Innovative Impact of the Classical Tradition on Early Modern Serbian Literature

Abstract

The strongest impact of the classical tradition on Serbian literature occurred in the eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth century, primarily as a consequence of the rise of modern humanistic education among the Serbs, but also due to the influence of the contemporary European Enlightenment and neoclassical literature on Serbian writers. The result was a large number of literary innovations in Serbian literature of the time, including the adoption (and adaptation) of several classical literary genres and techniques, such as classical versification, and intellectual enrichment through themes and ideas borrowed from classical literature. The classical tradition gave the Serbian literature in this period a broader artistic and cultural framework and some of the most original writers and thinkers, such as Jovan Rajić, Dositej Obradović, Lukijan Mušicki, and Jovan Sterija Popović.