engleski

Modernism in the personal mirror: autobiographies of Croatian modernists

This book deals with autobiographical texts written by the authors of Croatian Literary Modernism. The purpose of the research has been to describe and define autobiographical texts, taking into consideration the authors’ motivation for writing them, the composition, the form and their preferences when it comes to themes and motives, then narrative techniques, the presence of modernist elements, as well as their overall artistic level. The body of the texts analysed comprises forty two autobiographies proper written by the authors of the Croatian Literary Modernism. They can be divided into two groups: there are those created in the period of Literary Modernism (1895-1916) and those written in the subsequent period (1917-1964). Most of these autobiographies were written to make part of the author’s complete works, or as forewords or afterwords, then for magazines, or as a way to enter various associations, for year-books or for some anthologies or almanacs. Very often these autobiographies are not aesthetically fully accomplished because of various circumstances and demands conditioning writers (the stress put on factual elements, previously given themes, social responsibility). In the period of Modernism the authors aware of the reception of their work will address their readers through autobiographies, implying presumed confessional character and intimacy. An autobiography thus becomes a space for the interpretation of the writer’s own literary creation, and at the same time his own public position as author remains a priority in the thematic circle of the commissioned writers’ autobiographies. In the conclusion of the book the author points to the fact that without taking into consideration the body of autobiographical texts of the Croatian Literary Modernism one cannot safely draw any conclusions on such a 218 Moderna u osobnom zrcalu complex artistic period. Therefore the body of the analysed texts provides some invaluable documentary insights into the historic and artistic moment in Croatian literature and art on the turn of the century. Although very rarely mentioned, the autobiography thus proves to be in terms of aesthetic, perhaps if not the most important one, but in any case not a minor literary expression of that period.

Modernism, autobiography

nije evidentirano