engleski

Presentations of the Relations between Croatian and Islamic Cultures in Croatian Children's Literature until 1945

The theme of the relations between Christians and Muslims was often present in Croatian children’s literature in the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. Moreover, the development of this theme outlines a path along which there occurs a reversal in values. At first, Croatian children’s literature took from the literature of Romanticism a pattern of the conflict between Croats and Turks, which is an example of the conflict of two religious worlds: the Christian and Muslim. In some cases this religious confrontation is an a priori, axiomatic background which determines the actions of characters while in others it is just a background which exerts no significant impact on the development of action (Prošastnost horvatsko ugarska, Croatian and Hungarian Past, by Ljudevit Vukotinović 1844). This is followed by a whole range of historical narratives for children where religious differences become secondary in relation to the fact that characters share the same ethnic identity. For example, in the novel Bog svojih ne ostavlja (God Never Leaves His Followers) by Ivan Devčić from 1902, the conflict between the major rivals is overcome due to the fact that both characters, although members of different religious denominations, realize that they are both Croatians. The end of the studied period saw the appearance of a novel in which the reader’s national identification with the other side is not necessary in order to grant to the members of another denomination the right to their existence and to their own system of values. The hero of the novel Jaša Dalmatin (1937) by Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić manages to develop his own abilities and realize his own dreams precisely because he accepts the values of another culture, at the same time not renouncing his own roots.

Croatian children's literature; historical novel; Islamic culture

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