Midhat Begić

Literary critic and essayist. He was born in Lopare and graduated in French language and Yugoslav literature at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade in 1934. He worked at the Ministry of Culture in Sarajevo 1945-1948, and at the Institute for Social Relations in Belgrade 1948-1950 . He was a lecturer of Serbo-Croatian language at the Faculte des Lettres in Lyon from 1950-53 . In Lyon, he defended his doctoral dissertation. He was a professor at the University of Sarajevo until his retirement in 1973 but also spent three years (1966-69) as a professor of Yugoslav literature and civilization at the Sorbonne University in Paris. In 1957 he founded the magazine for literary and artistic criticism Izraz and was its editor-in-chief until 1964. He received a large number of awards for his lifelong work including two prestigious awards in France: Prix de l'Academie francaise and Ordre du merite national francais.