C1 — advancedCulture and realia

Arts, media & literature

Lesson opening

This is the first part of the lesson. The rest, the exercises and the reviews are in the app.

Arts and literature: talking about a book, a film, an exhibition

The lesson “Free time & culture” gave you the listings and the ticket: bioskop, pozorište, koncert, izložba. “Education & media” taught you to cite a source. Now comes what all that was for: talking about the work itself: what it is, what it is about, and whether it is worth an evening.

It is not just for literature graduates. A school set text is shared memory; a 1980 film lives on as quotable lines; a quarrel about nineties music is not about music. Here are the words, the moves and the landmarks.

Forms and genres: roman, pripovetka, drama, zbirka

Serbian schools divide literature into three “kinds”, književni rod: lirika (poetry), epika (narrative) and drama (writing for the stage); within a kind stands the genre, žanr. Both are everyday school basics, not jargon.

Examples

Serbian	English
roman, pripovetka, novela, kratka priča, bajka	novel, short story, novella, short story (modern term), fairy tale
pesma, poema, stih, strofa, zbirka pesama	poem (also “song”), long narrative poem, line of verse, stanza, collection of poems
drama, komedija, tragedija, čin, replika	drama, comedy, tragedy, act, line (of dialogue)
esej, memoari, biografija, putopis, poglavlje, odlomak, predgovor, izdanje	essay, memoirs, biography, travel writing, chapter, excerpt, preface, edition

The screen, the stage and the wall work the same way.

Examples

Serbian	English
film, dugometražni, kratki film, dokumentarac, crtani	film, feature-length, short film, documentary, cartoon
serija, sezona, epizoda, nastavak, ekranizacija	series, season, episode, sequel, screen adaptation
predstava, pozorišni komad, premijera, repriza, publika	production, stage play, premiere, repeat performance, audience
slika, platno, crtež, skulptura, postavka, izložba	painting, canvas, drawing, sculpture, display, exhibition
album, numera, singl, nastup, turneja	album, track, single, performance (a gig), tour

The word zbirka “collection” takes the genitive plural (English of), and the forms are worth learning ready-made: zbirka pesama, zbirka pripovedaka, zbirka priča, zbirka eseja. For priča that form is spelt just like the dictionary form. Three prepositions cover the rest: o with the locative says what a work is about, po with the locative what source it is based on, iz with the genitive where an excerpt is taken from. A film based on a novel is po, never “iz romana” (English from).

Deeper etymology

The novel that was simply “in the vernacular”

The word roman came through German and French, and in Old French romanz first meant not a genre but a language: something written “in Romance”, in the everyday speech rather than in Latin. The genre was named after the language it was read in outside the monastery. English kept the word as romance but took novel from Italian novella “a new tale”, which is why novel and novela part company.

Serbian pripovetka is Slavic through and through: pripovedati “to narrate” is the prefix pri- plus the old povedati “to relate, make known”, and the root is the one in vest “news” and bookish povest “history, account”. It goes back to Indo-European *weid- “to know, to see”, as in English wit and Latin vidēre. knjiga “book” is an old puzzle: Proto-Slavic *kŭniga has no secure etymology, and the Croatian linguist Petar Skok weighs several theories without choosing one. From it grew književnost “literature” and književnik “man of letters”.

Who did what: autor, delo, izdanje

Talk about a work begins with the person behind it. The general words are autor “author, creator” (autor romana) and delo “a work” (Andrićevo delo, tema dela). Beyond them, Serbian splits the roles more strictly than English, where an artist may also be a painter: a painter is slikar, an artist in the broad sense umetnik.

Examples

Serbian	English
pisac, književnik, pesnik, dramski pisac	writer, man of letters, poet, playwright
reditelj, scenarista, snimatelj, glumac, glumica	director, screenwriter, cameraman, actor, actress
slikar, vajar, umetnik, kompozitor, izvođač	painter, sculptor, artist in the broad sense, composer, performer
izdavač, urednik, prevodilac, kritičar, kustos	publisher, editor, translator, critic, curator

Each role has its own verbs; glumiti “to act” and igrati ulogu “to play a part” are the ones you met in “Free time & culture”.

Examples

Serbian	English
napisati, objaviti, izdati, prevesti	write, publish, bring out (an edition), translate
snimiti, režirati, montirati, prikazivati	shoot (a film), direct, edit, screen
postaviti predstavu, izvesti, glumiti, igrati ulogu	stage a production, perform, act (be an actor), play a part
naslikati, izlagati, otvoriti izložbu	paint (a picture), exhibit, open an exhibition

Knjiga je objavljena prošle godine i već je prevedena na engleski. The book came out last year and has already been translated into English.

Predstavu je postavio mlad reditelj, a glavnu ulogu igra poznata glumica. The production was staged by a young director, and a well-known actress plays the lead.

Cheat sheet

The cheat sheet — everything essential from the lesson on one page. In the app it opens at any time.

Arts and literature

Kinds: lirika, epika, drama; within a kind, a žanr.

Area	Words
books	roman, pripovetka, novela, kratka priča, bajka, esej, memoari, putopis
verse	pesma, poema, stih, strofa, zbirka pesama
parts	poglavlje, odlomak, predgovor, izdanje: chapter, excerpt, preface, edition
screen	film, dokumentarac, crtani, serija, sezona, epizoda, ekranizacija
stage	predstava, pozorišni komad, čin, replika, premijera, repriza
wall, sound	slika, platno, crtež, skulptura, izložba, postavka, album, numera, nastup

People and verbs

autor, pisac, pesnik, reditelj, scenarista, glumac, slikar, vajar, umetnik, kompozitor, urednik, prevodilac, kritičar, kustos
books napisati, objaviti, prevesti; film snimiti, režirati, montirati; stage postaviti predstavu, izvesti, glumiti, igrati ulogu; art naslikati, izlagati, otvoriti izložbu.
roman o ratu, film po romanu, odlomak iz zbirke, zbirka pesama / pripovedaka. Passive: objavljen, snimljen, preveden, postavljen.

Retelling: present tense, no ending

O čemu je knjiga? O čemu se radi? Vredi li?
Reč je o… Radi se o… Tema je… Radnja se dešava u… Priča prati…
glavni junak, junakinja, sporedni lik; heroj only for real heroism.
Neću da spojlujem. Bez spojlera. Ima preokret. Kraj je otvoren.
uvod, zaplet, preokret, rasplet, poenta; openers ukratko, u dve reči, da ne dužim.

Verdict and impression

up remek-delo, kultno, moćno, odlično, vredi pogledati, Fenomenalno!; middle solidno, gledljivo, nije loše (= restrained praise), prosečno; down razvučeno, predvidljivo, nategnuto, plitko, promašaj, šteta vremena.
Ostavio je jak utisak na mene. Dugo mi je ostao u glavi. Nije mi legao. Oduševio me je. Razočarao me je.
sviđa mi se a state, dopalo mi se a one-off; Kako ti se dopalo?; preporučujem ti + dative.

Reviews

kritika analysis, recenzija review, prikaz write-up, osvrt response; nadnaslov, naslov, ocena četiri od pet.
Reditelj se odlučio za sporiji ritam. Glumačka ekipa nosi ceo film.
Moglo je bolje = bad; Nije bez mana, ali vredi = good.

Register and landmarks

Jesi gledao? Moraš da pogledaš, ludilo je. / Ostavio je jak utisak. Preporučujem. / Tema dela je usamljenost, a poruka je gorka.
Nisam čitao, ali sam čuo da je dobra. Nisam neki poznavalac. Ne razumem se u to. Šta si poslednje pročitao? Imaš li nešto da mi preporučiš?
Njegoš (Gorski vijenac, 1847), Andrić (Nobel 1961, Na Drini ćuprija), Crnjanski, Selimović, Kiš, Pavić (Hazarski rečnik, 1984), Ćopić, Nušić; crni talas, Kusturica, FEST, BITEF; Bijelo dugme, novi talas, turbo-folk.