Comments on: Lowdown on Croatian literature

Question: Lowdown on Croatian literature

anonymous78 — Wed, 07 May 2008 15:09:30 -0800

I'm looking for recommendations of Croatian authors whose works are available in English. I'd prefer contemporary writers but I'm open to anything. I'm interested in novels, short stories, memories - anything. I'd just like to know who the major Croat authors are.

By: TheRaven

TheRaven — Wed, 07 May 2008 16:09:04 -0800

Josip Novakovich: April Fool's Day
Vedrana Rudan: Night
Dubravka Ugresic: Fording the Stream of Consciousness, The Ministry of Pain, The Museum of Unconditional Surrender

By: Cucurbit

Cucurbit — Wed, 07 May 2008 16:13:44 -0800

This article on the state of the contemporary Croatian publishing industry may be of interest. It names Miljenko Jergovic, Slavenka Drakulic, Dubravka Ugresic, Josip Novakovich, Predrag Matvejevic, and Miroslav Krleza as examples of "extremely well received" young Croatian writers whose works are available in English (titles and publisher names are given). Also mentioned is the fiction anthology Croatian Nights, "an overview of contemporary Croatian writing."

Hopefully someone else who knows more about this will happen by, but the Serbo-Croat oral epic tradition has survived into the present day. The Singer of Tales, a comp. lit. classic, contains lengthy paraphrases of different versions of performances in its appendices.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Wed, 07 May 2008 17:41:10 -0800

Miroslav Krleza died in 1981, so he can hardly be considered a "young Croatian writer"; on the other hand, he's usually considered the great Croatian writer of the 20th century (and one of the greats of European literature in general) and his main works are available in English, so he's probably a good place to start.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Wed, 07 May 2008 17:41:46 -0800

Sorry, that should be Krle~a with a hat on the z (pronounced CUR-leh-zha).

By: Cucurbit

Cucurbit — Wed, 07 May 2008 18:04:55 -0800

'Sblood! And it looks like some of the other people in that list aren't so young, either. But at least the rest are still alive.

By: gesamtkunstwerk

gesamtkunstwerk — Wed, 07 May 2008 18:05:02 -0800

Alexander Hemon is kind of an interesting writer, though he's technically Bosnian, from Sarajevo. He actually writes in English.

My favourite of the former Yugoslav writers is Danilo Kis, but he's Serbian. He's widely translated.

By: anonymous78

anonymous78 — Wed, 07 May 2008 20:36:25 -0800

languagehat - would you recommend one of his novels in particular?

By: hungrytiger

hungrytiger — Wed, 07 May 2008 21:18:22 -0800

I like Miljenko Jergovic and Dubravka Ugresic. Jergovic writes short stories and the stuff I've read of Ugresic is very interesting nonfiction. And the Ooligan Press puts out a lot of contemporary Croatian writers -- you might check them out.

By: hydatius

hydatius — Thu, 08 May 2008 03:14:55 -0800

I was really moved by a memoir, written by a Croatian-American, describing experiences excavating mass grave sites from the war. It's called The Stone Fields, by Courtney Angela Brkic, although it was written in Elnglish rather than in Croatian, so it's perhaps not quite what you were looking for (although it's excellent, all the same).