Bogdan Popović

Bogdan Popović (Serbian Cyrillic: Богдан Поповић; 20 December 1863 – 7 November 1944) was Serbian university professor, literary critic and academic. He was one of the most important literary critics and university professors in Serbia.

Biography Pavle Popović, his brother, was also a professor of Serbian Literature at the University of Belgrade.

Popović studied literature and philosophy at both Belgrade's Velika škola and at the University of Paris. Returning home in 1893, he became a professor at his alma mater, and twelve years later when the Velika škola became accredited as the University of Belgrade he continued teaching French, comparative literature, literary theory and aesthetics until his retirement in 1934.

In 1911, he published his Anthology of Modern Serbian Lyric (Antologija novije srpske lirike), the first attempt to create a literary canon of the most significant poems down the ages. He chose examples that reveal a constant and highly developed poetic expression as the hallmark of Serbian literary achievement. He was the first to distance poetry from folk heritage, proposing an alternative view of sophisticated forms with a broad poetic range and insight into the kind of understanding art offers.

Popović founded the Serbian Literary Herald (Srpski književni glasnik) in 1901, the most prestigious literary magazine in Serbia. Jovan Skerlić who died suddenly on the eve of World War I, was one of Popović best pupils at the Velika škola, and later, one of his closest collaborators and colleagues. Skerlić then went on to join Popović's editorial board of the Serbian Literary Herald, becoming chief editor for a time. He was the secretary of the Academy of Arts from 6 March 1928 to 7 March 1931.

Legacy His published works were published in 6 volumes.

He is included in The 100 most prominent Serbs.

Selected works

O vaspitanju ukusa, 1895 Gordana... dr Laze Kostića, 1899 O Gorskom vijencu, 1900 Jedan srpski pripovedač: Sv. Ćorović, 1901 Alegorična satirična priča, 1902 Šta je velikki pesnik, 1904 Iz književnosti, I–IV, 1906–38 Šekspir ili Bekon, 1907 Pregled srpske književnosti, 1909 Antologija novije srpske lirike, 1911 Jugoslovenska književnost, 1918 Bomarše, biography, 1925 Članci i predavanja o književnosti, umetnosti, jeziku i moralu, essays and articles, 1932 Milovan Vidaković, 1934