Vol.1, No 4, 1997 pp. 291 - 291
Jubilees
RADOSLAV RADENKOVIĆ, PH.D.
It was the beginning of October 1997, when Radoslav Radenković, Ph.D.,
the professor of Serbian Folk Literature at the Faculty of Philosophy in
Niš, retired.
Professor Radenković got engaged in the literature as a poet and prose
writer, having published a collection of poems "Pokers" ("Vatralje") and
a collection of lyric tales "The Other Door" ("Druga vrata"). He later
turned to science or, more specifically, to the traditional literature.
The topic of his doctoral dissertation was "Serbian Folktales of the Southeast
Serbia" (Prishtina, 1986).
The personality of the colleague Radoslav Radenković unites his artistic
nature and incessant curiosity with a tireless diligence that will surely
not cease alongside with his retirement.
Dealing with the science of folk literature, he was particularly attracted
to the topics that had been seeking for hidden meanings in the products
of folk spirit, for the wisdom accumulated through generations, or for
the development of narrative forms during the cultural history. For this
reason, he has been paying particular attention to the motives and subjects
of the traditional literature, engaging himself in the problems of classification
and interpretation of certain insufficiently defined forms of folk narratives.
Mr. Radenković has compiled an outstanding folklore collection, which
is expected to be published in greater volume.
He has been recording and studying with particular attention the legends
about the origin of certain settlements, and he has prepared several volumes
of manuscript for publication.
He has also transferred his love for the folk literature to his students
who have brought, under his guidance, thousands of recordings of stories
and poems from the region of the southeast Serbia.
One of the topics from that joint work - "The narratives about evil
forces" ("Kazivanja o nečastivim silama"), he prepared and published in
the form of proceedings (Prosveta, Niš, 1991). In his long foreword, he
tried to set theoretical foundations of this form of unwritten art and
to embed it in the system of folk prose categories and forms.
A great part of his studies is based on the creative works originating
from his homeland, the region of Svrljig (southeast Serbia), and he contributed
a chapter on this topic to the Cultural History of Svrljig, Vol. II (Svrljig
- Niš, 1992).
We hope that the peaceful days of his deserved retirement shall enable
our dear professor Radoslav Radenković to arrange, study and prepare for
publication the abundant material that he had recorded working in the field.
Doing so, he would make another great contribution to the history of Serbian
folk literature in general.
Mr. Radoslav Radenković, Ph.D., has seen a lot of his works in print
in numerous publications. His partial bibliography can be found in the
Proceedings of the Faculty of Philosophy in Niš, Series of Serbian Language
and Literature, No. 5-6, Niš, 1997.
N. Bogdanović
