Josip Cvrtila in Croatian literature for children

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to research literary history by examining the work of the teacher and writer Josip Cvrtila, at his creative peak as a respected, but now largely forgotten, author of Croatian children’s literature. The paper will show that Cvrtila’s contribution has not received recognition it deserves in historical accounts of Croatian children’s literature, which will justify the need for research on this topic and its revaluation. The research will rely on sources from the first half of the 20th century, and for this purpose, articles and discussions from newspapers, contributions from professional and children’s magazines, archival materials, biographical and autobiographical records, and a listed bibliography of Josip Cvrtila’s work will be analysed. In addition, the research will focus on a comparison of the reconstructed perception of Josip Cvrtila’s work in the first half of the 20th century with the representations of that period created after World War II, those from the second half of the twentieth century and those created after the independence of the Republic of Croatia, with the aim of understanding the selection procedures that have resulted in the representation of Cvrtila’s work today.