Original scientific paper

PAST – PRESENT – FUTURE: SOME ASSOCIATIONS OVER KRLEŽA'S "PROMETHEAN" PLAYS

Helena Peričić

Abstract

Miroslav Krleža's (1893-1981) "expressionistic-poetic" (Branimir Donat) plays Kristofor Kolumbo (1918) and Michelangelo Buonarroti (1919) accompany the end of the First World War and the time immediately thereafter. In her paper, the author Peričić discusses literary comparative associations aroused in those works in which the use of the Promethean figures (or presented in the plays as such) may be considered as the general glorification of genious representatives of Renaissance who crossed the boundaries of the world known up to that era – both in the sense of knowledge and in the artistic sense (history/past).
In the context of political events and the shock following the results and consequences of the most destructive war known to Europe until those days, in those plays the great historic figures are put in the expressionistic position to be the global metaphore of Croatian and European reality of the time, and the revolt against collective history, but also against the hysteria caused by the war trauma (actuality/present - characteristic of the end of the First World War and the time thereafter).
The Promethean connotation by itself announces and reflects the coveting for new age/world and new accomplishments of those who remain persistent in their humanistic ambition towards civilisation, progress and altruism (future).

Keywords

Hrčak ID:

138997

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/138997

Publication date:

30.4.2015.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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