Stojan Bogdanović

Professor dr. Stojan Bogdanović was born in Veliko Bonjince, Babušnica, 1944. He received his primary and advanced secondary education in Knjaževac. He studied in Belgrade, Paris and Novi Sad. He is a doctor of mathematical sciences, and the originator of the Niš School of Algebra and Informatics. He published more than 160 scientific articles in the most renowned world magazines on the theory of semigroups, of automatons and of the quasi-sets. His field, the set theory is one of the most fundamental fields of mathematics, pertaining to its axiomatic roots, and the roots of the other disciplines of the formal logic. He is author of several monographies in the mathematical and informatical area, in English and Serbian, and he authored many textbooks, as well.

A Poet and/or a Mathematician

Dela/Works:

That would already be enough for at least two lives, but Stojan Bogdanović is a poet of the first degree, and one of a deep philosophical insight at that. He writes poetry, short stories, essays and aphorisms. No less to be expected from him, he has an excellent oversight of the long history of philosophy, and a refined sense of the poetic tools and the poetic directions, present and past.

He is a master of connotation and association, and often uses words whose seemingly secondary meanings are actually the main message. These two are his most powerful expressive weapons to transmit his inner world, feelings and far-reaching thoughts. And they have to be, because the poet avoids using the rhythm and rhyme which are capable of amplifying the power of association strongly.

The questions he asks himself - and us - are of the deepest existential nature; for him, for us and for this world of ours. His sometimes quite everyday sounding sentences usually have a much broader meaning at the same time. In expression, he can be spicy in his irony or even biting in his sarcasms, but these are the love bites – if you find a blue mark on your skin, you deserved it, for your own good.

His poems have been translated to English, French, Greek, Italian, Polish and Romanian.

Prof. Bogdanović is the editor of the periodical ’Istok’. He is an honorary citizen of Knjaževac and a laureate of the prize „ January, the 11th “of the City of Niš.

He published following books:

· Биг Бен (Big Ben), poems, (Belgrade, 1977),

· Одлазим а остаје нејасно (I am leaving, but it stays unclear), poems, (Kruševac-Knjaževac, 1990),

· Зна се (It’s well known), poems (Niš, 1991),

· Црна рупа (Black Hole), poems (Zaječar, 2003; Niš, 2004),

· Господар, (The Master), poems, (Niš, 2004),

· Човек песма, (Man-poem), poems (Vranje, 2007),

· Бдења и буђења, (Vigils and awakenings), poems, (co- authored, Svrljig-Knjaževac, 2010),

· Трунке, (The specks), short prose (Pančevo, 2011/2012; Knjaževac, 2011),

· О да,( O Yes) poems,(Knjaževac-Beograd, 2013),

· Криво дрво, (The crooked tree) ,a poem (Ниш, 2014),

· Криво дрво, (The crooked tree), poems (Knjaževac, 2014),

· Сабране песме, (Collected poems) (Кnjaževac, 2014),

· Обзнана,(Proclamation), aphorisms, (Niš, 2014)

· Ода Господу,(Ode to the Lord) песме (Niš, 2014),

· Кратке, кратке приче, (Short, short stories) (Кnjaževac, 2015),

· Зид, песме, (The wall), poems (Belgrade-Niš, 2015),

· Изабране, кратке приче, (Selected, short stories) (Niš, 2015),

· Записи, (The records) essays, (Књажевац, 2016).

· Жваке, (The gum), short stories (Niš, 2016)

· Ође и намо, (Here and there) short stories, (Niš, 2016)

· Песник, (The poet), poem, (Ниш, 2017)

· Радујем се што нисам Бог, (I am happy not to be the God) poems, (Niš, 2017)

· Бог је лудило, (God is madness) essay, (Niš, 2018)

· Први пољубац (The first kiss) poems, (Ниш, 2018)

A link to the biography of Prof. Bogdanović in Serbian

Title photo: Andrej Jovanović