Original scientific paper
UNKNOWN DOCUMENTS ABOUT GRGA NOVAK AND MIROSLAV KRLEŽA, WHICH SHED LIGHT UPON THE CULTURAL ATMOSPHERE OF MID-CENTURY IN CROATIA
Viktoria Franić Tomić
; Filozofski fakultet Sveučilišta u Splitu, Split, Hrvatska
Abstract
In this paper the author presents and interprets various so far completely unknown and unpublished documents which belong to the archive of Grga Novak in Hvar and to the archive of Miroslav Krleža in Zagreb. Among these documents special attention was paid to a very brief but realistic police description of several outstanding Croatian scientists who, during the Second World War, were active
as the teaching staff in the field of humanities at the University of Zagreb. The author also made an attempt to point out the strange destiny of two Novak's books, first a travel log on Egypt (In the Land of Pharaohs) and a book on the history of Dalmatia (Dalmatia at the Crossroad 1848). The destiny of this last book, which was published in 1948 but was banned and destroyed several weeks later, as the
author points out, might be connected with Miroslav Krleža and his collaborators. Special emphasis in the paper is placed on the relationship between Miroslav Krleža and Grga Novak, and their correspondence where a close reading is dedicated to a
very direct and mocking but unsent letter of Miroslav Krleža. The author analyses the style of that Krleža's text and compares it with some other similar but sent letters within the same framework and over a period of several years. In the last section of her text the author analyses the so far unknown Krleža's unsent letter to Grga
Novak trying to shed more light on the very humble relationship between literature and power in communism.
Keywords
Grga Novak; Miho Barada; Mate Ujević; Miroslav Krleža; Croatian Literature of the 20th Century; Epistolary Literature; HAZU; Josip Broz Tito
Hrčak ID:
64653
URI
Publication date:
17.2.2011.
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