1.
Poetry
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Poetry has a long history, dating back to the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh. Early poems evolved from folk songs such as the Chinese Shijing, or from a need to retell oral epics, as with the Sanskrit Vedas, Zoroastrian Gathas, and the Homeric epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Ancient attempts to define poetry, such as Aristotles Poetics, focused on the uses of speech in rhetoric, drama, song and comedy. Later attempts concentrated on such as repetition, verse form and rhyme. From the mid-20th century, poetry has sometimes been more generally regarded as a creative act employing language. Poetry uses forms and conventions to suggest differential interpretation to words, devices such as assonance, alliteration, onomatopoeia and rhythm are sometimes used to achieve musical or incantatory effects. The use of ambiguity, symbolism, irony and other elements of poetic diction often leaves a poem open to multiple interpretations. Similarly figures of such as metaphor, simile and metonymy create a resonance between otherwise disparate images—a layering of meanings, forming connections previously not perceived. Kindred forms of resonance may exist, between verses, in their patterns of rhyme or rhythm. Some poetry types are specific to cultures and genres and respond to characteristics of the language in which the poet writes. Much modern poetry reflects a critique of poetic tradition, playing with and testing, among other things, in todays increasingly globalized world, poets often adapt forms, styles and techniques from diverse cultures and languages. Some scholars believe that the art of poetry may predate literacy, others, however, suggest that poetry did not necessarily predate writing. The oldest surviving poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh, comes from the 3rd millennium BCE in Sumer. An example of Egyptian epic poetry is The Story of Sinuhe, other forms of poetry developed directly from folk songs. The earliest entries in the oldest extant collection of Chinese poetry, the efforts of ancient thinkers to determine what makes poetry distinctive as a form, and what distinguishes good poetry from bad, resulted in poetics—the study of the aesthetics of poetry. Some ancient societies, such as Chinas through her Shijing, developed canons of poetic works that had ritual as well as aesthetic importance, Classical thinkers employed classification as a way to define and assess the quality of poetry. Later aestheticians identified three major genres, epic poetry, lyric poetry, and dramatic poetry, treating comedy and tragedy as subgenres of dramatic poetry, Aristotles work was influential throughout the Middle East during the Islamic Golden Age, as well as in Europe during the Renaissance. English Romantic poet John Keats termed this escape from logic Negative Capability and this romantic approach views form as a key element of successful poetry because form is abstract and distinct from the underlying notional logic
2.
Croatian language
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It is the official and literary standard of Croatia and one of the official languages of the European Union. Croatian is also one of the languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a recognized minority language in Serbia. Croatian is written in Gajs Latin alphabet, besides the Shtokavian dialect, on which Standard Croatian is based, there are two other main dialects, Chakavian and Kajkavian. It is still used now in parts of Istria, which became a crossroads of various mixtures of Chakavian with Ekavian/Ijekavian/Ikavian dialects, the cultural apex of this 17th century idiom is represented by the editions of Adrianskoga mora sirena by Petar Zrinski and Putni tovaruš by Katarina Zrinska. However, this first linguistic renaissance in Croatia was halted by the execution of Petar Zrinski. Subsequently the Croatian elite in the 18th century gradually abandoned this combined Croatian standard, specifically, three major groups of dialects were spoken on Croatian territory, and there had been several literary languages over four centuries. The leader of the Illyrian movement Ljudevit Gaj standardized the Latin alphabet in 1830–1850, the uniform Neo-Shtokavian then became common in the Croatian elite. In the 1860s, the Zagreb Philological School dominated the Croatian cultural life, drawing upon linguistic, while it was dominant over the rival Rijeka Philological School and Zadar Philological Schools, its influence waned with the rise of the Croatian Vukovians. Croatian is commonly characterized by the Ijekavian pronunciation, the use of the Latin alphabet. Some differences are absolute, while some appear mainly in the frequency of use, Croatian, although technically a form of Serbo-Croatian, is sometimes considered a distinct language by itself. Differences between various forms of Serbo-Croatian are often exaggerated for political reasons. Most Croatian linguists regard Croatian as a language that is considered key to national identity. The issue is sensitive in Croatia as the notion of a language being the most important characteristic of a nation is widely accepted. The terms Serbo-Croatian or Serbo-Croat are still used as a term for all these forms by foreign scholars. Within ex-Yugoslavia, the term has largely replaced by the ethnic terms Serbian, Croatian. In 2013, the EU started publishing a Croatian language version of its official gazette, Standard Croatian is the official language of the Republic of Croatia and, along with Standard Bosnian and Standard Serbian, one of three official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is also official in the regions of Burgenland, Molise, additionally, it has co-official status alongside Romanian in the communes of Carașova and Lupac, Romania. Croatian is officially used and taught at all the universities in Croatia, there is no regulatory body that determines the proper usage of Croatian
3.
Ivan Belostenec
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Ivan Belostenec was a Croatian linguist and lexicographer. In 1616 he joined the Paulists and he studied philosophy in Vienna and theology in Rome. Belostenec was a prior of Pauline monasteries in Lepoglava, Svetice at Ozalj and Sveta Jelena at Čakovec and his main work was a bilingual dictionary Gazophylacium, seu Latino-illyiricorum onomatum aerarium. Except for its richness of words, Gazophylacium is also important for its trilingual concept characteristic for the members of the Ozalj literary-linguistic circle, Gazophylacium was finished and prepared for publication by two Paulists - Jerolim Orlović and Andrija Mužar, it was published in Zagreb 1740
4.
Elio Lampridio Cerva
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Elio Lampridio Cervino or Cerva was a Ragusan poet who wrote in Latin. Cerva was born in 1463, belonging to one of the most important noble families of Ragusa and he spent several years in Rome, where he arrived still child, to succeed his uncle Stephan, ambassador to Pope Sixtus IV. Here, in the circle of Pomponio Leto, his poetic talent awoke and he studied ancient drama and made a study of the comedies of Plautus. It was in period that he produced Lexicon, an encyclopedic dictionary in Latin,429 pages long. He returned to Ragusa in 1490, and became a spokesman for the Republic, finally, perhaps pushed by the circumstances in which he lived, Cerva decided to withdraw to the Ombla river island, where he remained until his death in 1520. Although called a poet, he published four short components during his life. His main work, De Epidauro, was a draft of an epic poem, a staunch supporter of Latin, he disliked Slavic, which was spoken in the Republic in great numbers. He declared his nostalgia for the times when no other than Latin had been officially used in Ragusa. He knew and wrote solely in Latin, as mentioned by him in one of his works, List of Ragusans
5.
Mak Dizdar
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Mehmedalija Mak Dizdar was a Bosnian poet. His poetry combined influences from the Bosnian Christian culture, Islamic mysticism and cultural remains of medieval Bosnia and his works Stone Sleeper and The Blue River are probably the most important Bosnian-Herzegovinian poetic achievements of the 20th century. Mehmedalija Dizdar was born during World War I, to a Bosniak family in Stolac, Bosnia and he was the son of Muharem and Nezira. Mehmedalija was the second of three children and his older brother Hamid was a writer. Mehmedalijas sister Refika and mother were killed in the Jasenovac concentration camp, in 1936, Dizdar relocated to Sarajevo where he attended and graduated from the Gymnasium. He started working for the magazine Gajret, which his brother Hamid regulated, Dizdar spent his World War II years as a supporter of the Communist Partisans. He moved frequently from place to place in order to avoid the Independent State of Croatia authorities attention, after the war, Dizdar was a prominent figure in the cultural life of Bosnia and Herzegovina, working as the editor-in-chief of the daily Oslobođenje. Dizdars son Enver was a journalist and publicist, Mak Dizdar died aged 53 in 1971, having outlived his parents and both siblings. Dizdars two poetry collections and series of poems, Kameni spavač and Modra rijeka, fused seemingly disparate elements. He drew inspiration from pre-Ottoman Bosnian Christian culture, from the sayings of heterodox Islamic visionary mystics and his poetry referenced medieval Bosnian tombstones and their gnomic inscriptions on the ephemerality of life. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, there are about 60,000 stećci, the stećci are inscribed with various symbols and illustrations. Many of the symbols on the stećci bore significant religious symbolism in Dizdar’s works, the most common religious motifs visible on the stećci were a crescent moon, stars and circles. The second most common motif were the cross, which never appears alone and it regularly is seen in unison with a crescent moon and a star, and also sometimes with other symbols like a shield, sword, spear or flags. Other symbols used on stećci were men with large hands, spirals, images of a kolo. Dizdar used the symbols and the inscriptions on the stećci as the backbone for his most famous work, Kameni Spavač. Dizdar’s Bosnia was “defined by the stećci and Bosnia’s stigma regarding the question of it being the poetic subject response, its defiance from dreams. ”Dizdar used the symbols and inscriptions on the stećci to give Kameni Spavač a historical point of view, by envisioning the world through the eyes of the medieval peoples buried under the stećci. By envisioning the world through the eyes of the stone sleeps buried under the stećci, Dizdar was able to discuss many themes. ”Dizdar said that the themes expressed in the inscriptions were the “secrets of Bosnia. ”Dizdar himself described the importance and mystery of the stećci by saying “stećak is for me what it is not for others, things that are on them or in them, others did not inscribe or knew to see. Mak Dizdar also fought against the influence of the Serbian language on the Bosnian language
6.
Drago Gervais
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Drago Gervais was a Croatian Istrian poet and playwright, and one of the most prominent poets writing in the Chakavian dialect of the Croatian language. Drago Gervais was born in 1904 in Opatija and his father Artur, a descendant of a French soldier in Napoleons army, was a music teacher born in Severin na Kupi in the Gorski Kotar region of Croatia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His mother Klementina was from Opatija, in 1918 during the Italian annexation of Istria, he moved with his family to Bakar. In 1922 he graduated high school in Sušak and attended Zagreb Law School. During his studies he started to collaborate with the Triestine magazine Naš Glas, soon after graduating he moved to Crikvenica where he worked at a local law firm. The next year he published his first collection of poems Čakavski stihovi, later he worked in Bjelovar and Belgrade during the Second World War. He worked there until a car accident near Sežana suddenly took his life in 1957, Čakavski stihovi Istarski katun Radi se o stanu Karolina Riječka Duhi Reakcionari Brod je otplovio Čudo od djevice Ivane Palmin List Ujak iz Amerike Barba Žvane Gervais, Drago
7.
Vlado Gotovac
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Vladimir Vlado Gotovac was a Croatian poet and politician. In the late 1960s, Gotovac joined the Croatian movement demanding political and economic reform, growing up in Titos Yugoslavia, Gotovac was arrested in 1971 and sentenced to four years in prison, based on charges of being a separatist and nationalist. Gotovac continued to write in prison, with his most famous piece being his diary, Zvjezdana Kuga, published some twenty years after his release in 1978. And whilst he spent his years working as a journalist and editor for TV Zagreb as well as writing literary pieces. I believed only when justice and freedom existed could human problems be solved, I always believed that only through the solution of these problems could human values be realized. A free individual, an individual who lives justly, only this individual can offer all which the human being has to offer, all of his greatness and they do not know what freedom is. In 1989, Gotovac joined the newly formed Croatian Social Liberal Party, due to his passionate eloquence he became one of its most prominent members. As such, he worked hard to find proper balance between Croatian nationalism and liberalism. In 1991 in the Sabor during a protest rally held in front of Yugoslav Peoples Army headquarters and he made passionate and defiant speech answering the generals who at the time made all kinds of threats against Croatia. He served as the president of Matica hrvatska, Gotovac entered the Sabor in 1992 where his passion and eloquence made him into one of the most popular and charismatic Croatian politicians. His harsh criticism of Franjo Tuđman and his policies made him into one of the rallying figure of Croatian opposition. In mid-1990s Gotovac replaced Dražen Budiša at the leadership of Croatian Social Liberal Party and his tenure was brief but it also revealed his lack of political talent. During the Zagreb Crisis he allowed himself to be manipulated into embarrassing negotiations with the Croatian Democratic Union, which harmed the reputation of party and its unity. In 1996 he was chosen as president of the HSLS, where he told his audience, Do not fear, in that same year he ran as a presidential candidate, but was assaulted during the campaign. He did not win the presidency instead it was claimed by Franjo Tuđman, but Tuđman’s victory was disputed by Gotovac, who accused him of manipulating the results. The following year Gotovac split from the HSLS to form the Liberal Party, Gotovac tried running as a candidate of Croatian centrist and liberal opposition on 1997 presidential election. During the campaign rally in Pula he was assaulted and injured by a Croatian Army officer Tomislav Brzović who was under influence of alcohol and was shouting Long live Ante Pavelić, I am Ustaša, I will kill you all, upon being arrested. Later it was revealed that Brzović was member of security unit guarding president Franjo Tuđman
8.
Jerolim Kavanjin
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Jerolim Kavanjin, was a Croatian language poet from Split then in Republic of Venice, today in Croatia. He was born into a wealthy and noble family of Split, Kavanjin rose to prominence at the same time as Ignjat Đurđević, at the beginning of the 18th century. He was married to the sister of John Peter Marchi, in 1703 Kavanjin became a member of the Illyrian Academy Marchi founded in 1703. This religious-philosophical epic is poetically inconsistent but stylistically marked, Kavanjin identified with Slavs and Dalmatia, and John Fine interprets his pan-Slavism and Dalmatianism close to have been an ethnic notion. Kavanjin died in Split, aged 73, fališevac, Dunja, Nemec, Krešimir, Novaković, Darko, Leksikon hrvatskih pisaca, Zagreb, Školska knjiga d. d, ISBN 953-0-61107-2 Božić-Bužančić, Danica. Ivan Petar Marchi-Markić, Njegovo djelovanje i njegova oporuka
9.
Vladimir Nazor
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Vladimir Nazor was a Croatian poet and politician who served as the first President of the Presidium of the Croatian Parliament, and first Speaker of the Croatian Parliament. In that post, he was by law concurrently the first head of state of Croatia in general, and his position carried little real political power, which was instead invested in the office of the Prime Minister and with the Secretary of the Communist Party of Croatia. Nazor is however most remembered as a poet, writer, translator. Although he was not an active politician until 1941, he had a significant political influence through ethical aspects of his work during prewar Kingdom of Yugoslavia, nazors early work paralleled the rise of the Young Croatian literary movement. He acquired much literary popularity in Croatia writing about folk legends, the tale Big Joseph is still popular, it features a helpful and kind hearted giant named Jože, living in the area around the town of Motovun. His verses in Hrvatski kraljevi established him as the great poet in Croatia. Istrian Tales revealed his skill and mastery. By illuminating the personality of the South Slavs through tales of Croatia, Nazor supported the opposition alliance led by Vladko Maček in the 1938 Yugoslav elections. Nazor became one of Josip Broz Titos closest associates and the President of Croatias World War II assembly and he went on to write a war diary With Partisans. Nazor was a productive author. He was the master of prose, but his highest achievements are in lyric poetry, one of his main prose works is the extensive novel Loda the Shepherd. The work describes the history of his island of Brač as told by Loda. Therefore, his opus comprises a plenty of style tendencies, from neoclassical to surrealistic and despite its heterogeneity and his poetry implicates that art is aesthetically stronger than reality, for art reflects the essence of real world. Nazor probably reached the highest scope in poems of so-called pagan phase, published in books of verse Lyrics, Poems Cicada, Olive, Notturno and Forest Sleeps belong to the top of the World poetry. Vladimir Nazor spoke several languages and translated from Italian, German, French, Nazor was buried in Mirogoj Cemetery. Since 1959, Croatia has named an award for artistic achievement the Vladimir Nazor Award. In 2008, a total of 306 streets in Croatia were named after Nazor, making him the second most common person eponym of streets in the country
10.
Ljubo Wiesner
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Ljubo Wiesner was a Croatian poet. He was a follower of Antun Gustav Matošs work and he founded the publications Grič, Kritika and Savremenik. His introduction to Hrvatska mlada lirika in 1914 defined the style of the followers of Matoš. Wiesner was also musically, and played gusle. Wiesner translated foreign poetry into Croatian, including works by Walt Whitman and he was an editor of Mate Ujevićs Croatian Encyclopedia. During World War II he worked on the Berlin-based Suradnja, from 1948, until his death he lived in Rome at the Pontifical Croatian College of St. Jerome, where he organized the Vaticans radio program in Croatian. Studija o A. G. Matošu, Zagreb 2002
11.
Croatia
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Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a sovereign state between Central Europe, Southeast Europe, and the Mediterranean. Its capital city is Zagreb, which one of the countrys primary subdivisions. Croatia covers 56,594 square kilometres and has diverse, mostly continental, Croatias Adriatic Sea coast contains more than a thousand islands. The countrys population is 4.28 million, most of whom are Croats, the Croats arrived in the area of present-day Croatia during the early part of the 7th century AD. They organised the state into two duchies by the 9th century, tomislav became the first king by 925, elevating Croatia to the status of a kingdom. The Kingdom of Croatia retained its sovereignty for nearly two centuries, reaching its peak during the rule of Kings Petar Krešimir IV and Dmitar Zvonimir, Croatia entered a personal union with Hungary in 1102. In 1527, faced with Ottoman conquest, the Croatian Parliament elected Ferdinand I of the House of Habsburg to the Croatian throne. In 1918, after World War I, Croatia was included in the unrecognized State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs which seceded from Austria-Hungary, a fascist Croatian puppet state backed by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany existed during World War II. After the war, Croatia became a member and a federal constituent of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. On 25 June 1991 Croatia declared independence, which came wholly into effect on 8 October of the same year, the Croatian War of Independence was fought successfully during the four years following the declaration. A unitary state, Croatia is a republic governed under a parliamentary system, the International Monetary Fund classified Croatia as an emerging and developing economy, and the World Bank identified it as a high-income economy. Croatia is a member of the European Union, United Nations, the Council of Europe, NATO, the World Trade Organization, the service sector dominates Croatias economy, followed by the industrial sector and agriculture. Tourism is a significant source of revenue during the summer, with Croatia ranked the 18th most popular tourist destination in the world, the state controls a part of the economy, with substantial government expenditure. The European Union is Croatias most important trading partner, since 2000, the Croatian government constantly invests in infrastructure, especially transport routes and facilities along the Pan-European corridors. Internal sources produce a significant portion of energy in Croatia, the rest is imported, the origin of the name is uncertain, but is thought to be a Gothic or Indo-Aryan term assigned to a Slavic tribe. The oldest preserved record of the Croatian ethnonym *xъrvatъ is of variable stem, the first attestation of the Latin term is attributed to a charter of Duke Trpimir from the year 852. The original is lost, and just a 1568 copy is preserved—leading to doubts over the authenticity of the claim, the oldest preserved stone inscription is the 9th-century Branimir Inscription, where Duke Branimir is styled as Dux Cruatorvm. The inscription is not believed to be dated accurately, but is likely to be from during the period of 879–892, the area known as Croatia today was inhabited throughout the prehistoric period
