Literary History and National Philology. Towards the Scholarly Image of the Literary Historian Tihomir Ostojić

Abstract

This paper presents and discusses the main features of Tihomir Ostojic's approach to literary history. From the synthetic review of a period of Serbian literature, over books and papers on Serbian classics such as Dositej Obradovic, Zaharije Orfelin, Branko Radicevic, and Jovan Sterija Popovic, to his scholarly pinnacle embodied in the work entitled Istorija srpske književnosti ( The History of the Serbian Literature ). It is impossible to comprehend his creative oeuvre without taking into account his wide range of interest in the cultural and literary matters of his age. The list of his occupations comprises Enlightenment activities nationwide, the position of a grammar-school teacher, efforts aimed at reforming cultural institutions and literary journals, performing the duties of the secretary of the Matica Srpska cultural institution and editor of its oldest gazette respectively, to be crowned with the post of dean of the Faculty of Philosophy of Skopje (Macedonia). With regard to presenting Serbian literature in terms of literary history, Ostojic focuses on the understanding of its revival. Viewing the act of revival as a long-term process, Ostojic relates its beginning to the community of Catholic Serbs in Dubrovnik, and its end to the workings of Vuk Stefanovic Karadžic in the first half of the 19th century, emphasising the significance of the closing stages of this process. For that reason, he pointed out the need for researching Serbian literature and culture from the Great Serb Migration of 1690 to the publishing of first books by Dositej Obradovic in 1783. Although the latter's oeuvre (as well as his overall spiritual radiance) was crucial in terms of establishing new Serbian literature, Ostojic, unlike other literary historians, places Obradovic in the middle period of Serbian literature in general. A representative of the golden age of Serbian literary history, with some of the most prolific historians as his contemporaries, Tihomir Ostojic builds his concept of literary history upon the platform of Serbian national philology, whose founder is Vuk Stefanovic Karadžic. From the perspective of Serbian studies, he deals with Serbian literary and cultural history, taking into account the wholeness of the spiritual enterprise of Serbian people. At the time of revival of authentic Serbian studies, the oeuvre of Tihomir Ostojic emerges in its full capacity of a scholarly founded timeless classic. Without an insight into the work of this literary historian, it is impossible to clearly view Serbian literature in its integrity.