WHEN GOETHE MET VUK… A REVIEW OF SELECTED PAGES IN SERBO–GERMAN RELATIONS
WHEN GOETHE MET VUK… A REVIEW OF SELECTED PAGES IN SERBO–GERMAN RELATIONS

Summary/Abstract: This paper views Serbo–German relations in the context of the two nations’ unique social and culturo-historical development and interprets these relations within the theoretical frameworks of cultural semiotics and cultural cognition. The first part discusses dominant trends and spiritual tendencies in German culture beginning with the Humanists’ interest in ‘the exotic’ evolving into Herder’s Romantic concept of the nation and Grimm equating folklore with poetics – which, in light of the Serbian liberation wars against the Turks, led to the Serbian way of life becoming the Germans’ ideal cultural model during the first half of the 19th century. Thus, special attention is paid to Vuk Karadžić’s relationships with the leading minds of the so-called golden age in Serbo-German relations. Also highlighted are the achievements of Talvj, who not only translated Serbian folk poetry into German but adapted it to German sensibilities – and to the dominant European tastes of the time. The second part of this paper surveys the changes in Serbo–German relations from the second half of the 19th century onward, along with the mostly unfortunate historico-political events which shaped them. Illustrated through the works and actions, impressions, thoughts and feelings of statesmen and warriors, scientists and writers, but commoners, as well – both German and Serbian – these relations are portrayed as ambivalent, yet never severed.

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