The lecture will focus on several aspects which are encompassed by the Biblioteka XX vek as a source for studying critical approaches to school and education after 1968: the books of the series with examples of the theoretical and philosophical influences on analysis of ideological and political functions of education; books and informal education in Yugoslavia 1970–1990, a step out from compulsory literature; education with Biblioteka XX vek, readers’ experiences; the place of social and humanistic literature, including Biblioteka XX vek, in education towards democracy, as well as the contribution of this literature to the fight against nationalisms and new fascism.

Born in 1938 in Belgrade, he graduated in general literature from the Faculty of Philology in Belgrade (1961) and obtained a master’s degree in Romance studies (1972). He earned his PhD in ethnology from the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade (1983). He worked as an editor in several publishing companies and retired (in 2000) as a scientific advisor at the Ethnographic Institute of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU). He lectured and was a visiting professor at universities in France, Spain, Germany, Italy, England, Slovenia, Switzerland, and Poland. He translated about ten books from French, primarily works by Roland Barthes and Georges Bataille. He has published 17 books of studies and essays. He has received the following awards and honors: the Herder Prize (2000), the Order of the Knight of the Legion of Honor (2001), the “Konstantin Obradović” Award (2006), the charter of the “Friend of Danas Newspaper” (2009), the title of honorary doctor of the University of Warsaw (2010), the “Knight’s Call” award (2010), and the “Konstantin Jireček” Medal (2012). He founded the Library of the 20th Century in 1971, and since 1988, he has been its publisher. (The history of the Library is presented in Dubravka Stojanović’s book “Foot in the Door: Contributions to the Political Biography of the Library of the 20th Century”, 2011)