Ilija Jakovljević’s Literary Views

Abstract

Ilija Jakovljević (1898-1948), a Croatian writer, a journalist and an editor had published during his thirty years of literary work, among other things, several theoretical articles about literature. In these articles he had worked out his opinions about the meaning and the tasks of literature and literary writers. Since he was, from 1915 to 1930, a participant of the Catholic Movement among Croats, which was initiated in 1903 by the Bishop of Krk, Antun Mahnić, he based his previously mentioned opinions on the Christian philosophia perennis. In accordance with this he demanded that the literature should adjust itself to a demand of unity of truth, goodness and beauty, be an authentic expression of Christian life of the writer seeking sanctity, as well as that the literature should serve the life of the people, but that the artistic freedom should not be spoilt by any external ideological tendencies. This article provides an insight into the already mentioned Jaovljević’s literary views.