Zenithism (1921–1927)

A Yugoslav Avant-Garde Anthology

Aleksandar Bošković, Steven Teref

Edited by Aleksandar Bošković and Steven Teref

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About the Book

This is the first-ever English language anthology of zenithism, an eclectic avant-garde movement unique to the Yugoslav region that existed 1921–1927. Zenithism’s founder Ljubomir Micić envisioned the movement as a fusion of futurism, dada, constructivism, expressionism, and proto-surrealism, driven by what he called the “barbarogenius.” A hallmark of the movement was its embrace of cross-genre writing, from Ljubomir Micić’s ciné-poem Rescue Vehicle and Branko Ve Poljanski’s lyric novel 77 Suicides to MID’s lyric philosophic treatise The Sexual Equilibrium of Money. The zenithists promoted their ideas through their journal Zenit and press Biblioteka Zenit. Reaching American readers for the first time, this anthology sheds light on an untapped chapter in European modernism ideal for the general and academic reader alike.

Author

Aleksandar Bošković (Ph.D. University of Michigan, 2013) is a lecturer in Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian in the Department of Slavic Languages at Columbia University in New York. He is a scholar of Russian and East European modernism, (post-)Yugoslav and Balkan Studies, with a strong background in comparative literature, critical theory, and visual studies. Bošković specializes in avant-garde literature and experimental art practices explored through the lenses of comparative media. He is the author of The Poetic Humor in Vasko Popa’s Oeuvre (2008), and co-editor of The Fine Feats of ‘Five Cockerel’s Gang’ (2022).

Steven Teref's translations include Ana Ristović's Directions for Use, shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award, Best Translated Book Award, and National Translation Award, and Novica Tadić's Assembly. His translations have appeared in The New Yorker, Brooklyn Rail, Columbia Journal, and elsewhere. He is a member of the Third Coast Translators Collective.

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