FROM PASTURE TO CULTURE HERO – PROCESSES OF MYTHIZATION OF MIHAJLO I. PUPIN IN THE CONTEMPORARY SERBIAN CONTEXT

Abstract

Michael Idvorsky Pupin (1854–1935) has represented a phenomenon in the modern Serbian context starting from the second decade of the twenty-first century, although he lived and worked in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the United States. This Serbian-American scientist and diplomat appeared as the main character in a television commercial in 2018, he was the central figure of the exhibition "Pupin – From Physical to Spiritual Reality" (2015–2017) in the Historical Museum of Serbia, books are being written about him, and numerous films and shows are being made. Assuming that the popularity of Pupin's character is not the result of spontaneous processes, and that he has become popularized and mythologized by certain interest groups, I tried to reflect on the process which led to this outcome, and to determine why it occurred a century after the scholar's life. This review paper will firstly consider whether Pupin can be seen as a cultural hero and whether his character has undergone the processes of mythization.