Vasko Popa’s Poetry as an Object of Negative Critical Assessment

Abstract

This article examines the genesis and the types of critical reactions regarding Vasko Popa’s poetry. In that sense, it recalls that the nega­tive critical treatment of this poetry is based, on the one hand – on the misunderstanding of modern poetry, and on the other – on the ideological interpretive procedure and evaluation criteria. Empha­sised non-literary political criteria were first used during the conflicts between the so-called ‘realists’ and ‘modernists’ in the period of the 1950s, and then at a time when significant works of Serbian literature – in foreign academic reception – were actualised in the context of the war events of the last decade of the 20th century, and with the goal – in accordance with the malignant idea of unilateral Serbian guilt in Western political discourse – of ascribing Serbian literature the role of instigator of nationalistic politics.