WHO IS BARBAROGENIUS ACTUALLY?

Abstract

The article examines the artistic appearance of Ljubomir Micić, a professor of philosophy who unusually early leaves the scientific field for which he was educated and rejects the civil service. Micić's notion of barbarogenius was interpreted through the constitutive imbalance between national and international. The generality and supranational character of the New Man most often failed to amortize national particularity, and even less to offer a solution for all national difficulties and challenges. Contrary to common interpretations, the author argues in support of the thesis that Micić's concept of barbarogenius does not have any national cultural peculiarities. Therefore, there is nothing specifically Serbian or national about him that could be offered internationally, exchanged or made international. The reasons are found through a comparative reading of some ideas of romanticism in relation to the early avant-garde movements. Figures that Micić explicitly uses: heroism of spirit, goodness of heart, purity of soul, immediate humanity, are too formal and general, more at the level of ideals and programs than experience and reality. After all, each nation could attribute them to itself. All cultures cherish examples of kindness, self-sacrifice, extraordinary gestures of humanity with special care. Hence, barbarism is everyone's and no one's.