Cosmopolitan projects of Dimitrije Mitrinović from the 1930s and the dilemmas of interpretation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18485/kis.2020.52.171.12Keywords:
Dimitrije Mitrinović, The New Britian, Eric Gutkind, social club, Gnosticism, New Atlantis Foundation, Predrag PalavestraAbstract
Multiple projects of Dimitrije Mitrinović in the 1920s and 1930s never evolved into real political or social movements, although some of them had the capacity for that. It seems that Mitrinović preferred a social club with some mystical elements and loyal followers to the loosely connected members of a political or social movement. The two streams of his actions, which he had originally developed in the 1920s, continued in the 1930s. The first was aimed at social reform and the second at Christian mysticism which was very much based on Gnosticism. The New Britain journal is an example of the first stream, although it also had elements of the second. His correspondence with Eric Gutkind from this period (1927-1932) reveals once more the mystical Mitrinović. His overall efforts are summarized as the project of a Gnostic Christian social club that, at times, developed into a movement. Some dilemmas of interpretation remain since the New Atlantis Foundation, for many decades, kept his archives and correspondence and insisted on its own version of Mitrinović’s teachings. The first to challenge their views was Predrag Palavestra.
References
Sources
UB - SC, NAF, University of Bradford, Special Collections, New Atlantis Foundation
UL SM - RBD (University Library "Svetozar Marković" in Belgrade, Rare Books Department), folder Mitrinović
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