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Sultanova djeca: Predodžbe Turaka u hrvatskoj književnosti ranog novovjekovlja (CROSBI ID 2385)

Autorska knjiga | monografija (znanstvena)

Dukić, Davor Sultanova djeca: Predodžbe Turaka u hrvatskoj književnosti ranog novovjekovlja. Zadar: Thema, 2004

Podaci o odgovornosti

Dukić, Davor

hrvatski

Sultanova djeca: Predodžbe Turaka u hrvatskoj književnosti ranog novovjekovlja

CHILDREN OF THE SULTAN: Images of the Turks in early modern Croatian literature The Turkish theme first appears in Croatian literary culture in the mid-15th century, but till the beginning of the 16th century the Turks were written about exclusively in Latin. The best represented genres in Latin literature by 15th and 16th century Croatian authors were anti-Turkish oratory (F. Marcello, B. Zane, T. Andreis, Š. Kožičić Benja, S. Posedarski, B. Frankopan, K. Frankopan, V. Frankopan, F. Frankopan, P. Cedulin) and epistles (J. Divnić, M. Marulić, T. Andreis) whose addressees were mainly Popes and influential European rulers (the Habsburg Emperor, the Doge of Venice, the King of Poland). In addition, the topics of Turkish conquests but also of Turkish culture and civilization appeared in lyric poems (J. Šižgorić, J. Pannonius, T. Niger, F. Božićević Natalis, T. Andreis), travel accounts (A. Vrančić, B. Đurđević) and historical literature (F. Petančić, L. Crijević Tuberon). Nevertheless, despite genre differences, most of the literature mentioned displays some general common features. First of all, the Turks are mostly presented as a conquering infidel (Muslim) people from the East, which is rapidly taking over Southeastern Europe. The texts offer three stereotyped reasons for the rapid expansion of the Turkish state: 1) a religious reason. The Turks are God's punishment for the sins of the Christians. These sins are sometimes quite abstract and indefinite, but sometimes explicitly connected with concrete historical events such as the appearance of Lutheranism. 2) a political reason. Turkish conquests are the result of discord among Christians. This fundamentally optimistic explanation assumes that Christians united could defeat the Turks, and it thus proposes a broad European anti-Turkish coalition led by the Pope, the Habsburg Emperor, or the Polish King. 3) a military-strategic reason. Turkish invincibility is the result of their well-trained, well-armed and well-disciplined army. Unlike the previous one, this explanation is pessimistic ; it comes out of direct experience with Turkish military supremacy. Further, it is linked to the stereotype of the Turks as Mighty Warriors, which simultaneously excuses Christian defeats and magnifies Christian victories. Commonplaces of the early Latin-language literature about the Turks include descriptions of atrocities by the conquerors. Over and over they cite the burning of crops and settlements, plundering, seizing of people as slaves, rape of women, killing of old men and prisoners, desecration of Christian holy places such as using churches as stables, and the like. In the political conditions of the time, Croatia gained the epithet antemurale christianitatis (first defense line of Christianity). This is usually linked with a warning to its nearest Western neighbors (Italy, Austrian lands) that a similar fate might befall them if they did not offer effective help in stopping the Turks. All these characteristics of the early Latin literature about the Turks are an expression of the fear and mobilization that were understandable reactions to the lightning-fast advance of the Turks into Southeastern Europe. But at the same time the Croatian Latinists' works, in discourse close to the scholarly, sought to acquaint the European public with Turkish civilization. Their attention was not always confined to the military and religious aspects of Turkish society, but also extended to topics like the structure of the state, customs and habits, and everyday life (F. Petančić, L. Crijević Tuberon, B. Đurđević). In Croatian-language works, the Turkish theme appears at the end of the 15th century and reaches full flowering in the 16th. The Turks are written about in all the important literary genres, such as verse epics (B. Krnarutić, S. Sasin, anonymous epic poems about the contemporary Christian-Turkish wars), political verse (M. Marulić, M. Vetranović, Š. Budinić), dramatic texts (H. Lucić, M. Držić, M. Benetović), and history (Š. Kožičić Benja, A. Vramec). Most of the texts up to the mid-16th century are characterized by the same commonplaces as the Latin literature of the time (the Turks as God's punishment, Christian discord, the invincible Turkish army, descriptions of typical Turkish crimes, Croatia as Christianity's first line of defense). This period's literature reflects feelings of fear and helplessness, most often expressed in lyric forms or lyric insertions in other types of discourse (P. Zoranić), so that the time from the end of the 15th century to the middle of the 16th can be called the 'period of lamentation' in treating the Turkish theme in early modern Croatian literature. But already in Hanibal Lucić's drama Robinja (The Slave Woman) the Turks cease to be merely infidel invaders from the East. They take on the role of new neighbors, with whom one fights but trades as well. In Držić's comedy Tripče de Utolče a Turkish character appears as a variant of the 'boastful soldier (and seducer)', but he is really a converted Christian, a comic representation of the Muslims from the area around Dubrovnik. In Komedija od Raskota, attributed to the Hvar comedy writer Martin Benetović, the traditional image of Turkish heroism, strength and braggartry becomes a target of ridicule. The 16th century also saw the first popular historical works in Croatian, which seek to include Turkish history with relative objectivity (Š. Kožičić Benja, A. Vramec). Further, the victories by Christian armies at Lepanto (1571), Sisak (1593) and Győr (1598) find their echo in Croatian literature, arousing hope in the possibility of defeating the Turks and driving them out of Europe, which was only in the following period to become one of the commonplaces of anti-Turkish literature. In any case, the second half of the 16th century is a kind of transition period in the treatment of the Turkish theme. Characteristic for the new tendencies just mentioned is the decline in representations of the Turks as fearsome and ruthless enemies of the Christian lands on the eastern shore of the Adriatic. In the 17th century we notice a distinct quantitative downturn in literary treatments of the Turkish theme as compared with the preceding one. Thus the lengthy and exhausting Venetian-Turkish war of Candia (1645-1669) found a very weak literary echo at the time (a historical work in Italian by F. Divnić and a chronicle in Croatian by P. Šilobadović). Only in the 18th century will F. Grabovac and A. Kačić-Miošić write more about it. Nevertheless the 17th century may have given Croatian literature its most interesting writings about the Turks. These are mostly lengthy narrative works in verse, thematizing contemporary historical events such as the overthrow of Sultan Osman II in 1622 (I. Gundulić, I. T. Mrnavić), the Dubrovnik mission to Istanbul after the great earthquake of 1667 (J. Palmotić Dionorić), and the Turkish siege of Vienna in 1683 (P. Bogašinović, P. Kanavelić), but also some events of the previous century like the war for Cyprus in 1571-1573 (J. Baraković) and the siege of Siget in 1566 (P. Zrinski, V. Menčetić, P. Ritter Vitezović). In the works written roughly two centuries after the first Turkish incursions into the Western Balkans, the Turks are shown as a neighboring great power which nevertheless is destined for a rapid fall. Such hopes were roused by the first ever coup d’ état in Turkish history: the overthrow of Osman II, and particularly by the Turkish defeat at Vienna in 1683 and the events that ensued after the battle. Predictions of the rapid expulsion of the Turks from Europe became a commonplace in literature of the 17th century (I. Gundulić, V. Menčetić, S. Gradić, N. M. Iljanović, P. Bogašinović, P. Kanavelić). In some purely literary works there appears an interest in Turkish culture and civilization, which are shown “ from the inside” (I. Gundulić, I. T. Mrnavić, J. Palmotić Dionorić) ; no such thing was found in the preceding century. Further, the Turkish camp is often portrayed as disunited, conflicts of Turk against Turk are treated (I. Gundulić, I. T. Mrnavić), and narrators sometimes show sympathy for individual Turkish characters (I. Gundulić, J. Palmotić Dionorić). All in all, the 17th century mostly lacks the procedures of “ satanizing” the Turks typical for the “ lamentation” period. What is more, this century saw the appearance of the work most tolerant toward the Turks out of all early modern Croatian literature: Pavao Ritter Vitezović’ s Odiljenje sigetsko on the battle of Siget of 1566. Against the background of the “ heroic ideology” characteristic for classical epics, the final part of this verse work, composed as a series of eulogies to the fallen heroes of Siget, shows not only the Christians but also the Turks gaining their “ entrance-tickets to heaven” through their heroic deaths. In the literary works written between the second siege of Vienna (1683) and Austria’ s and Russia’ s war against the Turks (1788-1792), new tendencies appear in treating the Turkish theme. The evident decline of Turkish political and military might finds its echo in literature. The idea of expelling the Turks from Europe remains a commonplace in this century. Their losses on the battlefield are explained by the stereotype of the “ wheel of fortune” , while the stereotype of the Turks as God’ s punishment is used only in the context of recalling the history of the 15th and 16th centuries. The new ethics of war and the Christian military superiority appear in a completely new literary motif: the mercy shown by Christian victors toward defeated Turks. Expressions of a derisive and disparaging attitude toward the Turks appear. There was also a change in the content of the concept “ Turk” : while in the 16th and 17th centuries this ethnonym usually stood for the army and state apparatus of the Ottoman Empire, in the 18th century it means more and more the neighboring Muslim population of Slavic origin. This brings in the theme of conversion, which will be particularly potent in literature from the mid-19th century “ Illyrian Movement” into the Croatian moderna period. Turkish conversion is variously judged, depending on the relative valuations of the religious and the ethnic. Thus, in Filip Grabovac’ s Cvit razgovora naroda i jezika iliričkoga aliti rvackoga it is seen as religious treason, while in Andrija Kačić Miošić’ s Razgovor ugodni naroda slovinskoga it is less negatively evaluated: Turkish converts are viewed as Slavs of another faith. Here Kačić was anticipating some ideologemes of the next century, the 19th, when his work was to achieve the height of its popularity. The example of Grabovac and Kačić can show how an author’ s personality can sometimes outweigh supra-individual literary-historical tendencies. Both writers come from the same region, were of the same generation, had the same education, were active within the same ideological paradigm (the Catholic renewal), wrote about the same or similar topics, but with significantly different evaluative connotations. While Grabovac’ s book was probably the climax of satanization of the Turks in early modern Croatian literature, Kačić’ s attitude toward them was a more tolerant one, based on a variant of pan-Slavic ideology (“ slovinstvo” ) and on glorifying heroism against a background of the ethics of the folk epic. On the other hand, in some writers, who were active in European cultural centers, a more tolerant attitude toward the Turks resulted from acceptance of new, liberal ideas (I. Lovrić, A. T. Blagojević). Quantitatively also, the 18th century brings a certain flourishing of interest in Turkish topics, but it is most of all connected with the abovementioned Austrian-Russian war against the Turks at the end of the century, which roused the greatest hopes so far for the final defeat of Turkish power in Europe, hopes which would remain unfulfilled. Apart from general diachronic tendencies, it is interesting to examine the differences between regional approaches to the Turkish theme in early modern Croatian literature. Dubrovnik is perhaps the most interesting case. Legally speaking it had the status of a Turkish tributary throughout the period under discussion. It was a sort of vassal to the Turkish Empire, which presupposed a yearly tax and a lack of independent foreign policy. In exchange, Dubrovnik could develop free trade and enjoyed political freedom within the boundaries of its own Republic. This internal political freedom was reflected also in its strong Christian (Catholic) orientation. What is more, Dubrovnik citizens often saw themselves as upholders of the Christians (Catholics) within the Turkish Empire (J. Palmotić Dionorić). Reasons of state and of faith thus existed in a kind of antagonistic relationship. From a religious viewpoint, Dubrovnik’ s policy toward the Turks often evoked unease and a need for justification among the Dubrovnik writers. Thus, even in the 16th century, writers sought to justify Dubrovnik’ s policy by citing the general political situation in Europe: dissension among Christian countries and resulting military inferiority vis-a-vis the Turks (M. Vetranović, H. Lucić from Hvar). Nevertheless there is a rather large number of Dubrovnik writers who, not touching explicitly on the theme of policy toward the Turks, still did not hide their anti-Turkish attitudes. However, precisely because of Dubrovnik policy and concern for the Turks, their works remained in manuscript (M. Vetranović, A. Sasin, I. Gundulić). The situation changes from the second half of the 17th century on, which marks the beginning of the weakening of the Turkish state. From then to the end of the period under consideration Dubrovnik was, so to speak, searching for a new and Christian defender, though this search was fruitless. The first Dubrovnik writer to publish an anti-Turkish work in Croatian was V. Menčetić, and P. Bogašinović came soon after. Bogašinović’ s work is in fact a literary expression of the Dubrovnik Republic’ s attempt, following the siege of Vienna, to renew legal connections with the Kingdom of Hungary, which now found itself within the Habsburg Monarchy (agreement with Emperor Leopold I in 1684). At the beginning of the 18th century, with the strengthening of the Russian Empire under Peter the Great, some Dubrovnik writers will see the Russian emperor as Europe’ s liberator from the Turks, as, somewhat earlier, I. Gundulić as well as P. Bogašinović and P. Kanavelić had attributed that role to the Polish rulers Wladyslaw and Jan Sobieski. A new wave of Russophilism, again connected with an anti-Turkish tendency, will come into Dubrovnik literature at the end of the 18th century, at the time of the Russian empress Catherine II’ s war against the Turks. Venice’ s relations with Turkey in the early modern period were a continual alternation of wars and truces. Yet this rhythm had no effect on the image of the Turks in the Croatian writers of Venetian Dalmatia, who showed a constant and pronounced anti-Turkish attitude, always steeped with a variant of patriotic ideologemes (M. Marulić and the Split circle of his time ; the Zadar writers P. Zoranić, B. Krnarutić, J. Baraković ; the Franciscan writers F. Grabovac and A. Kačić Miošić). In the literature of Central Croatia, the Turkish theme is more weakly represented than in the other Croatian regions. Apart from the opus of P. Ritter Vitezović, the Turks appear only in historical works by A. Vramec and J. Rattkay, in the reworking of Nikola Zrinski’ s epic by his brother Petar, in the epic in installments by the Kajkavian writer Juraj Malevec, and in some anonymous poems in Kajkavian songbooks of the 16th and 18th centuries. The nearness of the Turks was less felt in everyday life than in Dalmatia and Slavonia, which left its mark in the choice of literary themes as well. Slavonia was under Turkish rule from the 16th to the end of the 17th century, and no Croatian-language literary works have been preserved from this period. In Slavonian literature of the 18th century, the presence of Turks is closely connected with the Habsburg Monarchy’ s policy toward Turkey. For most of the century the two monarchies lived in peace, so that the Turks, apart from M. A. Relković’ s Satir, did not appear in literary works. Even Relković does not depict concrete historical Turks but condemns alleged Turkish customs surviving in Slavonia after the departure of the Turks, marked by idleness, hedonism, and general backwardness. At the end of the century, when the Habsburg Monarchy allied with Russia went to war against the Turks, a number of works appear in Slavonian literature with the war as theme. The image of the Turks in these shows all the same basic tendencies that are characteristic for 18th century Croatian literature (a scornful attitude, mercy for defeated Turks, the “ wheel of fortune” ). The image of any segment of the thematic world of a literary work, even the image of the enemy (here the Turks), largely depends on the genre to which the work belongs. The genre used, though, is not only the author’ s free choice but also expresses the literary “ market” of the time. So it is interesting to see what genres served to depict the Turks at various times in early modern Croatian literature. From the mid-15th to the mid-16th centuries, when the Turkish theme comes up in the works of Croatian Latinists, anti-Turkish speeches and epistles are dominant. The Turkish theme appears at the same time in Latin lyrics, and particularly lyrics written in Croatian show Turkish conquests from the end of the 15th to the mid-16th centuries (the anonymous prayer Spasi, Marije, tvojih vernih, M. Marulić, M. Vetranović, P. Zoranić). It is interesting that two quite different genres, one political and non-fictional, the other “ true” literature, were accomplishing the same work with similar means: hyperbolic exaggeration of the conquerors’ misdeeds and the scale of the Turkish danger. In Croatian literature from the mid-16th to the end of the 18th centuries the Turkish theme is mainly incorporated in epic works. Different types of epics alternate, so that the second half of the 16th century mainly has anonymous, esthetically unpretentious epic poems ; after Krnarutić’ s Renaissance epic on the battle of Siget (Vazetje Sigeta grada, 1584), no less than three Baroque epics appear in the 17th century (I. Gundulić, P. Zrinski, J. Palmotić Dionorić) and one with poetics close to the Baroque (P. Bogašinović). In the 18th century epic poems arising from the folk epic tradition predominate (F. Grabovac, A. Kačić Miošić, J. Krmpotić, A. Ivanošić). Even the longer 18th-century epic works with Turkish themes (J. Malevac, B. Bošnjak, J. Krmpotić), in keeping with the enlightenment and democratic tendencies of the time, are poetically closer to the folk type than to Baroque epics. The compositional simplicity and ideological superficiality of 18th-century epics is compatible with the expression of Christian superiority and even contempt toward the Turks. In contrast, the earlier 17th-century Baroque epic, written in the tradition of the followers of Tasso, contributed to a more complex image of the Turks, through its elaborated composition and thematic structure (historical, quasi-historical, eschatological, romantic thematic worlds) and its classical gravitas. These latter works are notable for their nuanced evaluation of the Turkish characters and the rare use of procedures of satanization. In Croatian drama, Turks were not frequent guests, though the first of them appears at the very beginning, in Lucić’ s Robinja. After this historical drama, whose Christian hero bargains with the Turks but in which we also hear of real Christian-Turkish battles and Turkish enslavement of Christians, Turks will appear in the early modern period only in comedies. They are not true Turkish warriors but always some sort of false, boastful Turks involved in the predominantly Christian world of the comedy. In any case, the entrance of Turks into comedies in the mid-16th century symbolically marks the end of the serious, “ lamentation” period with its fear, fervid emotion, and desire for political action. Nonetheless, ridicule of the Turks in comedy remains a sporadic phenomenon, never taking over the literary “ market” . The same holds for Croatian historical writing about the Turks. In each century there is one popular chronicle of world history with significant representation of its Turkish segment (A. Vramec, P. Ritter Vitezović, A. Kačić Miošić). But these works mostly mention changes on the Turkish throne, Turkish wars and conquests. Deeper interest in Turkish culture as such, apart from the Ottoman policy of conquest, finds no place in early modern Croatian-language literature, which never created works analogous to the travel and historical writings of the 16th-century Croatian Latinists. Hence some segments of Turkish civilization will be mentioned only in “ real” , mostly epic literary works (I. Gundulić, J. Palmotić Dionorić). Thus praise will be given to Turkish military might, the riches of the Turkish lands and the luxury of the Sultan’ s court, while the most frequent negative stereotypes of Turkish civilization will be the recruiting of the Janissaries by kidnapping Christian children, hedonism, polygamy, homosexuality, the Sultan’ s cruelty toward his subjects and his own brothers, and finally backwardness and primitivism. This last will mainly be linked to neighboring Muslims of Slavic origin (M. A. Relković). The image of the Turks in 16th to 18th century Croatian literature is realized in a relatively transparent series of stereotypical motifs. But it is by no means uniform and constant. This analysis has shown the degree to which it is conditioned by historical-political factors (the relative strength of the Turkish Empire), regional and genre variation.

književna imagologija; Turci; kulturni stereotipi

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engleski

Children of the Sultan: Images of the Turks in early modern Croatian literature

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Literary Imagology; Turks; cultural stereotypes

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Zadar: Thema

2004.

953-96326-2-5

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