Table Of ContentS l a v is t is c h e B e it r a g e
BEGRltNDET VON ALOIS SCHMAUS
HERAUSGEGEBEN VON HENRIK BIRNBAUM UND JOHANNES HOLTHUSEN
REDAKTION: PETER REHDER
Band 63
OLGA GRAHOR
FRANCE IN THE WORK AND IDEAS OF
ANTUN GUSTAV MATOŠ
VERLAG OTTO SAGNER • MUNCHEN
1973
A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE
DEGREE OF M. PHIL.
UNIVERSITY OF LONDON 1972
ISBN 3 87690 072 7
Convright by Verlag Otto- Sagner, Munchen 1973
Abteilung der Firma Kubon und Sagner, Munchen
Druck: Alexander GroBmann j
8 Munchen 19, YsenburgstraBe 7
INTRODUCTION
6
Antun Gustav Matoš (1873-191^4-) is the most important
figure in Croatian turn-of-the-century literature• His
claim to fame is twofold: his life and his personality
(he hecame a legend in his own lifetime) and his Creative
output which is considerable, both in volume and in quality.
He was horn in Tovarnik in Srijem, but grew up in
Zagreb. He was not a particularly good pupil at school;
in fact he never finished the gymnasium. At his parents1
wish he went to Vienna and enrolled there as a veterinary
student. But his heart was not in it; he returned to Zagreb
steeped in the readings of Hoffman, Byron, Kant, Stirner
and Schopenhauer. When his turn čame to be drafted into
the army, he survived the first ten months of basic training;
it was only when he was sent to Zagreb for further training
as a veterinary officer that he realized fda je niko i
ništa, mrtav za svaku slobodnu misao.He discarded his
uniform in the flat of a friend, and the two of them
secretly left for Serbia. After they had spent ali their
money, they became home-sick and decided to cross the Sava
back into Austria. It was summer, the weather was beautiful,
people in Srijem hospitable; it was Matoš1s chance to get
to know his native country. The friends parted company,
but agreed to meet in Vukovar at a certain date in order to
1. AG-MSD II, p.290
return together to Zagreb. Matoš was late for the appointment
iuddenly, what had begun as a youthful lark became very
serious. Matoš was an army deserter, and rather than face
the conseguences, he decided to burn his bridges and cross
the Sava into Serbia. He was recognized and arrested as he
was waiting for the train to take him from Mitrovica to
Belgrade. He was taken to Petrovaradin where he spent some
time in prison. One fine September morning he decided to run
away and succeeđeđ. That was in 189U; Matoš was twenty two
years old.
This decision was of capital iraportance. It was truly
the turning point in Matoš1s life. It is difficult to
imagine what his life and work would have been like if he
had never taken that step. Perhaps it would have developed
on the same pattern, because Matoš was a bohemian at heart.
He did not like the monotonous flow of a routine existence,
even if it meant material security. Not that he would have
objected to a materially secure existencef. In fact he never
stopped complaining about the miserable conditions in
Croatia which made many of her most talented writers starve.
He was simply not prepared to accept material security at
the expense of his freedom. In this respect he had a great
deal in common with many an artist, and the name of a
writer, whom Matoš admired - Charles Baudelaire - springs
most readily to mind.
8
Be that as it may, the decision to desert to Serbia
left a profound mark on the rest of Matošfs life; he was
forced to stay in Belgrade, there was no going hack. As
he was without resources, he had to make do as hest as he
could. VVith the help of a friend, Stjepan Brozović, who
had deserted the previous year, Matoš settled down. He got
a job as a cellist in the Belgrade theatre (he was also
often invited to play at receptions in private homes), and
gradually he began to contribute articles for newspapers
and,stories for literary journals. Matoš had already tried
his hand at writing - his first story ’Moć savjesti’ appeared
in Vijenac in 1892. Among Matošfs friends in Belgrade were
Jovan Ilić and his family, Milovan G-lišić, Stevan Sremac,
Janko Veselinović, Branislav Nušic, Boza S. Nikolajević,
son of Svetorair Nikolajević, a well knovra politician, diplomat
and university professor, many famous actors and journalists
of the period. This was the Belgrade ’boheme1 whose main
meeting place was the cafe Dardaneli near the theatre. This
was the Belgrade of the last Obrenovićs, colourful and
complex in its mixture of old Serbian patriarchal traditions
with their strong oriental flavour, and the new influences
of Western civilisation. This synthesis of the two civili-
sations had the charm and the fragility of ali transitory
periods, and had produced some of the best and the most
original writings in Serbian literature. Matoš with his
9
artistic instinct recognized the genuineness and originality
of this inspiration and remained faithful to it, to his old
Belgrade friends, and to what they stood for. Because this
hohemian, who had never in his life had a permanent address,
so to speak, was a traditionalist at heart. When later, he
became acguainted with the aristocratic opinions about art
of a Baudelaire or of a Gautier, or the almost mystic views
on the origin of nationalism of a Barres, Matoš did not
embrace a fashionably conservative doctrine, but followed
the leanings of his innermost being.
Thus, Matošfs first stay in Belgrade set the pattern of
his future existence; he was to become a professional
writer and live exclusively from what he earned with his pen.
And this was not ali. In Belgrade Matoš1s literary interests
were directed towards Prance. The first hand knowledge of
Serbian literature and dialect influenced his own writings,
for Matoš was the first Groatian writer to use Serbian words
and constructions when it suited his purpose. He even wrote
contributions to Serbian papers in ekavian. But above ali,
the enforced absence from his beloved Croatia gave a tangible
goal towards which the fears, the disatisfactions, the unrest,
I
;which he shared with his whole generation ali over.Europe,
i
vcould be directed.
In Belgrade Matoš met, or at least heard of, nany youig Serbs
who were sent to Pariš, on government scholarships, to study
10
there. When they returned to their country, they inevitably
played an important part in Serbian public life. From their
ranks there emerged two of* the most prominent Serhian poets
of the time: Jovan Ducic and Milan Rakić. There was no
chance of Matoš getting a scholarship from anywhere, but he
could earn a living in Pariš as he did in Belgrade. Gradually
the idea of going to Pariš became irresistible; he had to see
for himself the city on the Seine, which had long since
replaced Germany and Austria as a guiding influence in ali
matters of culture in independent Serbia. For Matoš, after
four years in the Serbian capital, France, or rather Pariš,
'had acguired the same significance; that of the centre of a
culture which should serve as a counterweight to the much
hated culture of Vienna and, indirectly, of Berlin. Like a
magnet, Pariš drew young people with literary and artistic
inclinations from ali over the world. It was the centre of
ideas, of new movements in literature and the arts, centre of
elegance, wit and gracious living compared to which ali
other capitals seemed like provincial towns; a city of liberty
where people of talent were always stimulated and sometimes
rewarded. Had not Heine left the stuffy atmosphere of his
country to breathe the free air of Pariš? And Oscar Wilde?
Was he not compelled to leave England and her insulting
curiosity, after having served his term at Reading prison
to seek anonymity in Pariš? Had not the Greek Papadiaman-
