Society and literature in Dalmatian cities in the first half of 18th century as seen by A. A. Paton

Abstract

A. A. Paton’s travel book Researches on the Danube and the Adriatic has separate chapters dealing with the society, art and literature in three main Dalmatian cities: Dubrovnik, Split and Zadar. Tile impressions the author gets while staying in those places depended greatly on the opposition of what has been lately called "auloethnography-ethnography", viz. on what people the traveller meets and the instructions he gets from them. The nature and character of the travel book was greatly determined by his consciousness relating to the expectations of the readers in England and of those who commissioned it. Satirico-ironical connotations in the descriptions of some events can be understood as being the product of a man belonging to a different and, in the opinion of the author, higher civilization and culture. The accounts of his travels are also used by Paton as a means of justification of some actions and procedures taken by the authorities in his native country.