Izvorni znanstveni članak
https://doi.org/10.21857/yvjrdcvojy
Pannonian soil as cultural and symbolic capital in Croatian literature on the subject of rural life
Anica Bilić
; Hrvatska akademija znanosti i umjetnosti, Centar za znanstveni rad u Vinkovcima, Vinkovci, Hrvatska
Sažetak
Archaeological evidence confirms that Croatian Pannonian Plane (Slavonia, Baranja, Syrmia12) was populated not long after the sedentary way of life started 10 000 years ago when the first farmers came through the Danube Valley from the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and when the first European settlement (town) was founded on the left bank of the Bosut river where Vinkovci is today, about at the same time with Jericho. Soon after that the advanced and rich Vučedol culture started developing in Syrmia, in which people cultivated fields, cast bronze and used calendar. Can you imagine a Vučedol bronze casting craftsman with a calendar on his desk!? This place is the cradle of European culture13 and many conquerors occupied it since (Mongols, Huns, Avars, Normans, Ottomans…). In this research we analyse literary traces from the time of Ottoman withdrawal, when Slavonia was still terra incognita, through the period of life in abundance made possible by hardworking people on fertile land and making the region a desirable destination for settlers, associated with somewhat hedonistic way of life, until the period of war destruction and devastation in the 90ies of the 20th century, when there was still hope for a brighter future. The present is, however, filled with sadness and worry about the demographic situation that was presented in the 2021 Population Census. Using literary texts of selected Croatian writers and works with rural themes from the 18th century until present day, we analyse the subjects of cultivating plants (fields, meadows, gardens and planted plots) and Slavonian soil present in literary works.
Since cultural heritage as the source of economic capital plays an essential role for development, our research focuses on Croatian literary texts devoted to rural life – its aspects and cultural forms represented as places defining identity. They are, first of all, the soil14 (land), cultivation of plants and cattle, traditional clothes, enogastronomy, the beauty of the countryside and that which makes Slavonia, Baranja and Syrmia unique and a subject of many beautiful poems about their peasants and bećars (from Turkish bekar, meaning bachelor).
Presenting the topic of our interest which is transformation of economic capital into cultural and symbolic capital, we will rely on the theory of social capital proposed by a French sociologist, anthropologist and philosopher Pierre Bourdieu. The need for the cultural identity in a postmodernist society is emphasized since it is a society in which possibilities to transform the cultural into economic capital, the generator of economic growth, are numerous due to the all-present consumerism.
Ključne riječi
rural life in Croatian literature; soil – land; cultural capital.
Hrčak ID:
306752
URI
Datum izdavanja:
18.7.2023.
Posjeta: 243 *