Original scientific paper
Slavonian literature and national literary history - regionalism and national identity
Suzana Coha
orcid.org/0000-0002-7802-0584
; Department of Croatian language and literature, Faculty of humanities and social sciences at the University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The article discusses the somewhat specific treatment of the so-called “Slavonian” literature in the context of the history of Croatian literature, trying to establish the historical, political, cultural and poetological conditions and consequences of such a dichotomy between the regional and the national. Taking into consideration both the 18th century tradition, as well as the later, (proto)realistic and modernist periods of Slavonian literature, the article focuses in particular on the literary production of the 1830ies and 1840ies, which, while following to a certain extent the dominant literary programme of the Croatian National Revival, simultaneously presented itself as a possible alternative or a critical option to it. In conclusion, a possible perspective is suggested for the future study of the various relations of Croatian national identity and its regional components, which should also include their reflection in literature. Following the socalled modernist and postmodernist theories of nation and nationalism, as well as P. Bourdieu’s theoretical reflections on the performative functions of language in the production of borderlines used to establish regional identities, it is suggested that the previous literary-historical research of the so-called regionalism of Croatian literature, which viewed it as a “natural” reflection of regional national heterogeneity, could be replaced by an approach which would view such forms of literature, as well as their metaliterary representations, as (re)generators of regionalisms and regional identities.
Keywords
Slavonian literature; Croatian literary history; regional identity; national identity
Hrčak ID:
174585
URI
Publication date:
3.12.2012.
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