Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.21857/yvjrdcnd7y
Anto Gardaš and Hrvoje Kovačević – Two Generations of the Children’s Action Novel Genre
Dubravka Težak
orcid.org/0000-0002-1289-2048
; Učiteljski fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Marina Gabelica
orcid.org/0000-0002-7270-0001
; Učiteljski fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Abstract
If we follow the development of the genre of action novels about resourceful children hungry for adventures, we can single out the following authors as significant points on a developmental timeline of this type of children’s literature, whose novels have always been, reception-wise, extremely successful: Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić (with Hlapić the Apprentice), Mato Lovrak, Ivan Kušan, Milivoj Matošec, Anto Gardaš, and Hrvoje Kovačević.
The final two, Gardaš and Kovačević, are connected not only by their home region of Slavonia (also the spatial locality of their many novels), but also by many other facts related to structure, genre, style, and ideas. This paper shall compare their works in which we find certain connections. They have both been recognised as masters in leading the story, creating the plot and its unexpected twists, and coming up with crafty denouements. In most of their novels, both authors exhibit a dominant composition style of a detective novel, which is clearly presented through various genres – whether as a crime story, a science fiction novel, or a horror story. With both authors, several novels are kept outside any classification attempts. In these, the authors completely avoid established patterns and put the human character in the middle as a basis of the novel’s structure, so we would classify this type of work as a character novel. We shall also examine the similarities and differences between the two authors from the aspect of the generation gap between them.
Keywords
Anto Gardaš; Hrvoje Kovačević; Croatian children’s literature; children’s action novel; children’s detective novel
Hrčak ID:
192974
URI
Publication date:
17.1.2018.
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