Jendeci, krvavi đevreci (Konstantinovićevo čitanje Barbarogenija)
Ditches, Bloody Bagels (Konstantinović’s Reading of the Barbarogenius)

Summary/Abstract: The paper discusses Radomir Konstantinović’s reading of Ljubomir Micić’s poetry and prose. Micić was the founder of the Yugoslav and Serbian avant-garde, Dada-like movement titled Zenitism, and its journal Zenit. Contrary to mainstream twentieth-century interpretations of Micić’s work, Konstantinović finds that the entirety of Zenitist efforts were marked by Micić’s idea of the “barbarogenius”, that of a savage from the Balkan wilderness with a holy mission to destroy and rebuild decadent Europe. According to Micić, Europe is sick, torn and alienated by capitalism and communism. However, Konstantinović points out that Micić’s work, underpinned by such an aggressive ideological impulse, lacks any genuine poetic strength. From his point of view, this is the reason why Micić’s efforts ended in “an orgy of fascism”. The proof for this thesis can be found in Micić’s novel Barbarogenius Decivilizer (1938), in which he portrays the barbarogenius as a character who delivers a laudatory speech to Mussolini in front of his photograph, narrating that Hitler was one of the early readers of the 1922 Zenitist manifesto. On the other hand, Konstanović claims that Micić’s vision of the Balkans as an empire of wilderness corresponds perfectly with the Western colonial prejudice that the peninsula and its inhabitants are primitive and backward. This means that Micić is, in an absurd reversal, affirming and upholding colonial domination, instead of questioning it.

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