engleski

Multiple Identities of Italians and Croats in the Town of Krk (the Island of Krk, Croatia)

The island of Krk in the Croatian part of the Northern Adriatic has a population of 18.500, predominantly Croatian. Five of its 68 settlements have been traditionally regarded as towns (in the medieval sense, at least) for a millennium or so. Out of these, the city of Krk has had an exceptional role and history, resulting in a specific identity. While the remaining four were founded and populated by the Croats, who colonized the island presumably in the 7th century, the city of Krk had been the local administrative centre of the Roman Empire, with Roman population. With the Croatian colonization, the surviving Roman population of the island took refuge in the city of Krk. However, the Croats moved in as well, and coexistence prevailed. For quite a few centuries the city of Krk was the seat of Venetian rule, whether indirect (via the local Croatian princes, the vassals of Venice) or direct (1480-1797), which introduced an additional Romance element. What we observe today are the remnants of the resulting complex identity relying predominantly on Romance and urban, as opposed to Slavic and rural. Despite a certain antagonism between the Italians and Croats, a togetherness emerged ; in the course of the 20th century they developed a specific informal minority group in which their urban identity became ever more material than their ethnic one. Currently they refer to themselves as "stari Vejani" ("old Veians", from Veglia, the Italian name for Krk). They are bilingual, speaking among themselves a local variant of the Venetian idiom, irrespective of their ethnicity. This report is based primarily on the reminiscences of "old Veians" than on the reality of this presently small community. Out of various musical traits of this community two of them are substantial for disclosing and defining their identity, viz., the formally gathered, classically trained players in the brass band, and the informally gathered singers who perform urban homophonic songs in two or three parts, predominantly in major and in Italian. With these they differ considerably from the rest of the island population.

music; identities; Croats; Italians; the city of Krk

nije evidentirano