Genre and Meaning Plasticity of Milan Kašanin’s Literary Criticism

Abstract

Prolific and influential literary criticism of Milan Kašanin, published in Pronađene stvari (1961) and Ljudi (1968) and Susreti i pisma (1974) – due to its stylistic and semantic versatility – leads towards the more thorough examination of the genre borders and semantic origins within the human spirit and intellectual and creative endeavours categorized as literary criticism and essays. With their characteristics, micro (individual texts) and macro organization (collection of texts and monographs), the essays gathered in aforementioned books can illustrate our literary-theoretical assumptions and allow deeper insight in their thematic broadness, genre diversity and indeterminacy as the legitimate empathic consequence of the original critical and creative consciousness and discursive practice. Reflection on the typology and morphology of Kašanin’s literary criticism brings us to the conclusion that, according to their criticalpoetic-methodological character and to their aesthetic preferences, these are all the original creations of an author-critic.