Dragutin Ilić (Belgrade, 2 February or 14 February 1858 – Belgrade, 1 May 1926) was a Serbian playwright, poet, novelist, journalist and politician. Along with Matija Ban and Djordje Maletić, Ilić dominated the Serbian stage during the late 19th century.
As far back as the end of the 18th century, science fiction elements can be found in Serbian literature, but its modern period foundation is considered to commence with "Posle milijon godina" (After Million of Years), written by Dragutin Ilić in 1889, which is also considered the first science fiction theatrical play in modern Serbian literature. Lazar Komarčić's novel "Jedna ugašena zvezda" (An Extinguished Star) followed in 1902.
Biography
Dragutin Ilić is the son of Jovan Ilić, and brother of the poet Vojislav Ilić, his younger sibling. Dragutin's best works, however, were his plays and novels. Educated to be a lawyer, but was drawn towards journalism and literary pursuits, particularly the theatre. He worked as an editor and civil servant.
Though Dragutin wrote his first play in the mid-1870s, it was not till a few years after the Serbian-Ottoman War (1876-78) that he decided to offer a play to the National Theatre in Belgrade. The first play he gave to the theatre was a drama called Vukašin in 1881. The play was produced the following year with a resounding success. Dragutin followed up with another 12 plays up until 1906, all successfully performed with rave reviews. The tradition of patriotic theatre with music extended through the century, culminating in one aspect of the work of Slovene-born composer Davorin Jenko at the National Theatre in Belgrade. These were sung plays, but with Vračara (Sorceress) of 1882 Jenko composed what is often regarded as the first Serbian operetta and with his music for Dragutin Ilić's Pribislav i Bozana (1894) he came close to a full-blown opera. Also, in Pribislav i Bozana by Dragutin we find stylizations of folk motives appropriate to the very popular kind of Serbian singspiel such as Djido (The Village Playboy) by Janko Veselinvić. Dragutin is said to have approached the singspiel style of the German composer Carl Maria von Weber.
His plays are intensely Serbian and knowledge of the times in which they are set is essential for a proper understanding of them. It was critic Jovan Skerlić's lack of understanding the man himself, rather than the plays and novels he wrote, which was responsible for omitting Dragutin Ilić's name from among the premier writers and poets in his Istorija nove srpske književnosti (History of Modern Serbian Literature). Unlike his younger brother Vojislav, Dragutin did not consider himself dedicated to poetry only; and most of his early work was written for some immediate, nonliterary purpose. That Dragutin was dedicated to literature, at least to literature in its broadest sense, is borne out of his opus and the fact that he was striving for the beauty of expression can be seen in his style.
Today, however, his name stands among the noteworthy playwrights of that period such as Milorad Popović Šapčanin, Miloš Cvetić, Branislav Nušić, Laza Kostić, Đura Jakšić, and Janko Veselinović, people who constituted most of the intellectual and literary core of the National Theatre in Belgrade of the late nineteenth century.