Momčilo Nastasijević facts for kids
Momčilo Nastasijević (born September 23, 1894 – died February 13, 1938) was a Serbian writer. He wrote poems, novels, and plays. He was born in Gornji Milanovac in Serbia. His works were published between the two World Wars. He spent most of his life teaching at a high school in Belgrade.
During his life, Momčilo Nastasijević was not as famous as some other writers. However, his work is now getting more attention. He did not write a huge amount of work. His poetry was very close to music. This led to a great partnership between Momčilo and his brother, Svetomir Nastasijević, who was a music composer.
Contents
About Momčilo Nastasijević
Momčilo Nastasijević was born in Gornji Milanovac, Serbia, in 1894. He studied French and literature at the University of Belgrade. He worked as a French teacher at a high school in Belgrade for most of his life. Besides poetry, Nastasijević also wrote essays, stories, and plays. He was also a friend of Gavrilo Princip.
His Unique Writing Style
Nastasijević's poetry is often called "hermetic." This means it used very personal symbols. These symbols could be hard for regular readers to understand. He focused a lot on the sound of words, trying to make his poems sound like music. His poems were short and packed with meaning.
He used words and sentence structures from old Serbian language. This included old folk speech and old literary texts. In his stories and plays, he used a very short and sharp style. His sentences were often incomplete but full of meaning. This made his writing sound strange and mysterious. Nastasijević was a very unique short story writer of his time. He used the same special style in his stories as he did in his poems.
Why He Was Not Well-Known
Even though he published poems regularly, he was not widely noticed. He even published his own book of poetry, Pet lirskih krugova (Five Lyrical Cycles), in 1932. One reason for this was his different ideas about poetry and the Serbian language. His ideas did not fit with the popular writing styles of the time in Belgrade.
Another reason was his writing style. It was very condensed and used unique images. This made him a difficult poet to read. Especially for those who wanted a simple meaning from poetry. Some critics even said his work was "hermetic" because it was so hard to understand. He also tried to create a national and religious philosophy through his works. He found the roots of this philosophy in the deep feelings of his nation.
Momčilo Nastasijević was understood and admired mostly by his closest friends. His mysterious poems and stories are still being studied today. This is mainly because of their unclear language. He passed away in Belgrade in 1938.
His Published Works
Momčilo Nastasijević's poems were first published in 1922. His first prose (stories) appeared in 1923. These were published in important Belgrade magazines. These included Srpski Knjižani Glasnik and Misao.
Plays and Music
Momčilo Nastasijević wrote several plays. These included three "lyrical dramas": Nedozvani (The Unevoked), Gospodar Mladenova čer (Master Mladen's Daughter), and Kod 'Večite slavine' (At 'The Eternal Tap'). He also wrote two musical dramas, Medjuluško blago (The Treasure of Medjulužje) and Djuradj Branković. Plus, he wrote a "ballet drama" called Zivi ognaj (Live Fire).
This collection of plays shows Serbia's contribution to a new European style of drama. This style was called Symbolist drama. It was different from the more common Naturalist theatre. Lyrical dramas were often like "musical dramas." They were created by composers like Richard Wagner for his operas.
The popularity of lyrical drama in the early 20th century led to poets and composers working together. Famous examples include Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Richard Strauss. Momčilo Nastasijević also worked closely with his brother, Svetomir Nastasijević, on these musical plays.
