Review article

Vladimir Nazor, a Dalmatian Writer

Svein Mønnesland ; University of Oslo, Norway

Abstract

The article investigates Vladimir Nazor as a Dalmatian writer,
focusing on his narratives from the so-called Brač Cycle (Brački
ciklus). The stories thematize the island of Brač. The cycle comprises
37 stories published in three volumes and was written over a 25-year
span. The first volume, entitled Childhood Stories (Priče iz djetinstva),
was published in 1924. Interestingly enough, Nazor much later returned
to these topics – the last collection of stories, on childhood memories,
was written when he was 73. The Brač Cycle falls into two parts: the
first comprises autobiographical lyric prose, prose-like poetry and
poetic realism (Mihanović, 1999: 41); the second part was written after
WWII, where Nazor’s return to childhood themes is only seemingly not
connected with the social ones.
The Brač cycle is a memoir. Nazor gives a realistic and versatile
account of life on Dalmatian islands at the end of the 19th century.
Therefore, he is a true Dalmatian writer. His prose is both realistic and
poetic; it is mainly preoccupied with the goodness in people and with
the island scenery. It is a testimony of island life as it once was.
Nazor is a Dalmatian writer not only because of his stories’ content,
but also because of the language he uses to create the local atmosphere.
However, this usage is limited: there are few idiomatic expressions in
the abovementioned texts, including the dialogues. The greatest number
of localisms are found in the story “Water” (“Voda”). The characters
mostly use the standard Croatian language with sporadic occurrences
of idiomatic expressions which then contribute to the local touch of
the narratives. The Shtokavian dialect, in this way, brings forth the
Chakavian soul. Nazor was of the opinion that Chakavian is more than a
mere sum of its words; rather, it relates to the qualities of word content,
to the nucleus alive, to the Chakavian soul. Still, he did not use it much
in his writing. He was often scorned for this, as for the fact that he never
entirely mastered the Shtokavian dialect, as he was well aware.
Nazor’s Dalmatian stories, which are a testimony of the
Mediterranean past which existed not so long ago, should be made
accessible to a wider foreign public through translation.

Keywords

Brač; Brač Cycle; Chakavian idiom; localism; Shtokavian idiom; Vladimir Nazor

Hrčak ID:

86385

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/86385

Publication date:

15.10.2011.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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