Original scientific paper
MISTIFS OF UNTAMABLE SPIRIT. TYPOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION OF CHARACTERS IN SHORT STORIES BY KOVAČIĆ
Tihomil Maštrović
; nacionalna i sveučilišna knjižnica u Zagrebu
Abstract
In his short stories, as well as in his novels, Ante Kovačić displays an interesting gallery of characters in an artistically valuable manner, thus creating an array of strongly formed portraits of characters with distinctive and original traits. Many of his heroes became stereotypical and paradigmatic characters of Croatian literature
in the last decade of the 19th century. Two basic schematic groups of characters can be distinguished in Kovačić's short stories; on the one hand,they are ordinary, quiet people living a dormant life, the kind of people one meets every day; on the other hand, they are misfits of untamable spirit prone to unusual and extraordinary experiences. Kovačić gives unrivaled, vivid descriptions of both groups of characters, revealing their spiritual world, typical gestures, their morals, good and/or bad, and he does it realistically, the way they
really are, and it is this persuasiveness that captures the reader's attention. Female characters in his prose are hypersensitive individuals of extreme sensuality, often portrayed in a romantic way. As a rule, woman in Kovačić is a symbol of the fate of the main characters. The character of the femme fatale such as Sofija Grefštajn in Baruničina ljubav (The Baroness' Romance) can also be found in the short story "Zagorski čudak" (A Misfit of Zagorje), in the character of the heroine Iva, and it finally assumes its full literary shape in the fascinating and romantic character of Laura in the writer's best novel titled "U registraturi" (In the Registry Office).
In his treatise "Čitajući Kovačića" (Reading Kovačić), Antun Barac points out that Kovačić, along with the idiosyncratic and convincing characters of peasants, poor students intellectuals and others, also created a universal type of chraracter for every society and for all time, which he calls"semi-intellectual". One of the most successful portrayals of such a "semi-intellectual" is the character of the country
squire Pepe in Ladanjska sekta (The Country Sect). It is right to say that it is typical of Kovačić to include autobiographical elements in his works. On the other hand, the experience which Kovačić gained
writing and publishing a number of satirical and even sarcastic pieces, where he created recognizable characters but which involved him in a lot of conflict with his contemporaries, certainly halped him to become a confident, mature writer.
Keywords
Ante Kovačić; short stories; Croatian realism
Hrčak ID:
49806
URI
Publication date:
5.3.2010.
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