The explicit poetics of Risto Ratković

Abstract

Based on Ratković's notions about poetry and on his ideas about the function and nature of art during the spread of avant-garde movement, today's researchers of his work can adequately reconstruct his very intricate, yet transformative thought. The overall Ratković's essayistic discourse, eclectically incorporated in the work of Esejistika i kritika [Essays and Criticism], is a fundamental testimony of all poetic variations frequently found in his poetry, as his literary expression varies from neo-romanticism through Zenitism, Dadaism, and surrealist reflection, to the final and definitive commitment to social realist profile of his poetic texts.