Humanities at the Periphery. The Return to Philology and the Importance of Literary Studies

The first chapter of the paper summarizes the devaluation process of the humanistic values that has begun in the West a few decades ago. The question is why and how the so-called knowledge societies marginalize humanistic knowledge. The second, third, and fourth chapters are the proposal of the mission of the humanities today: pushed out to society’s periphery, the humanities have the task of preserving skills, experiences, and knowledge that so-called knowledge society considers needless. Thereby, the paper advocates the importance of returning to philology, as Paul de Man puts it in his article Return to Philology, and tries to show the extent to which philology, ceasing to be national, becomes a communal, political and ethical force.

Periferni likovi u romanu U registraturi Ante Kovačića

In this paper, the author examines a work of one of the most significant Croatian literary writers, Ante Kovačić, whose novel U registraturi (In the Registry Office) is considered by many literary critics and theoreticians to be the best writing of Croatian realism. It is an author who was not understood at the time when his work appeared, which is why the text was published in the form of a novel with a twenty-three year delay. Nonlinear composition of the text, elements of fantasy literature and innovative literary process in creating a fabula and sujet course of events confused literary critics as well as readership, which points to the fact that Ante Kovačić was treated for a long time as a peripheral author. In this narrative text, the misery and helplessness of peasants and their revolt against their feudal lords in Croatia are described, therefore the object of our analysis will be the characterisation of figures from various layers of society, with a particular focus on the “peripheral characters” of Kovačić’s prose. Using the term “peripheral characters” we will attempt to bring close those characters of subjugated peasants in relation to the feudal-capitalist social layer and thereby emphasise their role in the novel in relation to their fate. Unlike the characters of the peasants – Ivica Kičmanović (whom the social order turns into a lackey and scoundrel); Jožica Zgubidan (the personification of a poor person from Zagorje), Anica (a patriarchal girl with an angelic face); Miha; Perica; the neighbouring Kanoniks; and the Medonjićes – Kovačić brings us harsh, drastic images of moral vacillations in the city in which figures, distorted into caricatures, dominate. By contrasting the rural environment with the city life, the author is writing an “epopee of the village and city” in which the “peripheral characters” become tragic ones. These characters are the carriers of elements of “fantastic realism,” and their function is to show all the depravities of society and to announce the phenomenon of the innovative processes of narration familiar to authors of the modern literature. Finally, we come to the conclusion that Ante Kovačić made a step forward in relation to the generation of realists, with the peripheral position of his creation disappearing with the emergence of modern literary achievements, which ultimately gives the author and his work a polished place in Croatian literature.

Preispitivanje položaja Marije Jurić Zagorke u hrvatskoj književnosti

The emphasis of the paper is on the linguistic analysis of fragments from the novel Grička vještica written by Marija Jurić Zagorka. The paper objective is to answer how much linguistic craftsmanship defined this novel, and thus the literary work of Zagorka in general. It has been shown how language and literature in Zagorka’s writing intertwine. The language of the novel was analysed by extracting concrete fragments in which the lexics, stylistic figures and additional features of Zagorka’s style of writing were analysed. We researched how much attention was given to the language in building the plot. The arising question is how justified the position of Zagorka outside the literary canon is if her writing style does not differ significantly from the writers who are included in the canon.

Književno stvaralaštvo manjina u Hrvatskoj – dio hrvatske književnosti ili ne?

There are numerous national minorities in Croatia supported by the state in their maintenance of minority languages, cultures and traditions. And many of these minorities with songs, dance and customs cherish their own literature, meaning poetry, prose, and drama written by their members in minority languages or in Croatian. These works are mostly known among members of the minorities, but sometimes it is difficult to find the way to readers of the majority of the population. An example of such a minority literature with a long tradition is literary creation of the Czech, who have been living in today’s Croatia for over two hundred years. Nowadays regularly or occasionally there are about thirty authors who write mostly in Czech, but to come to the readership, some of them have been translating their work into the Croatian language lately or leaving their mother tongue and starting to create in Croatian. Are Croatia’s minority works known and to what extent? What are the possibilities of writers using minority languages to publish their works? Why are minority literary works important, what can they offer to a broader readership and in what way can they enrich Croatian literature? How could they reach the majority population and could they wake up the interest beyond Croatian borders? And what difficulties do minority writers encounter? In the presentation, we will use the example of Czech minority literary works in Croatia to answer these and other issues related to minority literature emerging in Croatia, but remaining unknown to the Croatian public.

Mediteran u hrvatskoj književnosti i kulturi. Pogled izvana

Croatian literature and culture belong to the three neighboring civilizational and cultural circles: the Mediterranean, the Central European and the Balkanian. The role of each respective circle and the proportions among them depend on the place and the historical context in question. In both diachronic and synchronic perspectives, Croatian culture is an illustrative example of a polycentric and (cross)border culture whose identity is primarily Mediterranean and Central European. Its uniqueness, originality and unity stem from the richness and diversity of the cultural content of which it is composed. The Mediterranean component as a whole is very diverse and complex. This paper examines the importance of the categories of space and place in the humanities and the role of the Mediterranean in Croatian culture.

Dvije autobiografije u stihovima

Although verses as a form are rarely chosen by autobiographers, the history of Croatian autobiography shows that some writers have had the inclination towards writing autobiographies in verses. The form of a poem can be linked with the beginnings of writing autobiographical texts and with the autobiographical discourse in the works of Croatian writers. Even though it has not been in the focus of interest of autobiographical theory, the autobiographical elements can be found in the period spanning from the 15th- and 16th-century Croatian poetry in the works of the Croatian Latinists up to the present time which represents the golden period of autobiographic writing. Focusing on the autobiographers’ inclination to write in verse (from heterogenous autobiographies, where verses are incorporated into the text itself, to autobiographies poems), this paper shows the marginal place that the form of a poem occupies in the field of researching and defining autobiography as a genre. The fact has been corroborated by providing an outline of verses in autobiographies and autobiographies in verses throughout the history of Croatian literature. Special attention is given to two autobiographies-poems, written by two contemporary writers of Croatian Moderna ‒ Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić (Autoportrait from Rogaška Slatina; 1932) and Vladimir Nazor (Autobiography; 1927). Having in common the form and some themes and motifs (such as looking back at their lives, the author, the narrator and the main character being one and the same person, retrospective perspective), these two autobiographies show how placing emphasis on intimate elements, the form of a poem can be used to write an autobiography. Without putting into question the theme, the place of the narrator/poet in telling about or taking attitude towards the reality or experiences lived, factographic elements which dominate the early 20th century autobiographies, here are largely overshadowed by the more personal and emotional elements.

Sudbina pjesništva na rubu hrvatskoga kulturnoga prostora na primjeru Stipana Bešlina iz Bačke

This paper presents a brief review of the position of poetry written by Šokci Croats in the context of Croatian poetry in the part of Bačka that belongs to Vojvodina. Particular attention is placed upon the poet Stipan Bešlin, who lived in the inter-war period. We analyse the representation of the mentioned poet on Croatian ground during his life till nowadays. In addition, Bešlin’s poetry is thematically reviewed; his poetry, his stylistic and linguistic choices are researched. It is shown that Bešlin’s poetic destiny is marginalised from different aspects. He is marginalised as a šokavian poet from Bačka, and as a poet who is Catholic as well as a poet whose first book of poems was published thirty years after his death, in a politically inconvenient moment. The poems Bešlin wrote short before his early death are considered his best poetic work.

Periferno kao izbor u romanu Mirisi, zlato i tamjan Slobodana Novaka

In this paper we will analyze the personal choice of individuals, who chose peripheral life on the island which is their prison and their freedom at the same time. Though eager to do so, the protagonists of the novel, Mali and Draga, do not escape from the island. They are essentially prisoners of their own choice, from which they apparently try to escape, not escaping only from responsibilities and obligations that tie them to the island, that is, to nurturing a handicapped old women Madonna. In self-deprivation and oppression satisfying Madonna’s wishes, Mali voluntarily fulfills her desires, aware of the nonsense in which he dives, conscious of alienation, which he cannot resist. Although, at one point, Mali will pronounce all of his own disappointment, the reader will not accept it as the main hero’s awareness about the failure of life but she/he will rather “involve” in a postmodernist way in author’s thinking and his attitude towards the main character. The essence of the psychological lies not in the fact that the writer played with the possibility of rejecting the protagonist, but, on the contrary, enabled him to choose his path, which led him to the island, on which he remains. The bareness of life was reduced by the literary process to the final outcome of the earthly existence. Without coercion or request, just by rough realistic method, the writer points to the masculinity of the main character, who is firm, does not give up on his ideals, but at the same time remains a prisoner of his habits. With the abundance of biblical motifs and symbols, Slobodan Novak created the hero of the novel who grows out of the narrative events and who is not uniform, but in the given situations he changes, resisting, retreating or adjusting. In the atmosphere of the stagnant island an ironic and scathing prose was made, whose main protagonists accepted peripherality as a habit.