Ksenija Atanasijević and Rabindranath Tagore

Ksenija Atanasijević published no fewer than five articles on Rabindranath Tagore. The last one is among her final published articles, and appeared in a special issue of the journal dedicated to her. Atanasijević’s interest in the Bengali poet has remained under-researched. It should be understood within the context of the poet’s interwar image, in which he was hailed as a world teacher and universal messianic figure, a phenomenon referred to as Tagorism. Atanasijević contributed to this image of the poet in Serbian culture. Her views were, however, peculiar in some aspects since she tried to assess Tagore through his potential importance for feminism; at the same time, she criticized his version of Buddhism, defending what she saw as the purity of Buddha’s message.