From the origins to the Middle Ages, from poetry to the Encyclopedia
In 1851, on the island of Krk, a stone weighing 800 kg and dating from approximately 1100 A.D. was discovered in the pavement of the Church of St. Lucia. On this stele, known as the Baška stele because of its proximity to the eponymous town, is an inscription in a mixture of Chakavian and Slavonic, ancient Croatian written in Glagolitic, the alphabet composed by the brothers Cyril and Methodius. Although this is not the earliest remnant found in the country, it is significant because it includes, for the first time in the vernacular, the word Croatia.
For a long time, writing was essentially at the service of faith. In fact, as early as 1483, thirty years after the publication of Gutenberg's forty-two-line Bible, the Missale Romanum Glagolitice was printed, the first missal not to be written in Latin.
In the Middle Ages, poetry wins the hearts of men. The verses of the Ragusan, Džore Držić (1461-1501), bear the influence of Petrarch in a lyrical, contemplative language. His pastoral dialogue, Radmio i Ljubmir, prefigures future Croatian drama. Certainly highly appreciated in his time, some of his writings feature prominently in the compilation begun in 1507 by the young Nikša Ranjina. This first poetic collection, nicknamed Ranjinin Zbornik, gives pride of place to Šišmundo Menčetić, also a Ragusan, who was born in 1458 and died in 1527 during a plague epidemic. Like his compatriot, he drew his inspiration from the Florentine master, evoking courtly love and occasionally indulging in a touch of sensuality.
Their Splitois contemporary, Marko Marulić (1450-1524), is considered the father of Croatian literature. His Latin works,Evangelistarium andInstitutio bene vivendi per exempla sanctorum, met with dazzling success, and are said to have been known as far away as Japan. But it's his epic poem Judita, written in Chakavian, that has been best remembered. The author recounts the biblical episode from the Book of Judith, just as his hometown is threatened by Ottoman troops. Perhaps this was a plea to divine power, or an encouragement to his compatriots.
Zadar's own Petar Zoranić wrote the first Croatian pastoral novel, Planine(The Mountains), which was printed posthumously in Venice in 1569. In this story, a shepherd, freed by fairies from the pain of unrequited love, ends up following a religious path. The fear of the invader is also apparent, and the regret that so few texts are written in the vernacular is already taking shape.
Also in Venice, Petar Hektorović (1487-1572), a child of the island of Hvar, published Ribanje i ribarsko prigovaranje. His unclassifiable text, at the crossroads of travelogue, fishing discourse and philosophical reflection, offers a magnificent insight into life in Croatia in the mid-16th century. The author is also known for his Croatian translations of the poet Ovid and for the sea chanteys he collected. His birthplace can still be visited in Stari Grad, on his island home.
Another major figure of the Dalmatian Renaissance was Marin Držić (1508-1567), Džore's nephew and a merry braggart whose life is the stuff of legend. It all began in the conventional way, however, with his entry into Holy Orders as a teenager. However, his passion for the theater soon overwhelmed him, and a stay in Siena aggravated his penchant for this literary genre. Back in Dubrovnik, he wrote most of his work. Nothing remains of his first prose comedy, Pomet, although we do remember that it was presented in 1548, on a carnival day. It certainly earned him one of the many accusations of plagiarism and assaults to which he was subjected. The debonair man had no tongue in his pocket. His jokes scratched at his contemporaries, and his disgust at social injustice was unabashed. His masterpiece, Dundo Maroje , is a truculent tale of a young man who, forgetting his father's instructions, goes off to Rome to spend the family money entrusted to him.
The second half of the 16th century was marked by the Reformation, which had little influence on Croatian literature. Matija Vlačić Ilirik (1520-1575), a Protestant theologian born in Labin (Istria), was the author of several major texts, including La Clé de l'Écriture sainte, a famous biblical lexicon. The Jesuit priest Bartol Kašić (1575-1650) was the first translator of the Bible (all in Croatian). Religion, again, permeates The Tears of the Prodigal Son by Ivan Gundulić (1589-1638), a jewel of the Baroque style and a celebrated figure for his epic poem, Osman. His Christian morality and nationalist ideas echoed the concerns of a people who had to position themselves in the face of strong, sometimes conflicting external influences.
The patriotic design of Andrija Kačić Miošic (1704-1760) is in this vein. He illuminated the Age of Enlightenment. A theologian and philosopher, in 1756 he published Conversation agréable du peuple slave in the vernacular. His primary aim, in addition to preserving a certain patriotic folklore, was to establish the history of his people. This encyclopedic work, interspersed with poems, continued to grow after his death. Today, there are almost eighty editions.
National identity, realism, post-traumatic writing
In the 19th century, the need to assert identity led to the Illyrian Movement, the Croatian National Revival, led by Ljudevit Gaj (1809-1872). The linguist and politician worked to build a unified alphabet and written language, based on Chtokavian. He published the first Croatian newspaper in Zagreb, with its literary supplement.
Although the era is one of European Romanticism, Ivan Mažuranić's masterpieces (ban 1873-1880) have epic overtones. The five songs of The Death of Smaïl-aga Tchenguitch advocate the rejection of tyranny as a pledge of liberating power. This patriotism is echoed in song by Petar Preradović (1818-1872), even if he doesn't hesitate to put love into words.
The turn to realism comes with the publisher, poet and playwright August Šenoa. He left such an indelible mark on his era that it is customary to refer to part of the second half of the 19th century by his name. In The Beggar Luka (1879) and Branka (1881), he painted a contemporary fresco and devoted himself to the historical novel(The Goldsmith's Treasure, The Peasants' Revolt). He was also editor-in-chief of Vienac magazine until his death (1881), bringing together a whole generation of modern authors who transcended the boundaries of national identity. Literature entered its golden age, with readers seduced by the books of Vjenceslav Novak (1859-1905), nicknamed the Croatian Balzac, the autobiography of Ante Kovačić (1854-1889) and the militant poetry of Silvije Strahimir Kranjčević (1865-1908).
At the beginning of the 20th century, feathers were still drinking in European aesthetics. The Zagreb poet Antun Gustav Matoš (1873-1914), whose bohemian lifestyle had taken him to Paris, was inspired by French symbolism, while his contemporary Vladimir Vidrić, a poet of doom, ended up in Zagreb's psychiatric hospital. The brief life of Janko Polić Kamov (1886-1910), an avant-garde writer whose novel The Dried Mire was not published until 1957, was also terrible. The literature of the period reveals some great texts, such as The Dubrovnik Trilogy (1902) by Ivo Vojnović or The Strange Adventures of the Apprentice Lapitch (1913), the first novel by Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić, author of books for young people, who was twice shortlisted for the Nobel Prize for Literature.
In the interwar period, Miroslav Krleža's talent was asserting itself. A prolific short story writer(Mars dieu croate), playwright (Le Cycle des Glembay) and novelist(Le Retour de Philippe Latinovicz), he was committed to the Croatian language and founded the Institute of Lexicography in 1950, then campaigned for the recognition of an independent nation. The virtuoso poet Tin Ujević (1891-1955) also possessed a wealth of bookish knowledge. As a translator of his European peers, he succeeded in fusing classical and modern styles. Alongside him, Antun Branco Šimić (1898-1925) developed a personal poetic fulgurance, undoubtedly driven by the premonition that his time was running out. After the Second World War, the poet Vladimir Nazor became President of the People's Republic of Croatia; the poet Vesna Parun mourned her first love in Zore i vihori, foreshadowing many other collections; and the novelist Slobodan Novak won numerous prizes, including the NIN for Mirisi, zlato, tamjan (1968).
Some authors opted for exile, giving rise to what is known as emigration literature. Others gathered around literary and political publications, such as Krugovi in the 1950s and later Quorum.
Post-modernism made its mark with Goran Tribuson, whose Le Cimetière englouti flirts with the fantastic and the dreamlike, where eccentric characters cross paths (Serge Safran ed. 1990).
The duty to remember returns in force with the documentary novel, Sonnenscheindeby Daša Drndić, an enormous family fresco, haunted by the painful history of Croatian Jews during the two world wars, translated in 2013 (Gallimard). Similar historical quests with Spain's Clara Usón in La Fille de l'Est, released in 2014 by Gallimard, France's Thierry Beinstingel, from a Swabian Danube family in Yougoslave (Fayard, 2020) or Israel's David Grossman for La vie se joue de moi (Points, 2021). Dubravka Ugrešić (1949-2023) had to resign herself to leaving her country in 1993 after publishing several works against nationalism and ethnic hatred. Her essay Kultura laži(The Culture of Lies), published in 1996, earned her the vindictiveness of certain Croatian media, who branded her a "traitor" and a "witch". Translated into French, her novels Le Musée des redditions sans condition, Baba Yaga a pondu un œuf
(2004) and Le Ministère de la douleur (2008) were published in paperback by Christian Bourgois (2023), as was La Renarde, her latest story. The same is true of Croatian-speaking Italian essayist Predrag Matvejevitć, a staunch anti-nationalist and the award-winning author of Bréviaire méditerranéen (Fayard 1992), or Slavenka Drakulić(Je ne suis pas là, Belfond, 2002), a Croatian journalist who writes about the wars in the former Yugoslavia, or of. Robert Perišić, whose two novels published in France, Les Turbines du Titanic (2019) and Notre correspondant sur place (2022) also take an uncompromising look at contemporary Croatian society.
In 2017, a Zagreb publishing house (Durieux) published an Anthologie d'auteurs croates contemporains - Le fantôme de la liberté? a special issue with short stories, novel extracts and numerous contributions from the literary, poetic, theatrical and musical scenes (*PDF available free of charge on the Courrier des Balkans website, where other Croatian books translated into French can be found).
As for written works, international stages welcome the works of Ivo Brešan and Slobodan Šnajder. The latter also publishes historical novels, including La Réparation du monde, translated in 2021 (Liana Levi Éditions). Today, a number of authors are turning their hand to realistic novels and stories, all more or less marked by the former Yugoslavia or the last war. These include Miljenko Jergović, Le Jardinier de Sarajevo, Volga, Volga (2015, Actes Sud), Olja Savicevic, Adios cowboy (JC Lattès, 2020), Frenchman Jean-Raymond Masson's Voyage dans les Balkans (Le Bord de l'eau 2009).
Croatian comics are struggling to find their place in France. Miroslav Sekulić-Stuja is no exception. A painter, illustrator and comic artist, he also writes stories, screenplays and poetry. In 2010, to critical acclaim, he won the third Prix Jeunes Talents at Angoulême for The Man Who Bought a Smile, which opened the doors to Actes Sud. In 2016 and 2021, he will publish two volumes of Pelote dans la fumée and, in 2022, Petar & Liza .
