engleski

Vituperatio urbis: Dubrovnik and the Others

While in the early Renaissance there were lots of Latin texts belonging to the corpus of Croatian early modern literature which might be classified into "laudatio urbis" genre, later there could be found their pendant in the Croatian vernacular which might be called "vituperatio urbis". Since "laudatio" is written in order to celebrate its own city, "vituperatio" is colloquial, often trivial mockery aimed at the other, neighbouring town. These satires were originated in Dubrovnik, directed against Venice and their vassal cities such as Kotor, Perast and Korčula and written by Šiško Menčetić, Mavro Vetranović and Pasko Primović. This paper will scrutinize historical context of their origin together with motives which instigate emergence of these satires. Besides, it will be examined whether they were expressions of individual or collective hostility towards the others. Although older Croatian literaty history categorizes these satires as patriotic poems, it can be stated that they are founded upon stereotypes that are present in the other types of discourses as well and that they are rather expressions of fear, aggression or distinction towards the foreign than love for the own. Finally, the question whether these poems point at permanent instability of the collective identity will be answered.

Dubrovnik; Venice; vituperatio urbis; collective identity

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