Ideational Strata of the Enlightenment and Christianity in Relković’s The Satyr

Abstract

The paper looks into one of the most important literary achievements of the Croatian Enlightenment, the work, Satir iliti divji čovik [The Satyr or Wild Man] by Matija Antun Relković. The first section presents a brief biography of the author and a localization of his creative activity with a list of his major works. The greater part of the paper is devoted to portraying elements of the Enlightenment which in the work have been treated by way of social, moral and cultural issues. In various works which illustrate topics which are in their essence worldly, we can still note a certain emphasis on Christian motifs, this being the case with The Satyr; therefore, this paper will describe elements of the Catholic renewal which may be found in the work. The fourth section follows with a general overview of social, ideational and world–view components by means of which it will be demonstrated that the dominant components in the work are faith in effecting change in man’s being through education and also the conviction that school and schooling provides students with moral–ethical values. This would prove that Relković’s contemporary world–view and contemporary view of man is not in conflict with religious aspects.