Ksenija Atanasijević

Ksenija Atanasijević (1894 — 1981) was the first recognised major female Serbian philosopher, and one of first female professors of Belgrade University, where she graduated. She wrote about Giordano Bruno, ancient Greek philosophy and the history of Serbian philosophy, and translated some of the most important philosophical works into the Serbian language, including materials by Aristotle and Plato. She was also an early Serbian feminist writer and philosopher.

Her major work, Filosofski fragmenti, was published in 1929.

Biography

Ksenija Atanisijevic was born on February 5, 1894 in Belgrade, the youngest of six children to Doctor Svetozar Atanisijevic and Jelena Atanasijevic, née Cumic, who died while giving her birth. Her father was a well-respected doctor and director of the State Hospital in Belgrade. Her mother's family was related to the famed Belgrade lawyer, writer and politician Acim Cumic. Twelve years later, her father died. Ksenija's stepmother, Sofija Kondic, who taught at the Women's College (Visa zenska skola) in Belgrade, became her rightful guardian. Kondic was well-qualified to continue Ksenija's education. From Kondic Ksenija received her first lessons in philosophy: she learned quickly and eagerly, and no sooner another tragedy befall on her. Ksenija's older brother was killed in World War I.

Ksenija's best friends while growing up were poet Rastko Petrovic and his sister, Nadezda Petrovic.

Scholarship

While Ksenija attended the Lyceum, she was also influenced by Nada Stoiljkovic, her philosophy professor. Stoiljkovic suggested that Ksenija should take up philosophy with her former professor at Belgrade, Branislav Petronijevic, and so, in the autumn of 1918, Ksenija Atanasijevic became Petronijevic's pupil at the University of Belgrade.

Authoritarian and demanding, Petronijevic was exactly what Ksenija needed at that point. A brilliant professor and one of the most famous philosophers of his day in Serbia and elsewhere, he was a hard taskmaster.

Petronijevic's aim was to challenge his pupils to be able to maintain a philosophical discussion with their tutor. Ksenija was one of the most brilliant students ever to attend the university and it was not long before she attracted the attention of Belgrade's most distinguished intellectuals. She graduated in July 1920 with the highest marks in her graduating class, obtaining a university diploma in "pure and applied philosophy and classics." An excellent student, she decided to pursue an academic career in philosophy and soon after graduation, began working on a doctoral thesis on Giordano Bruno's De triplici minimo. She went to Geneva and Paris to seek out rare philosophical works and to discuss her thesis with specialists in the field, and on January 20, 1922, defended her Ph.D with honors in Belgrade before a panel of academics, including rector Jovan Cvijic, Mihailo Petrovic, Milutin Milankovic, Veselin Cajkanovic, and Borislav Petronijevic, her mentor. After her thesis was successfully defended, she became the first woman to hold a Ph.D. in Philosophy in Serbia. She was then 28 years old.

Recognition

In 1924, she became the first female university professor to be appointed to the Arts Faculty, Department of Philosophy at the University of Belgrade, where she taught classics, medieval and modern philosophy and aesthetics for twelve years.

During her teaching career, she was a committed feminist both in theory and practice. She was a member of the Serbian Women's League for Peace and Freedom, the Women's Movement Alliance, and editor of the first feminist journal in the country, The Women's Movement, published from 1920 to 1938.

In 1936, she was removed on trumped-up charges of plagiarism because some of her male colleagues who worked alongside her felt threatened by her exceptional abilities. At the time the Encyclopedia Britannica cited her study, "The Metaphysical and Geometrical Doctrine of Bruno," written in French in Paris in 1924 as an authoritative work about an important and often neglected aspect of Bruno's philosophy. Her consequent dismissal caused a considerably outcry in Belgrade among intellectuals. At a public meeting where many people spoke in support of her, the most prominent speakers were law professor Zivojin M. Peric and poet Sima Pandurovic.

Atanasijevic's Life 1936-1946

Pandurovic, who stood by her throughout the ordeal, was quoted in a newspaper article saying: "She has been accused at the plenum of the University Council of plagiarism by one member of the faculty who has not the remotest inkling of philosophy and who has unaccountably taken it on himself to defend that discipline from a genuine thinker."

Despite the support Atanasijevic received, however, her position at the university was never restored to her, and she spent the rest of her working life—until 1941—as an inspector for the Ministry of Education. World War II brought troubles and unrest, even for the apolitical Ksenija Atanasijevic. After writing articles against anti-Semitism and National Socialism, she was arrested by the Gestapo in 1942. Then when the war ended, Atansijevic was arrested again, but this time by Tito's communists on ridiculously outrageous charges of "war crimes", like those attributed to Veselin Cajkanovic and others for teaching during Nazi occupation. Once released, she retired in 1946 after a short stint as an employee of the National Library of Serbia.

Atanasijevic's Legacy

Ksenija Atansijevic left a substantial volume of work, including more than 400 texts, among them books and essays in philosophy, psychology, history, and literature. Her interest in philosophy was broad and eclectic, covering ethics, metaphysics, logic, aesthetics and the history of philosophy. She is best known for her original interpretations of Giordano Bruno's work and for her 'philosophy of meaning' developed in Filozofski fragmenti (Philosophical fragments, 1928–1929), considered by many to be her most important and significant work.

She died in Belgrade in 1981.

References

• Brunovo ucenje o najmanjem, Vreme, 1922
• Star grcka atomistika, Ujedinjenje, 1927
• La doctrine metaphysique de Bruno, Paris/Belgrade, 1933, published in English: The metaphysical and Geometric doctrine of Bruno, Translated by George Vid Tomashevich, St. Louis, Mo: W. H. Green, 1972
• Sama pod suncem, 1939
• Braca Eutidem i Dionisodor