Dramatic transformational structures

Abstract

Older Croatian literature shows many signs of thematic and stylistic continuity, and therefore, concerning the theme and genre, several genetic lines can be outlined. That characteristic is especially obvious in the Croatian medieval drama, first of all in the texts of the Passion cycle. The interdependence among them assumes such proportions that each text should be studied both as an authonomous product and part of a diachronic synthesis. In the time from the end of the 14th century to the middle of the 16th century those texts were developing from the narrative-lyric, through dialogues, to dramatized and developed dramatic forms, the phenomenon called genre transformation by the author. Concerning the process of development he considers the texts as dramatic transformational structures. Dealing with the characteristics of the transformational procedure following from the nature of anonimous adapting poetic work the author points out two modes of such a procedure: extrapolation and interpolation. Two kinds of changes can be discerned thereby: quantitative, i. e. coming as a result of the medieval poetic procedure, and qualitative, being the bearers of structural transformations. Next, the author gives a detailed analysis of the degrees of genre transformation (four developmental stages). He concludes that the issue from the home literary tradition is just one characteristic in the emergence and development of the Croatian medieval drama, but that characteristic, with its stylistic and compositional constants (e. g. octosyllabic couplet etc.) appeared as early as in the first Passion texts and was preserved In all the texts of the genetic lines.