Zenithism (1921-1927): A Yugoslav Avant-Garde Anthology

by Aleksandar Boskovic (Editor), Steven Teref (Editor)

Overview

This is the first-ever English language anthology of zenithism, an eclectic avant-garde movement unique to the Yugoslav region that existed 1921–1927. Zenithism’s founder Ljubomir Micić envisioned the movement as a fusion of futurism, dada, constructivism, expressionism, and proto-surrealism, driven by what he called the “barbarogenius.” A hallmark of the movement was its embrace of cross-genre writing, from Ljubomir Micić’s ciné-poem Rescue Vehicle and Branko Ve Poljanski’s lyric novel 77 Suicides to MID’s lyric philosophic treatise The Sexual Equilibrium of Money. The zenithists promoted their ideas through their journal Zenit and press Biblioteka Zenit. Reaching American readers for the first time, this anthology sheds light on an untapped chapter in European modernism ideal for the general and academic reader alike.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781644697221
Publisher:	Academic Studies Press
Publication date:	09/12/2023
Pages:	700
Product dimensions:	6.93(w) x 8.98(h) x 1.34(d)

About the Author

Aleksandar Bošković teaches at Columbia University. He is the author of The Poetic Humor in Vasko Popa’s Oeuvre (in Serbian, 2008) and co-editor of The Fine Feats of the Five Cockerels Gang (2022).

Steven Teref's translations include Ana Ristović's Directions for Use, shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award, Best Translated Book Award, and National Translation Award, and Novica Tadić's Assembly. His translations have appeared in The New Yorker, Brooklyn Rail, Columbia Journal, and elsewhere. He is a member of the Third Coast Translators Collective.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

List of Translators
List of Illustrations
Pronunciation Guide

Introduction: You Have to Be a Zenithist

The Barbarians are Coming, or a Savage Rhythm

Introduction
Man and Art (February 1921), Ljubomir Micić
The Manifesto of Zenithism (June 1921), Ljubomir Micić, Yvan Goll, and Boško Tokin
The Spirit of Zenithism (September 1921), Ljubomir Micić

The Barbarogenius, the Balkanization of Europe, and Cultural Nihilism

Introduction
Zenith Manifesto 1922 (February 1922), Ljubomir Micić
Zenithism as the Balkan Totalizer of New Life and New Art (February 1923), Ljubomir Micić
Effect on Defect (1923), Marijan Mikac

in the name of zenithism [foreword], Ljubomir Micić
here
360 ÷ 180 = 0
joyous lament zenith—specter a riot of atoms rush up the rope a poem for the twentieth dog a prayer of the blessed curse a fanatic’s nights of love bachelor tax against gossips man’s tango with a flea the guard on the rhine predicts effect on defect

from Archipenko: New Plastics (September 1923)

Toward Opticoplastics, Ljubomir Micić

Nemo propheta in patria (February 1924), Various anonymous

Zenithosophy: or the Energetics of Creative Zenithism (October 1924), Ljubomir Micić

Antisocial Art Needs to be Destroyed (December 1924), Ljubomir Micić

The New Art (December 1924), Ljubomir Micić
from The Monkey Phenomenon (1925)

The New Zenithist Art, Marijan Mikac

Airplane without an Engine (1925), Ljubomir Micić
Barbarism as Culture (November–December 1925), Risto Ratković
Anti-Europe (1926), Ljubomir Micić

Beyond-Sense and Anti-Europe the barbarogenius barbarian omelet hey slavs syphon—soda—blood radio in the balkans bim bam boom made in england avala, a tomb in the sky oh, balkan cavavan slender snakes blossom

Typogram (April 1926), Ljubomir Micić
Zenithism through the Prism of Marxism (December 1926), Dr. M. Rasinov (Ljubomir Micić)

The First Road of the Barbarogenius: Cinépoetry and the Radio-Film

Introduction
Cinema Poems (October 1920), Boško Tokin
Paris Burns (October 1921), Yvan Goll
Film and the Future of Humanity (December 1921), Branko Ve Poljanski
Shimmy at the Latin Quarter Graveyard (March 1922), Ljubomir Micić
Damn Your Hundred Gods (Rescue Car) (October 1922), Ljubomir Micić

Prologue by a Madman Before a Legion of Exceptionally Wise Flies
Categorical Imperative of the Zenithist School of Poetry
Zenithism: Second Attack of the Barbarians
Zenithist Barbarogenics in 30 Acts

from Radio-Film and the Zenithist Vertical of the Spirit (April 1923), Ljubomir Micić

The Second Road of the Barbarogenius: The Hybrid Novel, Prose Poetry, and the Serpentinella

Introduction
Here I Am! (January 1921), Branko Ve Poljanski (as Virgil Poljanski)
Under the Sign of the Circle (February 1921), Branko Ve Poljanski
A Lasso around the Holy Mother’s Neck (March 1922), Branko Ve Poljanski
The Beauty of a Horse and the Face of Queen Zita (March 1922), Branko Ve Poljanski
Dada Causal Dada (May 1922), Branko Ve Poljanski
Codes of the Dada-Jok State (May 1922), Branko Ve Poljanski
33 Seconds (May 1922), Branko Ve Poljanski
2 ÷ 2 = 1 (July–August 1922), Branko Ve Poljanski
Radiograms (1922), Branko Ve Poljanski
77 Suicides (1923), Branko Ve Poljanski
Panic under the Sun (1924), Branko Ve Poljanski

No!
C’mon, Now! [foreword], Ljubomir Micić
Manifesto
Alarm
On Train Tracks
Longing
At the Hair Salon
Graveyard Express
Poem #13
Trip to Brazil
Tick-Tock like a Crab in a Tailcoat
Blind Man Number 52
Arise
TB
Sing Sing We Ride the Himalayas
You, Belgrade, You
God Beefsteak
Joyous Poem

Topsy-Turvy (1926), Branko Ve Poljanski

S.O.S.

Manifesto
Contraidioticon
Eros
300,000 Punches per Second
The Panopticon Passes through a Mirror
The Laughter of Rifles
A Steamboat in the Appendix
Nihilon
Whistling Face
Mariner’s Bell
You Have Beautiful Eyes, Lucia
Dusk
Poem About Him

The Third Road of the Barbarogenius: Conceptual Writing

Introduction
The Sexual Equilibrium of Money (1925), MID
The Metaphysics of Nothing (1926), MID
Form Devours the Spirit [I] (April 1926), MID
Form Devours the Spirit [II] (May 1926), MID
A Tobacconist in Literature (November 15, 1925), Anonymous
Review of The Sexual Equilibrium of Money (April 1926), Anonymous
Review of The Metaphysics of Nothing (May 1926), Anonymous

The Barbarogenius at the Gates: Zenithist Theater, Soirées, and Public Interventions

Introduction
Zenithist Theater (Zagreb, December 16, 1922), Anonymous
The First Zenithist Soirée (Belgrade, January 3, 1923), Anonymous
The Second Zenithist Soirée (Zagreb, January 31, 1923), Anonymous
A Zenithist Soirée by Marijan Mikac (Petrinja, August 18, 1923), Anonymous
A Zenithist Evening of Sensation (April 1925), Branko Ve Poljanski
The Marinetti and Poljanski Dialogue (November–December 1925), Branko Ve Poljanski
Rabindranath Tagore and the Zenithist Protests (December 1926), Anonymous
Open Letter to Rabindranath Tagore (December 1926), Ljubomir Micić, and Branko Ve Poljanski

The Nadir of Zenithism

Introduction
The Red Rooster (1927), Branko Ve Poljanski

Dogs Bark and Poets Sing
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

Afterword: The Zenithist Legacy

Bibliography
Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“The editors and translators of this volume—barbarogeniuses every one—bring to life the zany revolutionary spirit and exuberance of Zenithism. The anthology is a feast of energy and creativity.”

– Ellen Elias-Bursać, Literary Translator and Independent Scholar

“Bošković’s and Teref’s expertly edited and well-translated anthology will contribute to the creation of a fuller picture of the European avant-garde. By demonstrating how original movements were flourishing outside of the main European languages, this anthology invites us to re-map an important period in literary history.”

–Zoran Milutinović, Professor of South Slav Literature and Modern Literary Theory, UniversityCollege London

“The publication of Zenithism (1921–1927)—A Yugoslav Avant-Garde Anthology adds an important piece to the complex picture of interwar avant-garde in Europe. For a long time, zenithism was a missing piece in this history. Centered on the journal Zenit, this movement was the most prominent and internationally active avant-garde formation in Yugoslavia between World Wars. Aleksandar Bošković’s and Steven Teref’s excellent selection and expert translation of texts published in Zenit offer a vivid portrayal of the literary and visual production of this group. Their critical framing of the whole zenithist enterprise is essential. It situates this group within the European avant-garde at its peak, and places it within the dynamic social, cultural, and economic processes in the interwar Yugoslavia. As a result, we finally have a comprehensive, well-researched, and documented portrayal of zenithism in English. This volume will be indispensable for future research of the avant-garde currents in Central Europe, across the continent, and beyond.”

– Branislav Jakovljević, Sara Hart Kimball Professor of the Humanities, Department of Theater and Performance Studies, Stanford University

“This is the first English translation of almost the entire opus of zenithism (1921–1927), the original Yugoslav contribution to high modernist movements.

The zenithist concept of the ‘barbarogenius’ and barbarism challenged the notions of cultural value that, as the collection’s editors state, 'has been created, reproduced, and re-capitalized as a cultural means for colonial oppression and economic domination.'

Through carefully done translations and exhaustive introductions, the anthology spans a variety of texts—from poetry to the short novel, to flyers, to critical reviews, constructing a narrative about zenithism as an authentically Balkan utopian cultural project, as well as a socially oriented art. It contextualizes zenithism in a novel way that has not been done in previous studies of this movement, by emphasizing not only the zenithists’ practices of textual hybridity and their relations to film and radio, but also their so-called cultural banditry and conceptual writing, as well as by creating a connection with Yugoslav neo-avant-garde literary and artistic practices from the second half of the twentieth century. This is a definitive collection that should become an essential text for anybody interested in modernism.”

– Tatjana Aleksić, Associate Professor of South Slavic and Comparative Literature, Universityof Michigan, Ann Arbor

Editorial Reviews

The editors and translators of this volume—barbarogeniuses every one—bring to life the zany revolutionary spirit and exuberance of Zenithism. The anthology is a feast of energy and creativity.”

– Ellen Elias-Bursać, Literary Translator and Independent Scholar

“Bošković’s and Teref’s expertly edited and well-translated anthology will contribute to the creation of a fuller picture of the European avant-garde. By demonstrating how original movements were flourishing outside of the main European languages, this anthology invites us to re-map an important period in literary history.”

–Zoran Milutinović, Professor of South Slav Literature and Modern Literary Theory, UniversityCollege London

“The publication of Zenithism (1921–1927)—A Yugoslav Avant-Garde Anthology adds an important piece to the complex picture of interwar avant-garde in Europe. For a long time, zenithism was a missing piece in this history. Centered on the journal Zenit, this movement was the most prominent and internationally active avant-garde formation in Yugoslavia between World Wars. Aleksandar Bošković’s and Steven Teref’s excellent selection and expert translation of texts published in Zenit offer a vivid portrayal of the literary and visual production of this group. Their critical framing of the whole zenithist enterprise is essential. It situates this group within the European avant-garde at its peak, and places it within the dynamic social, cultural, and economic processes in the interwar Yugoslavia. As a result, we finally have a comprehensive, well-researched, and documented portrayal of zenithism in English. This volume will be indispensable for future research of the avant-garde currents in Central Europe, across the continent, and beyond.”

– Branislav Jakovljević, Sara Hart Kimball Professor of the Humanities, Department of Theater and Performance Studies, Stanford University

“This is the first English translation of almost the entire opus of zenithism (1921–1927), the original Yugoslav contribution to high modernist movements.

The zenithist concept of the ‘barbarogenius’ and barbarism challenged the notions of cultural value that, as the collection’s editors state, 'has been created, reproduced, and re-capitalized as a cultural means for colonial oppression and economic domination.'

Through carefully done translations and exhaustive introductions, the anthology spans a variety of texts—from poetry to the short novel, to flyers, to critical reviews, constructing a narrative about zenithism as an authentically Balkan utopian cultural project, as well as a socially oriented art. It contextualizes zenithism in a novel way that has not been done in previous studies of this movement, by emphasizing not only the zenithists’ practices of textual hybridity and their relations to film and radio, but also their so-called cultural banditry and conceptual writing, as well as by creating a connection with Yugoslav neo-avant-garde literary and artistic practices from the second half of the twentieth century. This is a definitive collection that should become an essential text for anybody interested in modernism.”

– Tatjana Aleksić, Associate Professor of South Slavic and Comparative Literature, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

From the Publisher