Nenad Veličković: At our university, we train teachers for an ethnic reading of literature
Rethinking Academia (Part 2) — Sarajevan professor and author talks ‘Academic Charlatanism,' nationalism in education and the far-reaching collapse of academic standards.
Photo: Imrana Kapetanović / K2.0
Naturally, the scientific approach is not the only means of engaging with literature. There are many other, less restrictive ways of dealing with it. However, since we have set up a specific scientific framework for literature, certain titles and authority stemming from it — and privileges, by the same token — we ought to respect some standards that go hand in hand with science as well.
I have proven that these professionals, particularly the people in my department, deviate from these standards and if you read my book, you can see that the same applies to the dean’s office, the academic council and the university senate.
Unfortunately, there are clear indications that the situation is not much better outside of Sarajevo or Bosnia and Herzegovina as a whole.
The most boring, yet the most important part of the book encompasses proving that people who present themselves as scientists are not scientists — with respect to what they do and how they do it — because they do not meet the aforementioned scientific standards.
Academic ranks are held by apparatchiks whose mission is to work for the ethnic groups they belong to.
The book shows that a work that someone presents as scientific may be pure nonsense that is entirely redundant and useless to everyone.
Can this situation change? Realistically speaking — and I think this is what my book shows as well — it cannot, at least not now, or anytime soon.
Đorđe Krajišnik
Đorđe Krajišnik is a literary critic and a journalist at the Oslobođenje daily newspaper and the Dani magazine. In October 2017, he worked as a resident for the Berlin daily Der Tagesspiegel. His literary critiques and other texts have been published in magazines and on websites across the Yugosphere. His publications have been translated into English, German and Albanian. He reviewed and edited several books. Currently, he is working on his first fiction book that will be published soon, should the Muses be in his favor.
This story was originally written in Serbian.