Original scientific paper
The literary and public works of Ivo Vojnović with special reference to the "Supetar affair” in 1907
Zoran GRIJAK
; Hrvatski institut za povijest, Zagreb
Abstract
The author analyses the works of the Croatian writer Ivo Vojnović (1857—
1929) from the mid-seventies of the 19th century until his death. His
secondary and tertiary school education and public service in Krizevci, Zadar
and Dubrovnik as well as his literary work from 1880 to 1929 is presented.
Vojnović’s national and political identity was shaped under the strong
influence of different identities within the Vojnović family as well as within
the debates of different concepts in Croatian politics during the second half of
the 19th and in the first three decades of the 20th century, spanning from a
Croat-South Slavic orientation to one that is fond of Serbian and a unitary
Yugoslavism. In the case of Ivo Vojnović, the phenomenon of different
identities (Croatian, Serbian and Yugoslav — in his trinomial/tritribal Croatian
/ Serbian / Slovenian variants) was significant. The political anticipation of
pro-Serbian and Yugoslav positions can be observed in Vojnović’s work (The
Death of Mother Jugović). In a public declaration of political views, he was
restricted by the fact that his father Kosto Vojnović was a prominent Croatian
politician and was in public service at the time. The turning point in
Vojnović’s political orientation occurred after the flSupetar affair« and exit from
public service (1907). He increasingly rebelled against the Croatian political
options and politically radicalised accepting of pro-Yugoslav and pro-Serbian
views. In the period after World War I, Ivo Vojnović spent time in Paris and
Nice and actively sought to influence political events. Regarding Vojnović’s
judgements of events in the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes,
characteristically there is a quite a weakening of abilities to realistically
evaluate events, which are especially evident in the inability to accept the
final completion of the Croatian national-integration process in Dalmatia.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
85334
URI
Publication date:
1.12.2011.
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