Poetics and Philosophy of Creation in the Works of Stefan Mitrov Ljubiša

Abstract

The multifaceted literary work of Stefan Mitrov Ljubiša, with its complex structure, universality of themes, intricacy of form, and semantic depth of language, continues to raise essential questions about humanity and the world, inviting diverse interpretations. This is precisely one of the reasons for Ljubiša’s enduring relevance in the past, present, and also the future. In this paper, we examine, on the one hand, Ljubiša’s reflections on art and the philosophy of creation, and, on the other, by the principles of phenomenological aesthetics, we interpret the literary text as a complex creation wherein the most profound questions about the meaning of human existence are rooted in its layers. Ljubiša seeks to address fundamental anthropological questions through literary language, turning his works into a grand narrative about humanity. Over the course of his fifty-six-year life and career, Ljubiša left behind a significant body of work, and his literary development right up until the 1870s followed a series of fluctuations, in both the intensity and quality of his literary output, which arose as a consequence of his maturing as a writer who had long sought the right mode of expression and subject matter for his creative and eruptive temperament. By paving the way for new directions in literary development, Stefan Mitrov Ljubiša emerges as a writer of distinct artistic self-awareness, who truly believes in the mission of literary art as a repository of national energy. Through the vernacular character of the language in which he wrote, as well as its poetic nature, his work powerfully demonstrated the vitality and dynamism of expression of his literary language. Ljubiša’s language workshop conceals not only some important insights into philosophical existence, but also insights into the philosophy of creation. In line with the demands of ethics, aesthetics, and poetics, as well as of the fundamental ideas of the epoch in which he wrote, Ljubiša advocated for the fact that the general and the individual, the past and the present, the textual and the extratextual content of a literary work are interwoven by cause and effect.