engleski

Some Elements of Greek Mythology and History in Croatian Drama: T. P. Marović and M. Gavran

The author discusses the so-called “Greek” dramas by two Croatian playwrights of the (postmodern) second half of the 20th century: Tonči Petrasov Marović (1934-1991) (Antigone, the Queen of Thebes ; Themistocles) and Miro Gavran (1961-) (Creon's Antigone). The dramas have been written in Croatian language, and – to the author's knowledge – they have not been translated into English language. The author analyzed about 40 dramatic texts written in Croatia in the observed period and came to the conclusion that Croatian drama was under considerable influence from foreign – especially Greek – literature, history and culture. The most prominent among the playwrights using Greek elements were Matković, Brešan, Marović and Gavran. The author suggests that the dramas containing foreign elements and intertextual appropriations in Croatian drama might be classified into four types. According to that classification Marović's Antigona, Queen of Thebes (1980) and Gavran's Creon's Antigone (1983) predominantly belong to the mythological method, while Marović's Themistocles (1983) – considering prevailing elements - belongs to the methonimical (metahistorical) method. The impulses for literary appropriations or borrowings of the elements from another national (here: Greek) literature and history seem to be more complex than a simple literary or creative decision or borrowing process: they derive from the intellectual reception and the experience of the ancient culture, but also from the historical, social, political and ideological circumstances that hold sway at a particular time in the “home” or receiving literature. By reflecting itself in the reality in which we live, or by returning us to the life of literature and historiography – the impetus from ancient Greek literature, mythology and history, the one that may be found in the Croatian drama of the second half of the 20th century – often functioned as means of camouflaging intellectual protest and subversive reactions to ideology and politics.

Croatian playwrights ; 20th century ; Greek mithology ; T. P. Marović ; M. Gavran ; Greece

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