Croatian Writers Research Articles

Patriotic and Religious Perspectives in the Literature of Boro Pavlović — Echoes of Tradition in Modernity

Croatian poetry of the 20th century is characterized by a great diversity of worldviews and ideas regardless of whether one examines it from a synchronic or a diachronic standpoint. The spiritual stratification process of Croatian poetry began at the turn of 20th century with a discussion between traditionalists and modernists on the principles of literary creation, and it developed partially among modernists toward an acceptance of contesting notions regarding Christianity. A step further in this respect was taken during the first two decades, when literary creation in the Yugoslav state of that time was under strong communist ideological pressure which resulted in a departure from the spiritual, but also from national–patriotic content, either by rejecting/neglecting it or through a negativistic attitude toward it. Among those who successfully resisted this pressure and thus preserved the spirit of tradition in modernity is the writer Boro Pavlović (1922–2022). The aim of this article is to determine the relationship between modernity and tradition in his literary work by taking into account the aforementioned elements. As a paradigmatic field for research and interpretation, examples were taken from the author’s patriotic and religious poetry, as well as some of his essays and studies on Croatian writers and literary themes which point to the fact that Pavlović’s literary work is a model of the inclusive interweaving of modernity with tradition in regard to worldviews and ideas, content and themes, but also, though only partially so, in regard to linguistic expression.

UKRŠTENE STAZE MODERNISTIČKE POETIKE: PROZA IVANA FRANKA I ANTUNA GUSTAVA MATOŠA

The article examines the peculiarities of modernist poetics in the prose works of the classic Ukrainian writer Ivan Franko and the classic Croatian writer Antun Gustav Matoš. For the comparative analysis, the author of the paper has chosen Ivan Franko’s novel Fateful Cross- roads (1900) and Antun Gustav Matoš’s short story Camao (1900). These works, which have never been the subject of comparison, have many common motifs and typological parallels, the analysis of which can provide interesting material for studying the peculiarities of mod- ernism in Slavic pieces of literature. In the proposed article, we analyze these „crossing paths” in the works of Ukrainian and Croatian writers.

문학 속의 정치

The causes of the collapse of the Yugoslav Federation can be found in many ways, but ‘nationalism’ is the most decisive. However, the issue of “should only the Serbian people be held responsible for the dissolution of Yugoslavia and the civil war?” is a very sensitive issue, and looking at the history of nationalism that existed before the formation of Yugoslavia shows that Serbia and other republics cannot be completely free from that responsibility. In this paper, we examine the historical development and characteristics of ‘nationalism’ in Yugoslavia, particularly in Serbia and Croatia, and based on this, the relationship between ‘literature’ and ‘nationalism’ in Serbia and Croatia around the 1990s. The Serbian and Croatian literary circles have clearly differentiated their position over the dissolution of Yugoslavia since 1991, while the Croatian literary community, which sought to gain independence from Yugoslavia, sought to find its national identity in literature and to make it as distinct as possible. Based on the overall position of Serbian and Croatian literary circles, we examine representative Serbian and Croatian writers who worked on literature around the breakup of Yugoslavia and the Bosnian civil war at the end of the 20th century.

Wilde about Wilde — The Translation of Oscar Wilde’s Salomé in Croatian Literature of the Early 20th Century

The Irish writer Oscar Wilde was extremely popular in Croatian culture in the first decades of the 20th century. Although Croatian writers of that time generally did not read the original works of British authors but rather their translations, Wilde’s popularity in Germany and Vienna sparked interest in his works among the Croatian readership and spectatorship. This paper explores the translation of Wilde’s Salomé from German by Julije Benešić and Nikola Andrić, and the complex influence that this translation had on Croatian literature of early modernism, relying primarily on the interpretation of the same motif in the texts of young Fran Galović and Miroslav Krleža. The paper argues that the influence of Wilde’s aestheticism is visible not only in the adoption of typical motifs, characters, or atmosphere but also in the autonomous and self-reflective language play in Krleža’s texts.

Franjo Tuđman i problemi objavljivanja knjige Nacionalno pitanje u suvremenoj Europi

Na temelju izvora iz fondova Hrvatskoga državnog arhiva, osobito dokumentacije koju je Služba državne sigurnosti Republičkog sekretarijata za unutrašnje poslove Socijalističke Republike Hrvatske prikupila o Bogdanu Radici i Franji Tuđmanu te korespondencije tih dvaju intelektualaca koju je ta služba nadzirala, autor u radu iznosi okolnosti inicijative tiskanja Tuđmanove knjige Nacionalno pitanje u suvremenoj Europi u inozemstvu. Naime, nakon kaznenih progona 1972. i 1981. Tuđman je prisilno udaljen iz društvenoga života, pritiješnjen stvarnošću jugounitarizma. Odvažni napor tiskanja knjige, usprkos svim prijetnjama, prerastao je u pokušaj njegova izlaska iz nametnute izolacije koja je trajala sve do 1988., kada je primljen u Društvo književnika Hrvatske, nakon čega počinje nastupati na javnim tribinama te 1989. objavljuje i knjigu Bespuća povijesne zbiljnosti.

Gabriele d’Annunzio e Ivo Andrić: un confronto fra le poesie Consolazione e Il Ritorno

The present work aims to investigate the influence of Gabriele d’Annunzio on Serbian writer Ivo Andrić, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1961. The possibility of the influence of d’Annunzio on Andrić is analysed by a comparison between two poems, d’Annunzio’s Consolazione and Andrić’s Il Ritorno, focusing on their similarities and differences. The results represent the homage to the studies of prof. Željko Đurić who also considered the importance of d’Annunzio’s poem Consolazione in one of many of his pieces of research dedicated to the influence of d’Annunzio on Serbian and Croatian writers.

Optimisation of archival processes involving digitisation of typewritten documents

PurposeThe authors investigate optical character recognition (OCR) technology and discuss its implementation in the context of digitisation of archival materials.Design/methodology/approachThe typewritten transcripts of the Croatian Writers' Society from the mid-60s of the 20th century are used as the test data. The optimal digitisation setup is investigated in order to obtain the best OCR results. This was done by using the sample of 123 pages digitised at different resolution settings and binarisation levels.FindingsA series of tests showed that different settings produce significantly different results. The best OCR accuracy achieved at the test sample of the typewritten documents was 95.02%. The results show that the resolution is significantly more important than binarisation pre-processing procedure for achieving better OCR results.Originality/valueBased on the research results, the authors give recommendations for achieving optimal digitisation process setup with the aim of increasing the quality of OCR results. Finally, the authors put the research results in the context of digitisation of cultural heritage in general and discuss further investigation possibilities.

MATE ZORIĆ ON ALESSANDRO MANZONI

The article focuses on Mate Zorić’s scientific production dedicated to Manzoni and to the reception of The Betrothed among Croatian writers and readership. His critical interest is due to Manzoni’s close ties to Marko Kažotić and Niccolò Tommaseo, writers amply studied by Zorić since the 1950s. A third reason of his critical interest, discussed in this article, is Manzoni’s popularity among the Croatian readership through the translations of his works. The merit of Zorić is not only that of having identified the first attempt at translating Manzoni’s masterpiece in the archives of the National and University Library in Zagreb, but also of having applied the results of the studies of Croatian and Comparative Literature to the studied material. Attributing (along with the literary critic Emil Štampar) the translation published in 1875-1876 to the Croatian writer and translator Josip Eugen Tomić, Zorić also illustrates “the echoes of Manzoni” in the formation and flourishing of the Croatian historical novel. Mate Zorić’s work continues to stimulate further research on the subject from the perspectives of Comparative Literature and Translation Studies.

МИСТЕЦЬКА ТРАНСКРИПЦІЯ ОБРАЗІВ ЕДГАРА АЛЛАНА ПО У ПРОЗІ АНТУНА ГУСТАВА МАТОША Й МИХАЙЛА ЯЦКОВА

Background: On the one hand, the literary works of A.G. Matoš were studied by Croatian scholars in the context of the philosophy and poetics of modernism. The authors of fundamental studies about A.G. Matoš are Dubravko Jelčić, Dubravka Oraić Tolić, Mladen Dorkin, Zlatko Posavac, Miljenko Majetić and Nada Iveljić. On the other hand, Ukrainian researchers Mykola Ilnytskyi, Solomiya Pavlychko, Oksana Melnyk, and Polish researcher Agnieszka Matusiak analyzed and studied M. Yatskiv's creative style in the context of the aesthetic canons of the modernism. The novelty of this article is in addressing the influence of E. Poe on the literary texts of the Ukrainian and Croatian modernists using the comparative approach. Purpose: This is the first attempt to analyze the influence of E. Poe on A. G. Matoš and M. Yatskiv. This article treats the actual and yet not studied question of a multilayer impact (composition, imagery set) of the American writer on the Croatian and Ukrainian modernist writers. Results: Romanticism writer Edgar Poe undoubtedly influenced Mykhailo Yatskiv and Antun Gustav Matoš, especially with his essay “The Philosophy of Composition”. In this essay the author demonstrates the principle of constructing the plot with the logic and the hidden mechanisms of imagery construction. But in the biography of the American writer we can find facts that poems such as “Nevermore”, “Ligeia” and others weren`t the result of logic, but they were yearning for his wife who passed away being very young. The author of this study found a numerous allusions on the essay “The Philosophy of Composition” by E. Poe, his images of a horror crow and a cat, as well as the images of dead beloved beautyis in many literary works of A.G. Matoš and M. Yatskiv. Croatian and Ukrainian symbolists also used E. Poe`s technique of the total effect. Mystery element is generalized in the literary texts of three authors in the images of the sphinx, which has several meanings. The most common meaning is the abstract definition of something mysterious that needs to be answered. Similarities between Matoš's and Yatskiv's imagery with American writer E. Poe prove, that Ukrainian and Croatian writers were inspired by the world art achievements, creatively transforming ideas that were contemporary both to the romanticism and modernism. Key words: Edgar Allan Poe, Antun Gustav Matoš, Mykhailo Yatskiv, modernism, romanticism, “The Philosophy of Composition”, art scenography.

Neorealism and the village motif in italian and croatian writers

Djelovanje sterilne umjetnosti pod njegom fašizma počelo se povlačiti uoči rata da bi stalo čim je uspostavljen mir pod pritiskom dokumentarno obojenog realizma. Unutarnji glas savjesti navodio je talijanskog pisca da spasi književnost izmučenu dvadesetogodišnjim mistifikacijama i obmanama, da je izliječi od euforije i laži fino umotane u prazni estetizam ili u patriotsku pergamenu. Generacija talijanskih pisaca, koja je sazrijevala između dva rata, opredijelila se za novu neorealističku koncepciju stvaralačkog čina i kreče u potragu za novim izvorima nadahnuća zaustavljajući pažnju na socijalnim motivima obilato prisutnim u ruralnoj sredini. U par decenija neorealizam je uhvatio duboke korijene što se odrazilo na mnoštvu knjiga koje su nosile u sebi nove, ljudske poruke. Veliki broj njih preveden je na hrvatskosrpski jezik već pedesetih godina. U ovom radu istraživanja su usmjerena na otkrivanje dodirnih niti Između djela neorealista koji su svoje kazivanje usredotočili na selo i nekih romana dalmatinskih pisaca — Vladana Desnice i Mirka Božića na primjer — koji su medu seljacima pronašli uzvišeni smisao pričanja. Uspoređujući Fontamaru I. Silonea, Krist, se zaustavio u Eboliju C. Levija, Zimsko Ijetovanje V. Desnice i Kurlane M. Božića autor dolazi do konstatacije da su se pomenuti pisci uputili na selo iz sličnih pobuda, da su preskočili ograde klasičnog načina izlaganja stvari, da su postavili sebi kao cilj očitovanje istine o jednom s vremenom mistificiranom ljudskom bitisanju. Njima se desetak godina kasnije pridružuje Fulvio Tomizza svojim prvijencem Materada (1960). Iz navedenih djela izbija težnja da se kroz povijesnu determinantnu predoči sudbina odbačenog svijeta, koji »životari na ivici ponora«, čiji je duh srastao sa zemljom i umrtvio, da književnu riječ stave u službu čovjeka koga od pamtivijeka pogađa nepravda, koji je najveća žrtva civilizatotskog procesa. Motivi sela našli su dostojno mjesto u književnom stvaralaštvu kome je otvorio put neorealizam, čiji je glas dopro i do dalmatinskih umjetnika.

NYELV, IDENTITÁS, KULTÚRA: FORDÍTHATÓSÁG ÉS DEPENDENCIA

A dolgozat az identitás–kultúra–nyelv fogalomköréből kiindulva vizsgálja három kortárs horvát szerző – Dubravka Ugrešić, Mirko Kovač és Miljenko Jergović – műveinek fordíthatóságát (és a „fordító feladatát”), különös tekintettel az identitás és a kulturális kötődés nyelven keresztüli részleges, illetve szinte teljes konstituálódása és a fordíthatóság közötti kapcsolatra. Ahol az egyéni identitás általános kérdései nem közvetlenül és expliciten tematizálódnak, ott az identitás hordozói a kultúra és a nyelv kontextusában rejtőznek. Az ilyen szövegek természetesen annál kevésbé fordíthatók, minél kevésbé honosak a forrásnyelv identitáshordozó elemei a célnyelvhez tartozó kultúrában. A fabularitásra építő és ezzel egy időben a kulturális „paranomázia” felé erőteljesen elmozduló szövegek esetében ugyanakkor a fordító minél otthonosabban mozog a forrásnyelvi kultúrában, annál erőteljesebben szembesül(het) a külső/idegen világ befogadásának lehetségességével, ám e tapasztalat egy másik nyelv szavaival történő visszaadásának lehetetlenségével is.

English and Croatian citation practices in research articles in applied linguistics: a corpus-based study

As a mandatory constituent of academic writing, citation allows writers to acknowledge other scholarsʼ work and to position their research against it, showing thus both contribution to previous knowledge and research novelty (Hyland 2004). Previous research has documented not only cross-disciplinary (Hyland 2004) but also cross-cultural variations, with a general tendency of Anglo-American writers to use more citations than writers of some other cultural backgrounds (Hyland 2005; Mur Dueñas 2009). By exploring the frequency, preferred types, and reporting structures of citations in two comparable sub-corpora of research articles in applied linguistics in English and Croatian, the present study aimed to provide an insight into the patterns of cross-cultural similarities and differences in the use of academic citation. The corpus comprised 32 research articles that were sampled from the representative English- and Croatian-medium publications in applied linguistics and analyzed manually. The extracted instances of citations were categorized according to the pre-established taxonomies of the citation types (Swales, 1990) and reporting structures in academic writing (Thomson & Tribble 2001). The frequency analysis showed that the English writers used more citations as opposed to the Croatian writers, which is in line with previous cross-cultural research on the use of citations (Fløttum, Dahl & Kinn 2006; Mur Dueñas 2009). In both sub-corpora writers used more non-integral than integral citations, with the highest frequencies reported in the Introduction section of research articles. The overall findings point to the saliency of the congruent types of reporting structures in both citation formats across the two sub-corpora, with the human subjects being most frequently used in integral citations and non-reporting being the most frequent reporting structure in non-integral citations. However, in non-integral citations English writers used non-human subjects at a significantly higher frequency than Croatian writers, which suggests that in the English citations investigated more importance is placed on research activities than human agents. Whereas similarities in the use of citations between English and Croatian writers may be accounted for by the congruent disciplinary variable, the differences seem to be related to the specifics of a wider socio-cultural background in which academic writing is embedded.

Doprinos jačanju nacionalne i kulturne svijesti

This paper analyzes the literary magazine Lovor which was published in 1897. Like other literary magazines of the period, Lovor had a short life, lasting only 12 issues, from January 10 to June 25 1897. Editor-in-chief of Lovor was a prominent Croatian writer Rikard Katalinić Jeretov. The aim of this paper is to show the impact of the Lovor on the development of cultural life and on the awakening of national consciousness in Zadar at the time. Quantitative and qualitative content analysis was applied to analyze the thematic structure of all literary genres published in 12 issues of the magazine: poems, sketches, short stories, reviews, various articles, travelogues and information / news. Research has shown that these kinds of literature in Lovor contributed to the development of cultural life in Zadar, spreading knowledge about Croatian culture, whether in poems, patriotic poems, sketches and short stories on social issues; articles with interesting information about Croatian writers and their works, or in the news / announcements in which readers had the opportunity to learn news from the cultural life of the country and from abroad, and about new poetry books and other literary works.

Literature and Writers in the Digital Age: A Small-Scale Survey of Contemporary Croatian Writers’ Organization and Preservation Practices

Abstract Authors and other creative workers today are faced with the (r)evolution of digital technology and media that slowly change and challenge the way they create, disseminate, and preserve their work. The purpose of this paper is to explore the attitudes, habits, and practices of contemporary Croatian writers in a small-scale sample in terms of the creation, organization, and preservation of digital documents and various literary forms. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with nine contemporary Croatian writers and examined through narrative analysis of the interview transcripts. The research highlighted areas that need to be more thoroughly considered when we are dealing with issues of personal digital archiving, digital legacies, and the preservation of digital cultural heritage in general. In-depth interviews with respondents indicated one particularly important issue: that preserving the context of their work is as important as preserving the work itself.

Death and Dying in the Works of Two Croatian Writers

Paper elucidating the views upon death and dying expressed in the works of two Croatian writers, Dobrisa Cesaric and Miroslav Krleza. The paper concludes with a suggestion of an inquiry into the influence of the works by Cesaric and Krleza upon the ideas of modern elementary school and high school generations on death and dying.

An attempt at celebrating Drzic’s aniversary in 1958

In 1958 in Yugoslavia, a celebration of 450th anniversary of Marin Drzic?s birth was organized. This anniversary wax intended to be of national importance and the organizers of the event were the Association of Yugoslav Writers and the Association of Croatian Writers. The State Organizational Board for the celebration of Drzic?s anniversary was established. The preserved archival materials, however, show that a lot of problems occurred and that Drzic?s anniversary was not marked the way it had been planned.

Antun Gustav Matoš i Đakovo

The paper deals with the relationship between Antun Gustav Matos and the most important people of the town’s cultural and political life at the turn of the 19 th into 20 th century. The relationship between Matos and the town Đakovo is considered from two perspectives: the first being the perspective of Matos, which is based on his two travel accounts and numerous writings about Đakovo, i.e. the Bishop of the Diocese of Đakovo, Josip Juraj Strossmayer; the second perspective is that of Đakovo-based writers and considers their attitudes towards Matos, with a special regard to the Bishop Strossmayer. The relationship between Antun Gustav Matos and the Bishop Strossmayer was complex, even though it was, seemingly paradoxical, one-sided. Strossmayer was in many, ways an extraordinarily important person for Matos, who wrote many texts about Strossmayer, for Strossmayer however, Matos was only one among many young Croatian writers who were asking him for help and wrote about him. Strossmayer refused to provide Matos with patronage, therefore the aim of this paper is to establish the reasons behind that decision, and determine why Croatia’s most prominent patron could not, or refused to, acknowledge one of Croatia’s most important writers.

O povijesno-književnim (re)konstrukcijama Matoša

This article deals with the constructions of „Matos” in Croatian histories of literature. Central for the study is Alum Munslow’s thesis that history cannot be „non-narrative”. In that respect the relationship between hi/story and narrative genre is studied on examples of how the „character” of Antun Gustav Matos, one of the most famous Croatian writers from the beginning of twentieth century, is both perceived and constructed in historical narrative and in philological context that is discursively circled by the narrative.

Death and dying in the works of two Croatian writers.

Death and dying in the works of two Croatian writers.

Goodnight, Croatian writers

‘Goodnight, Croatian fighters, wherever you may be’ is repeated at the end of all evening news broadcasts on Croatian television. This message to the defenders of Croatia came into use in peak viewing time more than a year ago and is still in use today