Nazor's Short Story Writing - From Engaged to Intimate Allegorical Prose

Abstract

Three mutually connected and yet independent circle of motifs and themes are characteristic for Nazor's short stories from the period of his modernistic phase (Istrian Tales, 1931, 1917; Hundred names, 1916). The first circle is composed of the first Istrian tales ("Veli Joze", "Divičin grad" and "Boškarina") published in journals between 1907 and 1910 and only collected in the second and the third edition of Istrian Tales. These were the first works of their kind to elaborate the national and the social themes pertaining to Istria. The second circle is marked by Arcadian motifs and encompasses the short stories published in the first edition of the collection Istrian Tales (1913) - "Halugica", "King Albus", "Plecida the Virgin", "Wood without Nightingales". The short stories of this circle are still connected to the national thematic but Nazor in them simultaneously speaks of his inner conflicts and aspirations. The prose work "Lighthouse" (1918) published at a later date also belongs to these allegorical short stories. The third circle, made up of short stories from the collection Hundrednames, is tightly connected to the second circle especially as far as its allegorical expression is concerned but it is dominated by themes of inner cleansing, self-abnegative sacrifice and sublime loneliness. The short story "The Legend of St Christofer" falls within this circle.