Poetics of Radovan Zogović

Radovan Zogović (1907–1986) was born in Mašnica, near Andrijevica. He completed his primary and secondary education in Berane, Peć, and Tetovo. A member of the Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts, Zogović had his works translated into about ten world languages and was also active as a translator himself. He entered the literary scene around 1925, as an eighteen-year-old high school student from Berane.Zogović came from a poor peasant family, as was common in pre-war Montenegro. He completed the first four grades of elementary school in three different states: first grade in the Kingdom of Montenegro, second under Austro-Hungarian occupation, and the third and fourth in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Due to his restless spirit and the fact that he came of age in a time of social upheaval, he was labeled a threat to the state and expelled from the gymnasium in Peć. He completed the eighth grade in Tetovo and then enrolled at the Faculty of Philosophy in Skopje—the same year King Alexander came to power. Zogović graduated in 1933 and soon began to engage intensively in various forms of writing during a period of major political, social, and ideological transformation. He published an almanac titled 1930 in the South. After completing his studies, he worked with Macedonian poet Kosta Racin to duplicate the newspaper Iskra, an act that led to his dismissal from his job. During his student years, he was introduced to Marxist literature, joined the labor movement, and became a committed communist.Prof. Dr. Sofija Kalezić, in her work Poetics of Radovan Zogović, offers a comprehensive insight into the writer’s creative output—an oeuvre that continued to grow despite sixteen years of social isolation, during which Zogović never stopped discovering new worlds through the written word.