Stevan Vladislav Kaćanski
Serbian poet (1829–1890)
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Stevan Vladislav Kaćanski - "Stari Bard" (Serbian Cyrillic: Стеван Владислав Каћански; 5 January 1829 – 4 May 1890) was a Serbian poet of the second half of the 19th century.[1] Most of his poems were inspired by Serbian liberation and unification. He was the author of the patriotic poem Noćnica, which depicted the capture of Temerin and circulated among Serbian fighters during the Serbian Revolution of 1848–1849.
Stevan Vladislav Kaćanski Стеван Владислав Каћански | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 5 January 1829 |
| Died | 4 May 1890 (aged 61) |
| Other name | Stari bard |
| Occupations | Poet, publicist, teacher |
| Writing career | |
| Period | 1846–1890 |
Movement | Romanticism |
Biography
Stevan Vladislav Kaćanski was born in Srbobran, in Bačka. Although late December 1828 was often given as his birth date, he was probably born on 5 January 1829 in Srbobran.[2] His parents were Trifon and Julijana, natives of Srbobran.[3] He came from a prosperous merchant family whose last name derived from the village of Kać, from which the family had moved to Srbobran in the late 18th or early 19th century. The family was originally from Herzegovina, where their last name was Vladisavljević. Because of this, Kaćanski used "Vladislav" before his last name.[2]
Kaćanski began primary school in Srbobran and was later sent to a German-language school in Petrovaradin. He began his secondary education at the gymnasium in Sremski Karlovci and continued it in Szeged. There, Kaćanski began writing patriotic poetry and published his first poem Usklik mladih Srba which appeared in Podunavka in February 1846.[2]
After high school, he enrolled at the Faculty of Philosophy in Pest, but left it and went on to study law at Eger. The Serb revolution of 1848 found him there, and he participated as a publicist, poet and potentially also as a combatant. That year, while traveling by steamboat between Sremski Karlovci and Titel, Kaćanski mortally wounded his friend Laza Marković, a Serbian youth movement activist. Marković died four days later in Titel, leaving Kaćanski devastated.[2] He gained early recognition for Noćnica, a poem about the 1848 capture of Temerin that was read, copied, and memorized on the battlefield.[4]
After the revolution, Kaćanski went to Zagreb, where he graduated with a degree in law in 1850. He lived in Srbobran from 1850 to late 1857, avoiding public life. In December 1857, Kaćanski moved to Belgrade where he taught world history and Serbian history at the gymnasium. Because he was not a citizen of the Principality of Serbia, Kaćanski could only work as a teacher on a contractual basis.[2] While in Belgrade, he became close friends with poet Đura Jakšić.[5] After the abolition of the Voivodeship of Serbia and Banat of Temeschwar in 1860, Kaćanski responded with the poem Haj!. The poem was published in the Novi Sad literary magazine Danica in 1861 and was later set to music by Aksentije Maksimović. The same year, Kaćanski published his poem Oj oblaci in Letopis Matice Srpske, later also set to music by Mita Topalović.[4]
Kaćanski became a citizen of the Principality of Serbia on 1 June 1862. A week later, he started the newspaper Srbska narodnost.[2] During the fighting surrounding the Ottoman bombardment of Belgrade in June 1862, Kaćanski gathered a group of volunteers and participated in an attack on Ottoman positions at Varoš Gate. With the support of the Serbian authorities, the group was subsequently organized as the Prizren Legion, with Kaćanski serving as its commander. The Legion was a volunteer military formation intended, in the event of war with the Ottoman Empire, to enter "Old Serbia" and advance toward Prizren. It numbered between 60 and 120 men and was incorporated into the defense of Belgrade and maintained by the Serbian Ministry of War. The Legion was ultimately disbanded in October 1862 as part of Serbia's obligations toward the Great Powers with the remaining members each receiving a severance pay.[6]
In 1862, Kaćanski published a version of his poem Grahov laz in Javor. The poem was dedicated to and written in response to the poet Jovan Jovanović Zmaj, Kaćanski's blood brother (pobratim). Grahov laz was Kaćanski's response to an earlier poem in which Zmaj had reproached him for his long absence from poetry.[7] Kaćanski's poem depicted the 1858 Battle of Grahovac.[8] He published the poem unfinished, and poet Laza Kostić later supplied his own ending in Danica in 1864. Kaćanski himself later completed the poem and published the finished version as part of his collected poetry in 1879.[9]
In 1864, Kaćanski left Belgrade for Kragujevac in search of employment.[2] He taught Latin at the Kragujevac Gymnasium.[10] Kaćanski also headed the Kragujevac theater and served as president of the youth society Šumadija. In 1867, he wrote to Jovan Đorđević, director of the Serbian National Theatre, requesting several newer plays including Zmaj's one-act Šaran for the theater's repertoire. Kaćanski intended to replace works by Joakim Vujić, which he called "runts and monstrosities". As theater head and Šumadija president, Kaćanski campaigned for the construction of a theater building in Kragujevac.[11] In 1866, he also planned to establish a political newspaper.[12] During his years in Kragujevac, Kaćanski remained close to Đura Jakšić, who was then in nearby Sabanta.[5] Kaćanski returned to Belgrade in 1870.[2] In 1871, he traveled to Montenegro. During his stay in Cetinje, Prince Nikola presented Kaćanski with a silver yatagan for his poem Grahov laz.[13]