Skender Kulenovic
Encyclopedia
Skender Kulenović was a Bosnian
poet, novelist and dramatist.
, when Bosnia and Herzegovina
was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Kulenović family was a Muslim land-owning family, though Skender’s parents ran a rented hotel and a grocery shop. Skender was the third of four sons (one of whom died in infancy) and one daughter. In 1921, impoverished by the land reforms brought in by the new Kingdom of Yugoslavia
, his family moved to the central Bosnian town of Travnik
, his mother’s birthplace. Here Skender Kulenović became a day-boy at the Jezuitska klasična gimnazija (the local Jesuit Grammar School). Here too, he wrote his first poems, culminating in the publication of a set of sonnets (Ocvale primule, or Withered Primroses) in a 1927-1928 school almanac.
In 1930, the Kulenović family recovered a little of their former prosperity – enough to enable Skender and his sister Ćamila to continue their education. Skender registered to study law at Zagreb University – the main reason, as he admitted, being that the Law Faculty allowed students to do the bulk of their studying at home. When in Zagreb
he became inspired by leftist ideas, joining the Yugoslav Communist Party (KPJ) of which his elder brother, the painter Muhamed Kulenović, was already a member, in 1935. In the same year he gave up his law studies to focus on journalism and literary work. Over the next four years he published essays and short stories in various journals, including Putokaz (Signpost), a journal of which he was a founder member.
This was a time of increasing political tension in the first Yugoslav state. Externally, the authoritarian Regency of Prince Pavle was trying to balance popular pro-French and pro-British sentiments with a need to maintain good relations with the country’s Fascist Italian and Nazi German neighbours. Internally, political life was becoming increasingly dominated by Serb-Croat hostility; in 1939, a vain attempt was made to defuse this by imposing a bipartite federal system, under which most of Bosnia
became Croatia
n territory. In late 1939 or early 1940, Skender Kulenović was expelled from the KPJ for having refused to sign an open letter criticising the government and advocating autonomy for Bosnia and Herzegovina
– a decision which prevented him from publishing in many of the journals he had worked with until then. In 1940 he married his first wife, Ana Prokop.
In March and April 1941, Prince Pavle’s balancing act finally failed: he was deposed in a popular pro-Western military coup, upon which the Nazis invaded and occupied Yugoslavia
. Muhamed Kulenović was immediately imprisoned as a KPJ member; in July, he was shot after an escape attempt. In November the same year, Skender joined Josip Broz Tito
’s Partisans
, and was readmitted into the Communist Party. In 1942, just after the German summer offensive had narrowly failed to wipe out the Partisan army, he composed perhaps his most famous poem, “Stojanka Majka Knežopoljka” (“Stojanka, the mother from Knežopolje”), a modernist Partisan version of the traditional Bosnian lament with strong elements of the Serbian folk-epic. In the same year, Skender’s remaining brother Muzafer was executed in Belgrade
.
While in the Partisan forces, Kulenović also edited various newspapers and journals, continued to publish, and helped set up a theatre group. It was here, in 1944, that he fell in love with Vera Crvenčanin, who was to become his second wife. In 1945, Skender Kulenović was appointed Drama Director of the National Theatre in newly-liberated Sarajevo
. In 1947 he and Vera moved to Belgrade, which was to remain their home until his death. The postwar years he devoted largely to drama and journalism: he wrote several successful theatre plays, but also a number of short stories, essays and poems, and edited various literary and non-literary journals. In 1954, after having published an essay by the dissident Milovan Đilas, he was sacked as editor of the journal Nova misao (New Thought). Though he was to continue with his theatrical work, this, with the death of his father in the same year, dealt a severe blow to his confidence and self-esteem.
Kulenović’s long contact with the city of Mostar
began in 1956, when he stayed there during the production of his play Djelidba (Division). In 1959 he published “Stećak”, the first of his forty Sonnets. He also traveled to Egypt
, which inspired a series of travelogues – and, later, the sonnet Vaze (Vases). 1968 saw the publication of the first twenty Soneti (Sonnets). Soneti II, the second set of twenty sonnets, followed in 1974. In 1977 his novel Ponornica (Lost River) appeared. He was working on a sequel when he fell ill late that year. After one last stay in Mostar, he returned to Belgrade in January 1978, when he died of heart failure.
He was featured on the 0.50 Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark
bill, which has been withdrawn from circulation and replaced with coins.
age: born into a Bosnian Muslim family, educated in the Catholic tradition and living in the Serbia
n capital. Just as his political ethos was one of pan-Yugoslav unity in Tito’s communism, so his cultural roots were embedded in the Ottoman
, Croatian
and Serbian traditions equally. Some Bosniaks
and Serbs categorise him as a Bosniak poet and a Serbian poet respectively – a tendency which, the Sarajevo
critic Ivan Lovrenović claims, “diminishes and degrades” the status of Kulenović and writers like him. One might also say, however, that his roots in all three traditions makes him a Bosnian
(rather than a Bosniak) poet par excellence, for these were the three traditions that form the weft of culture in Bosnia. But this does not prevent him from also being seen as a Yugoslav poet – or, more precisely, as one culturally at home throughout the Serbo-Croat speaking region.
Bosnians
Bosnians are people who reside in, or come from, Bosnia and Herzegovina. By the modern state definition a Bosnian can be anyone who holds citizenship of the state. This includes, but is not limited to, members of the constituent ethnic groups of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Bosniaks, Bosnian Serbs and...
poet, novelist and dramatist.
Background
Skender Kulenović was born in 1910 in the Bosnian town of Bosanski PetrovacBosanski Petrovac
Bosanski Petrovac is a town in western Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is also the name of the municipality. The town and municipality are part of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Una-Sana Canton.-People:...
, when Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Kulenović family was a Muslim land-owning family, though Skender’s parents ran a rented hotel and a grocery shop. Skender was the third of four sons (one of whom died in infancy) and one daughter. In 1921, impoverished by the land reforms brought in by the new Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a state stretching from the Western Balkans to Central Europe which existed during the often-tumultuous interwar era of 1918–1941...
, his family moved to the central Bosnian town of Travnik
Travnik
Travnik is a city and municipality in central Bosnia and Herzegovina, 90 km west of Sarajevo. It is the capital of the Central Bosnia Canton, and is located in the Travnik Municipality. Travnik today has some 27,000 residents, with a metro population that is probably close to 70,000 people...
, his mother’s birthplace. Here Skender Kulenović became a day-boy at the Jezuitska klasična gimnazija (the local Jesuit Grammar School). Here too, he wrote his first poems, culminating in the publication of a set of sonnets (Ocvale primule, or Withered Primroses) in a 1927-1928 school almanac.
In 1930, the Kulenović family recovered a little of their former prosperity – enough to enable Skender and his sister Ćamila to continue their education. Skender registered to study law at Zagreb University – the main reason, as he admitted, being that the Law Faculty allowed students to do the bulk of their studying at home. When in Zagreb
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
he became inspired by leftist ideas, joining the Yugoslav Communist Party (KPJ) of which his elder brother, the painter Muhamed Kulenović, was already a member, in 1935. In the same year he gave up his law studies to focus on journalism and literary work. Over the next four years he published essays and short stories in various journals, including Putokaz (Signpost), a journal of which he was a founder member.
This was a time of increasing political tension in the first Yugoslav state. Externally, the authoritarian Regency of Prince Pavle was trying to balance popular pro-French and pro-British sentiments with a need to maintain good relations with the country’s Fascist Italian and Nazi German neighbours. Internally, political life was becoming increasingly dominated by Serb-Croat hostility; in 1939, a vain attempt was made to defuse this by imposing a bipartite federal system, under which most of Bosnia
Bosnia (region)
Bosnia is a eponomous region of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It lies mainly in the Dinaric Alps, ranging to the southern borders of the Pannonian plain, with the rivers Sava and Drina marking its northern and eastern borders. The other eponomous region, the southern, other half of the country is...
became Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
n territory. In late 1939 or early 1940, Skender Kulenović was expelled from the KPJ for having refused to sign an open letter criticising the government and advocating autonomy for Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
– a decision which prevented him from publishing in many of the journals he had worked with until then. In 1940 he married his first wife, Ana Prokop.
In March and April 1941, Prince Pavle’s balancing act finally failed: he was deposed in a popular pro-Western military coup, upon which the Nazis invaded and occupied Yugoslavia
Invasion of Yugoslavia
The Invasion of Yugoslavia , also known as the April War , was the Axis Powers' attack on the Kingdom of Yugoslavia which began on 6 April 1941 during World War II...
. Muhamed Kulenović was immediately imprisoned as a KPJ member; in July, he was shot after an escape attempt. In November the same year, Skender joined Josip Broz Tito
Josip Broz Tito
Marshal Josip Broz Tito – 4 May 1980) was a Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman. While his presidency has been criticized as authoritarian, Tito was a popular public figure both in Yugoslavia and abroad, viewed as a unifying symbol for the nations of the Yugoslav federation...
’s Partisans
Partisans (Yugoslavia)
The Yugoslav Partisans, or simply the Partisans were a Communist-led World War II anti-fascist resistance movement in Yugoslavia...
, and was readmitted into the Communist Party. In 1942, just after the German summer offensive had narrowly failed to wipe out the Partisan army, he composed perhaps his most famous poem, “Stojanka Majka Knežopoljka” (“Stojanka, the mother from Knežopolje”), a modernist Partisan version of the traditional Bosnian lament with strong elements of the Serbian folk-epic. In the same year, Skender’s remaining brother Muzafer was executed in Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
.
While in the Partisan forces, Kulenović also edited various newspapers and journals, continued to publish, and helped set up a theatre group. It was here, in 1944, that he fell in love with Vera Crvenčanin, who was to become his second wife. In 1945, Skender Kulenović was appointed Drama Director of the National Theatre in newly-liberated Sarajevo
Sarajevo
Sarajevo |Bosnia]], surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans....
. In 1947 he and Vera moved to Belgrade, which was to remain their home until his death. The postwar years he devoted largely to drama and journalism: he wrote several successful theatre plays, but also a number of short stories, essays and poems, and edited various literary and non-literary journals. In 1954, after having published an essay by the dissident Milovan Đilas, he was sacked as editor of the journal Nova misao (New Thought). Though he was to continue with his theatrical work, this, with the death of his father in the same year, dealt a severe blow to his confidence and self-esteem.
Kulenović’s long contact with the city of Mostar
Mostar
Mostar is a city and municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the largest and one of the most important cities in the Herzegovina region and the center of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton of the Federation. Mostar is situated on the Neretva river and is the fifth-largest city in the country...
began in 1956, when he stayed there during the production of his play Djelidba (Division). In 1959 he published “Stećak”, the first of his forty Sonnets. He also traveled to Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, which inspired a series of travelogues – and, later, the sonnet Vaze (Vases). 1968 saw the publication of the first twenty Soneti (Sonnets). Soneti II, the second set of twenty sonnets, followed in 1974. In 1977 his novel Ponornica (Lost River) appeared. He was working on a sequel when he fell ill late that year. After one last stay in Mostar, he returned to Belgrade in January 1978, when he died of heart failure.
He was featured on the 0.50 Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark
Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark
The Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark is the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is divided into 100 fenings...
bill, which has been withdrawn from circulation and replaced with coins.
Ethnicity
Kulenović’s life story is in many ways typical of a Bosnian-born intellectual of the YugoslavYugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
age: born into a Bosnian Muslim family, educated in the Catholic tradition and living in the Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
n capital. Just as his political ethos was one of pan-Yugoslav unity in Tito’s communism, so his cultural roots were embedded in the Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
, Croatian
Croats
Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...
and Serbian traditions equally. Some Bosniaks
Bosniaks
The Bosniaks or Bosniacs are a South Slavic ethnic group, living mainly in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a smaller minority also present in other lands of the Balkan Peninsula especially in Serbia, Montenegro and Croatia...
and Serbs categorise him as a Bosniak poet and a Serbian poet respectively – a tendency which, the Sarajevo
Sarajevo
Sarajevo |Bosnia]], surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans....
critic Ivan Lovrenović claims, “diminishes and degrades” the status of Kulenović and writers like him. One might also say, however, that his roots in all three traditions makes him a Bosnian
Bosnians
Bosnians are people who reside in, or come from, Bosnia and Herzegovina. By the modern state definition a Bosnian can be anyone who holds citizenship of the state. This includes, but is not limited to, members of the constituent ethnic groups of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Bosniaks, Bosnian Serbs and...
(rather than a Bosniak) poet par excellence, for these were the three traditions that form the weft of culture in Bosnia. But this does not prevent him from also being seen as a Yugoslav poet – or, more precisely, as one culturally at home throughout the Serbo-Croat speaking region.
In Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian
See Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian Skender Kulenović entryIn English
- Kulenović, Skender (2003) Skender Kulenović. Translated by Francis R. Jones. Modern Poetry in Translation New Series/22: 61-69.
- Kulenović, Skender (2007) Soneti / Sonnets. Special Gala Edition of Forum Bosnae, 41/07. Bilingual edition, with English translations by Francis R. Jones, artwork by Mersad Berber, and afterwords by Francis R. Jones and Rusmir Mahmutćehajić.
See also
- List of Bosnians