Original scientific paper

AN OUTLINE OF AN APPROACH TOWARDS CULTURAL HISTORY OF THE WORLD I WAR FROM THE CROATIAN PERSPECTIVE

Filip Hameršak ; The Miroslav Krleža Institute of Lexicography, Zagreb

Abstract

Folowing a summary of the main tenets of cultural memory as proposed by Maurice Halbawachs and Jan Assman. using Samuel Hynes’ (1990) and Leonard V. Smith’s (2001)
Following a summary of the general tendencies in the 20th century praxis of cultural history, author exposes the main tenets of cultural memory as proposed by Maurice Halbwachs and Jan Assman. Using Samuel Hynes’ (1990) and Leonard V. Smith’s (2001) revisions of the work on British cultural history of the First World War by Paul Fussell (1975) as a methodological guideline, at least two competing narratives (»myths«) concerning Croatian First World War perspec¬tive are detected.
One of the them, stating that participation in the great conflict was yet an¬other case of Croatian soldiers dying in battles waged for »foreign interests« and even contrary to their own – which were supposed to coincide with forming an independent Yugoslav state – was, of course, publicly dominant in the 1918–1941 and 1945–1990 period, and is still highly influential even today.
Another was rather more elastic, being active in the pre-1918 period, and, to a degree, from 1941 to 1945, after 1990 and among Croatian political emigrants. The central point of this narrative was based on the »traditional Croatian military virtues« paradigm, which in fact had much in common with the real situation of Croatian First World War soldiers being mostly illiterate, and therefore immersed in the oral epic culture, including its notions of fidelity, honour and revenge, tuned with the Franz Joseph’s position in the summer of 1914. Even when the Habsburgs were no longer respected, it seems that the point of personal honour, meaning fighting to the death, was more persistent, being only slowly replaced by the more rational notions of interest, finally even including desertion. However, within that narrative, the notion of interest was, at least among the educated, present since 1914 or 1915, as the Serbian and Italian campaign were, at least partially, seen to correspond with Croatian national interests.
Of course, in reality, as the war progressed accumulating the strain, and as the final defeat was approaching, this two sets of attitudes were modified, and in¬ terwoven to a significant degree, which is also true for the present state of affairs in Croatian historiography and public domain.
But, as when speaking of global picture, narratives etc. individual agency tends to be neglected, several paragraphs are dedicated to the proponents of the biographical turn in social sciences and humanities, containing a critical appraisal of the approach advocated by Gergely Romsics (2006). Therefore, apart from in¬sisting on the study of all the social levels of culture, including popular and oral one, in connection to the First World War, the author gives various examples on the curious representations of the enemy but also of the ill-fate of Habsburg soldiers and even war-causes and war-goals, noted in literary periodicals, newspapers, books and even propaganda publications, even prior to the liberalization of 1917, attestifying – as it seems – to the comparatively low level of state intervention on the territory of Croatia-Slavonia.
The next chapter, dedicated to the relations between cultural and literary his¬tory, contains an analysis of the five renowned Croatian national literary history manuals (by Slavko Ježić, 1944, Ivo Frangeš, 1987, Dubravko Jelčić, 1997–2004, Slobodan Prosperov Novak, 2003, Miroslav Šicel, 2005–2007), namely their treat¬ment of the First World War. Apart from some differences, all authors except Ježić treat the First World War from the Croatian perspective as totally absurd, waged only for »foreign interests«, thus following the path of interpretation within the framework of the first narrative, by far most influentially laid down by Miroslav Krleža.
After that, a critical appraisal of Andrew Wachtel’s short cultural history of South Slavic lands 1914–1918 (1999) is made, judging it to be an interesting, relevant but also seriously flawed overview, primarily because of its centeredness on vaguely defined cultural yugoslavism, notwithstanding the political context.
Finally, author lists possible themes for the future research in cultural history of the First World War from the Croatian perspective, proposing its liberation from the monopolization of the aforementioned two narratives. In his opinion, the Croatian perspective should be taken as ramifying into a number of lower-level subperspectives, depending on time, place and even – as far as possible – indi¬vidual choices.

Keywords

Hrčak ID:

138984

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/138984

Publication date:

30.4.2015.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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