Colloquia Maruliana, Vol. 8 , 1999.
Original scientific paper
The Marulić Model of the Croatian Renaissance Lyric
Drago Šimundža
Abstract
Marulić was not only the author of our first major poem and the originator of artistic epic poetry, but was simultaneously a poet of a considerable lyric inspiration, and, what is more, the main representative of one model of it. This relates to a wide-ranging spiritual and religious set of themes, the intellectual and didactic paradigm of the Renaissance lyric in Croatia, one inspired by the sense of existence and of destiny, quite unlike its contemporary, the powerfully sentimental wave of Petrarchan derivation, with a markedly emotional tissue and expression. Although it is possible to talk of other divisions and types, Croatian Renaissance poetry can be analysed into two types or models: the Petrarchan, and the religious and reflective Marulićian model, which is concerned with various questions of life and fate, with spiritual, ethical, religious and patriotic themes. Yet literary history has practically reduced the poetry of the Renaissance to the horizon of sentiment and the tone of Petrarch. However, the reflective and didactic line has to be given due attention; this spontaneously expanded to different areas of life and thinking, retaining its own tone and manner of expression, its meditative colour and experience of the sacred, its distinctive structure and its appropriate stylistic resources. In the Renaissance period it was not only the lute that was in fashion, but the much more complex orchestra, a large part of these metaphors having reference to the Marulić model. The characteristics of his type of poetry are primarily the motifs of religion and destiny, and the moral and didactic tone. Many Croatian poets of the Renaissance accepted this type in different variants.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
9045
URI
Publication date:
22.4.1999.
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