Stevan Sremac


Stevan Sremac was a Serbian realist and comedy writer.

Biography

Stevan Sremac was born in Senta in Bačka region on 11 November 1855. He spent his early childhood in the city of his birth, and moved to Belgrade to study after his parents died. While still a university student, he joined the Serbian Army and participated in the 1876 and 1877–1878 wars as a volunteer. In 1878 he graduated from Belgrade's Grande École in philosophy and history. He became a teacher, working in this profession for the rest of his life—in the southern Serbia's cities of Pirot, Niš and Belgrade. His literary reputation was established relatively late, in 1890, with novelized chronicles of events and personages from Serbian history. These weren't published until 1903 under title Iz knjiga starostavnih.
In political sense, he was an activist of Liberal party, which was pretty conservative with strong nationalist sentiments and supported the rule of the Obrenović dynasty. In 1906 he became a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
Sremac died accidentally of blood poisoning in Sokobanja on 12 August 1906.

Literary work

Sremac's period spent in Niš was his most productive period. During this period, he published Božićna pečenica, Ivkova slava, Vukadin, Limunacija na selu, Pop Ćira i pop Spira, Čiča Jordan, and Zona Zamfirova. Many of these were later dramatized, with Ivkova slava, being the most successful. Sremac's characters are usually small merchants, clerks, priests, artists, and just simple folk in small Serbian towns. The plots are placed in his native Vojvodina, Bačka in particular, Belgrade, and mostly, southern parts of Serbia.

Legacy

Many of his works were turned into films; his most popular novel Pop Ćira i pop Spira was made into TV series in 1980s, while feature films Zona Zamfirova and Ivkova slava, both by director Zdravko Šotra saw huge success in Serbia and Montenegro.
He is included in The 100 most prominent Serbs.

Personal

During the Great War, Stevan Sremac's brother Andrija Sremac was living and working in New York City. He was the 1st vice-president of the Serbian National Defense Council. The president at the time was Professor Mihajlo Pupin.

Selected works

  • Božićna pečenica
  • Ivkova slava
  • Limunacija na selu
  • Pop Ćira i pop Spira
  • Iz knjiga starostavnih .
  • Vukadin
  • Čiča Jordan
  • ''Zona Zamfirova''