Izvorni znanstveni članak

Importance of Reading and Slavonian Book

Zoran Velagić ; Sveučilište J. J. Strossmayera. Filozofski fakultet u Osijeku

Sažetak

This paper examines attitudes of writers who wrote about the importance of reading and social role of books in the 18th century. Based on the authentic material -popular religious works printed in Stokavian Slavonian dialect - the research was aimed at discovering whether the faith in the power and of reading and benefits gained from it existed in Croatian literature in the 18th century to the same extent it existed and have been encountered in prefaces of books by European writers in the early Modern Age. This paper tries to prove that a number of Croatian writers considered reading to be of merit and shows that they expressed such convictions in the prefaces of their books.

For the purpose of demonstrating that such ideas did not only belong to individuals but that they emerged from a wider cultural context, relationships between writers themselves have been examined, first in relation to the system of censorship and direct references to other writers and their works. It has been shown that the authors who wrote their books in Stokavian Slavonian
dialect during the 18th century, together with those who did the same only in Hungarian areas truly formed a literary circle and that they knew each other, provided mutual support, read books by their colleagues and carried on the work of their predecessors.

In addition, the research also included the question of why writers did not anticipate a possibility of misinterpretation of religious teachings in their books. Apart from the fact that writers had honest faith in their readers, common people who could read only in their own vernacular, there are two other reasons. Writers were aware of the narrow education of the readers and knew that books in other languages would be unintelligible or inaccessible to them. Moreover, books printed in Stokavian Slavonian dialect did not appear as a result of the market demand but the practices of church representatives who printed and distributed them to eager readers. Thus, the conclusion is that the market for the book in the vernacular was small and that the circulation of reading material was easily controlled.

Ključne riječi

Hrčak ID:

161699

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/161699

Datum izdavanja:

5.12.2007.

Podaci na drugim jezicima: hrvatski

Posjeta: 642 *