Professional paper
GUSTAV KRKLEC TO CHILDREN
Jelena Jelkić
; Odjel za obrazovanje učitelja i odgojitelja Sveučilišta Jurja Dobrile, Pula (Hrvatska)
Ivan Grgurević
; Odjel za obrazovanje učitelja i odgojitelja Sveučilišta Jurja Dobrile, Pula (Hrvatska)
Abstract
Gustav Krklec is a well-known Croatian poet and translator for adults and children alike. Literary criticism did not associate him with the avant-gardism of the first half of the 20th century nor sufficiently emphasised his contamporaneity and new literary practices in his children’s poetry. The article primarily deals with children’s poetry as well as his thoughts about poetry, children’s literature, the reason why he became a children’s writer, about his childhood and home country.
Regardless of the variety of motives, Gustav Krklec was the poet of the heart. His modernity is not programmatical although he established “Juriš” magazine together with A.B. Šimić. Modernity, that is to say, actuality derives from the work of art itself. In his best poems, he proved an excellent master of form so that criticism saying that Krklec used an “artisanally arranged” verse is misplaced. We tried to illustrate it by analysing the poem "Prvi snijeg" (First Snow) and the analysis of a few telegraph fables.
In «Telegrafske basne» (Telegraph Fables) we highlighted the joke structure and along with humour we detected other literary procedures relevant for contemporary children’s literature (witty remark, jest, absurd). Krklec was the first one to write about animal laughter, nonsense and absurd. He closed the gap between poetry and child’s experience. He wrote out of love for children and emphasised seriousness and responsibility in children’s literature. Besides Grigor Vitez, Gustav Krklec is the most significant reformer and the father of contemporary Croatian children’s poetry.
Keywords
Gustav Krklec; children’s poetry; telegraph fables; humour; witty remark
Hrčak ID:
25806
URI
Publication date:
30.6.2008.
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