The beginnings of literary prose in the "Zora Dalmatinska"

Abstract

The early periodical of Zadar, »Zora dalmatinska«, has so far been referred to as an only edifying publication without literary aims. The short narratives in the first few numbers, mostly anecdotes, have a set form in which a maxim or proverb governs the narrative of which the theme is irrelevant, and the intention exclusively didactic. But already in number 10 there is -in contrast to that simple, straightforward and timeless form- a slightly longer piece of narative prose quite different in form of composition. According to the title (»Count de Turn and Duke Marmont in Kaštela«) it could be another anecdote. But an analysis of the composite structure dealing with a relevant historical theme reveals stylistic features belonging to a definite literary period, Romanticism, and as such should be considered as literature, and the first attempt at literary prose in »Zora dalmatinska «.