5 Books From Croatia

Frequency: irregular and other / Country: Croatia

The project 5 Books from Croatia is part of a new push to promote Croatian literature in a more methodical and transparent way. ‘Small’ literatures have always been less visible in the English-speaking world, trailing behind translations from German, French and Spanish. To date, English editions of Croatian authors have been the result of individual endeavours and the passion of a small number of translators and publishers with a special interest in translated literature.

But while ‘big’ languages have a tradition of systematically promoting books, such as the leading publications 10 Books from Holland and New Books in German, Croatian literature is still terra incognita to most publishers, editors and the broad reading public. This is hardly surprising because well-translated, representative excerpts from the best Croatian titles are neither cheap nor easy to come by.

That is why we have decided to launch 5 Books from Croatia – a publication with a clear editorial conception that once per year will present four contemporary authors and one classic, a ‘forgotten gem’. The aim of the booklet is to highlight Croatian authors whose works radiate features of the country’s culture and literature but at the same time possess a timeless and universal human quality. Sizeable excerpts (around 5,000 words each) give a vivid impression of the rich and exciting climate in Croatian literature today.

Each of the four modern, prize-winning authors brings stylistic and genre-specific innovations to the treatment of classical themes such as wars and other historical turning points, or the relationship of the individual and society.

A. B. Šimić kao likovni kritičar

Author(s): Šimun Musa / Language(s): Croatian / Issue: 1-2/2014

A.B. Šimić is not only a great poet, but also an eminent connoisseur of art expressionism, its theorist and critic with exceptional knowledge of German and French art scenes. Being familiar not only with literary conditions but also with art movements in Europe in general, especially with fine art theory and critics, Šimić used to critically write different articles (discussions, reviews and essays) in a lively and provocative but at the same time ingenious and modern way, proving himself the best connoisseur of European and Croatian literary and art expressionism of that time.

A. G. Matoš, Marcel Proust i Jovan Skerlić, ili Zagreb, Pariz, Beograd, Venecija

Author(s): Milana Vukovic Runjic / Language(s): Croatian / Issue: 04-06/2015

Nije mi bilo dovoljno posvetiti jednu knjigu A. G. Matošu, pa sam mu posvetila dvije. U prvoj, u kojoj ga s Proustom vodim u Veneciju, on je glavni junak, u drugoj, gdje se u imaginarnom hotelu sastaju glavni i sporedni krivci Velikog rata, tek je šutljivi promatrač s drugog svijeta.

Alegorija je putovanje

Author(s): Ružica Pšihistal / Language(s): Croatian / Issue: 1/2015

review of: -------------------- Dolores GRMAČA, Nevolje s tijelom. Alegorija putovanja od Bunića do Barakovića, Matica hrvatska, Zagreb, 2015., 479 str.

Bancbanus – ungarisch, österreichisch, kroatisch

Zur Inszenierung eines umstrittenen historischen Stoffes im 19. Jahrhundert

Author(s): Marijan Bobinac / Language(s): German / Issue: 24/2015

This article presents three dramatics adaptations of the same historic material: the medieval Hungarian aristocrat Bánk (ger. Bancbanus, cro. Benko Bot) appears as the hero in historical plays by the Hungarian author József Katona, German-Austrian Franz Grillparzer and Croatian Franjo Marković. Although these three authors differ greatly in their aesthetic and political positions, they nevertheless share a joint goal: to prompt reflection on the joint (super)national state design against the backdrop of nation building in the Danube Monarchy and the related strengthening of centripetal tendencies.

Bibliografija biblioteke Vjeverice

Author(s): / Language(s): Croatian / Issue: 01/2016

This is the bibliography of the "Vjeverica" book series.

Bruno i Benn, czyli pokrewieństwo po tamtej stronie śmierci

Author(s): Damir Šodan / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 5/2015

When one compares the lots of two great European authors of the first half of the 20thcentury – the German poet Gottfried Benn (1886–1956) and the Polish-Jewish fiction writer Bruno Schulz (1892–1942) – at first sight their lives seem quite different and incomparable. Still, it is enough to reach under the surface of the so-called historical facts to realize that in some respects the two writers are indeed close to each other. Asregards politics and history, a common denominator of their biographies was Nazism as an emanation of pure evil from provincial East-Central Europe, and its belief that human nature may be improved which the historical process makes it possible to develop great geopolitical systems, even at the cost of suspending all ethical principles. A starting point for that daemonic parochial activism is mostly the “provincial spirit of utopia” or,to be precise, its irresistible “realistic nihilism,” to borrow a term coined by the Serbian philosopher Radomir Konstantinovic.

Central Europe as a place of culture/destiny (on the example of Chakavian poetry of Drago Gervais)

Author(s): Vjekoslava Jurdana / Language(s): English / Issue: 12/2016

The paper deals with the life and creative work of the Croatian writer Drago Gervais (Opatija 1904 – Sežana 1957) from the aspect of a complex relationship between writing history and writing literature in Central Europe. This is the area comprising Istria and the Croatian Littoral which, being an area of unstable geopolitical entity, faced numerous colonisations. Such colonial dynamics wrote its history, neglecting the voices of those who lived there. Experiencing all the horrors of the exile, Gervais articulated its entire complexity in a literary and artistic way. The author created a poetics which served him to thematise his own exile offering itself as a specific traumatic experience expressed in great nostalgia and then in melancholia. By creating his authentic poetic expression, he became a (Chakavian) anthological poet and an unrepeatable witness of the trauma of exile as one of the most complex conditions of a human being.

DA EN

Author(s): Milena Benini / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2016

Excerpt from Milena Benini's novel Da En, Zagrebačka naklada, 2015 Additional information about the author

DARK MOTHER EARTH

Author(s): Kristian Novak / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2016

Excerpt from Kristian Novak's novel: Dark Mother Earth, Algoritam, 2013 Additional information about the author

Deset kratkih priča iz Kolendara za puk za prostu godinu 1847.

Author(s): / Language(s): English,Croatian / Issue: 01/2015

The following pages contain facsimiles of all ten illustrated contributions from the Calendar, in real size. Kolendar za puk za prostu godinu 1847 [Calendar for Common People for the Common Year 1847] is a booklet measuring only 13.5 x 10.5 cm, comprising a total of 116 pages. It contains information useful for farmers and craftsmen: from lists of fairs, through annual weather forecasts or tables for calculating interest on loans, to practical instructions on what to do, for instance, when a human or animal is bitten by a snake. Appropriately enough, the Calendar also includes a section primarily intended for children.

Dialog swojskości i obcości w powieści "Most na Drinie" Ivo Andricia a modyfikacja znaczeń ewokowanych nazw własnych w przekładzie na język polski

Author(s): Martyna Ecler-Pasku / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 1/2015

The paper analyses proper names in literary translation of the polisemantical ethonym ‘Turks’ (functioning also as an appellative) from the book "The Bridge on the Drina" by Ivo Andrić and its translation into Polish by Halina Kalita. The paper aims at looking into and analyzing in what way both the cultures i.e. the heterogeneous one of the original work — of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the one in the translation limit the translator in choosing equivalents. The analysis shows that there are five translational methods which indicate some system limits of the two languages and the semantic/cultural aspects of proper and appellative names.

Divković u kontekstu suvremenog mu teatra

Author(s): Dževad Karahasan / Language(s): Bosnian / Publication Year: 0

“Život svete Katarine” Matije Divkovića je crkveno prikazanje. Vjerujem da taj tekst nije moguće žanrovski preciznije odrediti, ma koliko čovjeku od teatra “crkveno prikazanje” bilo nedovoljna i gotovo neupotrebljiva odredba. Divkovićev tekst se naprosto ne može bez ostatka klasificirati ni u jednu od formi tradicionalnog kršćanskog teatra, jer ima jasno izražena obilježja različitih žanrova.

Divkovićev Život svete Katarine

Author(s): Dunja Fališevac,Dolores Grmaca / Language(s): Croatian / Publication Year: 0

Legenda o sv. Katarini Aleksandrijskoj jedna je od najpoznatijih i najpitoresknijih krš ćanskih legendi koja je stoljećima živjela u raznim verzijama u hrvatskoj književnoj kulturi.1 Legenda pripovijeda da je Katarina, čiji se život smješta u treće/četvrto stoljeće, u doba vladavine Maksimina II (ime mu se pojavljuje i u obliku Maksentije, a u Divkovića Makžencio/Mašencio), bila visoka roda, jedinica uglednog princa iz Aleksandrije, te da je bila poganka, a unatoč majčinim nagovaranjima nikako se nije htjela udati. Nakon sna-vizije Djevice Marije i Isusa, koji je nije htio uzeti za svoju službenicu jer da ona nije dosta lijepa, pokrstila se.

Djelovanje jezikom: govorni čini u dramama Lade Kaštelan

Author(s): Blagica Bevanda / Language(s): Croatian / Issue: 5/2016

Operate with language in this sense means to make changes in reality using language as an available mean. J. L. Austin’s idea of operating with words is a product of Oxford philosophy school – philosophy of ordinary language. Everyday and in some measure natural speech, easily notice able in the theatre texts, served as a source for this approach to analyzing language. Thus the language of play is offered here as a replacement for real speech situations. There is some place left for usage of theory in usual circumstances. The paper is an overview of applying speech acts the oryon the plays by Lada Kastelan. The foundation of speech acts theory liesin J. L. Austin’s doctrine. His doctrine was continued by John R. Searle who noticed weaknesses of the mentioned theory and improved it with enormous contribution. Searle’s taxonomy implies that assertives, commissives, directives, expressives and declarations are a special category.The speech act does not have to contain performative verbs, so there are indirect speech acts that own its act affiliation to semantics or deep structure of the sentence. At the end there is a critic of the theory and attempt of upgrading in the dialogue grammar by German linguist Franz Hundsnurscher.

Dorta Jagić — poetka wolności. Komentarz do „Bibliografii przekładów literatury chorwackiej w Polsce w 2014 roku”

Author(s): Katarzyna Majdzik / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 2/2015

The year 2014 in Poland did not teem with many publications of Croatian literary works. In journals of culture and literature there were published a dozen or so poems and prose excerpts, less essays and plays. Among book publications attention should be paid to the collection of essays by Dubravka Ugresić Karaoke culture, the selection of poems by Ivan Herceg and the poetic tome by Dorta Jagić “Sofa on the market”. The last mentioned was awarded during the prestigious literary contest „The European Poet of Freedom” taking place in Gdańsk. Apart from the poetess the jury set the translator Małgorzata Wierzbicka apart for distinction. The article discusses selected poems by Dorta Jagić from the awarded collection.

Doživljajnost Hercegovine u pjesništvu Zorana Jurišića

Author(s): Hrvojka Mihanovic-Salopek / Language(s): Croatian / Issue: 1/2015

The paper deals with the thematic and style-forming features of Zoran Jurisic’s poetry in his collections published up today: Ship without a rudder, Split, 2000; The sky is my homeland, Podstrana, 2004; A sower in the fields of dream, Split, Podstrana, 2005; Poems forged of tears, Podstrana, 2010; Selected poems, Podstrana, 2013. Most of his poems are characterized by confessional, diary-memoir and confidential tone which shapes the retrospective soliloquy and combines the rational observations with stream of consciousness associations, analyzing the feeling of personal split between individual inner and outer world. Jurisic’s poetry is not led by a structural concept or awareness of semiotic symbolism of language, but a strong impression and significant emotional expression of inner experiences. In the author’s stylistic influences we can recognize the elements of realism, lyrical neo-romanticism as well as the contrasting inputs of expressionism, symbolism and irony directed toward existentialism. In his lyrics we can find references to some Croatian poets (A.B. Simic, T. Ujevic, N. Sop, D. Sudeta etc.) whose traditional influences significantly marked Jurisic’s expressionism and style formation. His poems oscillate in strong contrasts from pessimism to newly awakened vitalism. Particularly comprehensive and impressive expressional collection comprises the native motifs from Herzegovina. Strong, affective, patriotic and solemn rhythm similar to ode is intertwined in these poems with primordial, elementary landscape description, in which virtues and moral dimensions are symbolically highlighted. In his collection of patriotic and landscape poems from Herzegovina, we can spot an archetypal approach and emphasized elements of spatial vitalism upon which the poetic subject rebuilds his own strength.

Drugi u poeziji Antuna Branka Šimića i Alekse Šantića

Author(s): Lejla Žujo-Maric / Language(s): Bosnian / Publication Year: 0

This work tries to examine the poststructuralist concept of otherness in poetry with social themes whose authors are poets Antun Branko Šimić and Aleksa Šantić. Following the idea that Balkan is settled at the margines of Europe and that it symbolizes place of war, social insecurity and political tensions, from the first side, and following the fact that Antun Branko Šimić and Aleksa Šantić are poets whose work is part of Balkan`s literature, from the other side, this work focuses on the poetic figures of workers, cripples, lost women and their attempt to express their social position.

Dvadeset pet godina bilježenja prijevoda: hrvatsko i poljsko ogledalo

O dwudziestu pięciu latach przekładów literatury polskiej i chorwackiej: zwierciadła przekładu

Author(s): Petra Gveric Katana / Language(s): Croatian,Polish / Issue: 2/2016

In this article, we have tried to draw an image of Croatian literature in Polish culture, as well as vice versa, in the last 25 years, based on bibliographies and articles on translations in PLS. It has been concluded that, due to translators’ choices of Croatian exile literature, works perceived in the source culture as non‑canon, themes related to war, Yugonostalgia and authors whose work belong to the “borderline” of a few nations, Croatian literature in Poland exists as “Balkan” literature. On the other hand, choices of Polish literature in Croatia mainly concerns classic Polish authors. Both cases draw a wider picture of national imagery — a hetero‑image ‑ in the target culture.

Elementi romantizma u priči "Ljubav na odru" Rikarda Jorgovanića

Author(s): Ljubica Matek,Jelena Pataki / Language(s): Croatian / Issue: 11/2016

The paper analyses Jorgovanić’s short story “Love at a Deathbed” as an example of European Romanticism. The dominant themes and motifs, such as the protagonist who is a Byronic hero, deep and conflicting emotions, love and death of beautiful young women and the immersion into the transcendental go far beyond the scope of Croatian Romanticism which is marked by the awakening and strengthening of national feelings and identity. In addition, the short story abounds with similarities to canonical texts of Romantic literature, such as S. T. Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan” and E. A. Poe’s “Ligeia”, so numerous that they can hardly be interpreted as accidental. Rather, they point to literatures in contact, a relatively unchartered area when it comes to contacts between Croatian and Western, especially anglophone literature.