The scientific turn in the 18th and 19th century Serbian enlightenment

This thesis examines the Serbian Enlightenment as a complex, hybrid movement shaped by imperial rule, religious tradition, and rationalist modernity. It was not merely an imitation of Western models but a culturally negotiated response to the challenges of being a non-sovereign Orthodox society caught between the Ottoman, Habsburg, and Russian empires. The study argues that vernacularization—using spoken Serbian to discuss science and education—was the primary way the Enlightenment ideas were adapted to local needs. This vernacular shift marks the scientific turn: a move from devotional learning toward empirical, utilitarian knowledge that re-centred Serbian intellectual life on observation, measurement, and public usefulness. Through close analysis of figures such as Dositej Obradović, Teodor Janković-Mirijevski, and Vuk Karadžić, the thesis employs a transnational and entangled history approach to trace shifts in language, intellectual networks, and pedagogy across imperial and cultural boundaries. It reveals how Orthodox institutions spread the Enlightenment ideas, how state-funded schools transformed them, and how literature and folklore made them accessible to the public. Reformers did not reject Orthodoxy but merged reason with Christian humanism to form a rational piety compatible with the Enlightenment values. By rethinking the links between imperial constraint, cultural innovation, and vernacular mobilization, the thesis repositions the Serbian Enlightenment within broader European and Balkan intellectual currents, challenging narratives that marginalize the "peripheral" Enlightenments.