Croatian literature in the journal »Smotra dalmatinska« (scetches/novelletes/stories)

Abstract

During a time span covering three periods in the development of Croatian literature (already formed realism, modernism and the beginnings of expressionism), when Zadar was an important, cultural and literary center, the journal Smotra Dalmatinska (1888—1918) takes up, partially, the reviewing of the contemporary developments in Croatian literature. Its editor, Petar Kasandrić, began gradually and with great caution (since Smotra was the official political paper of the Dalmatian governorship) to print in the feuilleton contributions from Croatian literature. During the first decade of publication very few such contributions came out; the only text of certain value is the lyric symbolic scetch »Phantasy« by I. Vojnović. At the time of the greatest flourish of the Croatian modernist movement (around tire turn of the century), Smotra is most open to developments in contemporary Croatian literature and mainly publishes modernist scetches and novelletes (M. Nikolić, B. Lovrić, Z. Kveder, Z. Marković and other nowadays unknown authors), alongside realist works (B. Budisavljevlć, J.E. Tomić an others). During this period Smotra is much less preoccupied with the national-enltghtenment conception than during the last decade of its existence when Kasandrić fills the feuilleton with stories by V. Vuletić-Vukasović, M. Krstić and (most of all) M. Vežić Jadrtovac authors of a distinctly antiguated manner.