is aimed at defining its poetic determinations, which has been found to emanate from a wide spectrum of literary heritage from Rococo/Biedermeier, via Sentimentalism - with Verterism and Weltschmerz as its ultimate derivatives - all way to the images of romantic unity of the lyrical subject and occurrences in nature. In the latter case, Vitkovic's poem not only anticipates significant achievements of high Romanticism in Serbian literature, but also serves as an indicator of the unfair neglecting of the early appearances of romantic poetry in our literary historiography. As a recognizable poetic constant of his love poems, the absence of idyll appears, which will find the space for its thematization in reflexive poetry. This category of poems is therefore characterized by a balanced emotional status, without particular passions which would destroy the existential integrity of the lyrical hero, and they mediate the vision of the total fulfillment of an individual in unmistakable harmony with the immediate environment and nature. These two groups of poems counterpoint a global view of the world in Vitkovic's poetry, implying that the lyrical hero, depending on his emotional status, exists only in one of its two realities.