Literary school of Dubrovnik.

Leaving behind the dark ages of Croatia, where in the Balkans was developing a series of migrations and displacements of peoples, centuries later, the region of Dalmatia began to flourish as one of the most developed commercial areas of the Adriatic coast. Dubrovnik, Dubrovnik in Croatia, was his most acclaimed center, a unity between the Eastern and Western influences of the Italian Venice. Dubrovnik will have to demonstrate a unique culture in Europe. The Renaissance in Croatia, as it is still called today, owes much to Dubrovnik, especially in cultural and literary.

Many of the artistic expressions of Croatia flourished during this rich period. Ragusa for this was called the Slavic Athena. You experience a true cultural birth during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, literature, drama, architecture and sculpture. Among these, the so-called Rector of Dubrovnik, the most learned person in the city, as Dinko Ranjina, Dominiko Zlatarić and Ivan Gundulić. The latter was one of the greatest writers of the seventeenth century, wrote the poem Osman, where among other things it was announced the fall of the Ottoman Empire.

Such was the literary impulse of Dubrovnik from school to do all those famous citizens that followed and who distinguished themselves in literature and the arts. The Republic of Ragusa formed from the fifteenth century, an independent state by the Kingdom of Hungary, laid the networks of nationalist sentiment in the region: Interestingly, in the fortress of San Lorenzo of Dubrovnik (Lovrijenac) are engraved with the Latin words "the Freedom can not be sold for all the gold in the world, not well pro toto libertas venditur auro. "

Petar Hektorović, born in 1487 on the island of Hvar (Stari Grad), was an important figure of the literary period of Dubrovnik. His major work is a poem dedicated to fishing and the sea tales of fishermen, Ribanje the Ribarsko prigovaranje, where in a sort of dialogue and realistic narrative recounts the beauty of their homeland. It was the period in which they were spoken in Ragusa two languages, Italian and dialect in the upper aristocratic class Ragusa Štokava-ijekava.

Among the literary figures of the period are cited Džore Držić, Marin Držić, Ivan Bunic Vučić, Ignjat Djurdjevic (Ignazio Giorgi), Ivan Gundulić (Giovanni Francesco Gondola), Dinko Zlatarić, Sisko Menčetić, Dinko Ranjina. Among these Marin Držić, known in Italy as the Marino Darsa, born in Ragusa-Dubrovnik in 1508, is regarded as one of the greatest dramatists and playwrights of the Croatian Renaissance, among his most important works are cited in particular komediole (Tirena 1548), Venus and Adonis (1551), the farce's hoax Stanac (1551), Dundo Maroje (Uncle Maroje) in the same period.

Croatian literature

The Croatian literature Croatian literature reflects the historical events and human resources of this land border, an important witness of cultures, languages, conflict and sudden transformations. Events that have been able to shape a structure still in search of its own identity uniform.
We find not only the typical brand Slavic, Balkan countries' own, or the fascinating Orientalism which survives in people who were dominated from the Ottoman Empire, but also a deep-rooted Italian culture. The languages ​​are the Croatian language and Serbian, very similar but from different sources, respectively the Latin and Cyrillic scripts. A fact that highlights, regardless of ethnic tensions traditionally present, Occidentalism and Orientalism inherent in the history of the nation.

The literature of Croatia is facing the history capturing the highlights, from the Renaissance to Romanticism, with its currents of Symbolism. Croatia was not new to the currents of thought centuries before, during the Renaissance Croatian and the free Republic of Dubrovnik, were able to express themselves as poets Giorgio Sisgoreo (known in Croatian as Juraj Sizgoric), from Dalmatia (Sibenik) and lived during the rule of Venice, one of the most important figures of the humanist circle of žibenik. There are writers like Marko Marulić, the playwright Marin Drzic (who wrote the play Uncle Maroje, in 1550), Ivan Gundulić and his pastoral Dubravka (1628).

At the end of the sixteenth century appears in the literary scene Croatian Bartol Kažić (Italianized Bartolomeo Cassio), the father of the Croatian language and the one who wrote the first Croatian grammar and translated the Bible in Croatian language (XVI-XVII century). Denying the importance of the Illyrian movement (Ilirski pokret), a political and cultural campaign started by some young Croatian intellectuals during the first half of the nineteenth century, among which one can not fail to mention Ljudevit Gaj (1809-1851). The Illyrian movement was the most important nationalist movement in the country, seen in the context of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

In the twentieth century Croatian literature in the country again landed in the sea of ​​its historical events. Movements such as Futurism and Surrealism expand in Croatia with the avant-garde movements, seen in the light of socialist realism. The contemporary Croatian literature is developed separately from across the border 'regional', despite the unification of the Slav territories. They fit alongside awarded authors Slovenian and Serbian, Croatian writers as Miroslav Krleža (1893-1981), considered one of the greatest writers of merit in the history of Croatia, and Tadijanovic Dragutin (1905-2007), one of the largest and most influential poets of the twentieth century.

Croatian language

The Croatian language

Croatian language is spoken, whose origin (as also occurs for the Serbian and Bosnian language) comes directly from the Slavic language. However, the Croatian language differs from Serbian as it uses Latin characters, not the Cyrillic as with the Serbian language. In general, it is quite a significant presence of dialects are those of the coast, one of the central area of the capital Zagreb and the one used in Slavonia.
In the country, are very common the Italian language (especially in regions that were formerly the Kingdom of Italy), German and of course English in tourist areas. In fact, learn to speak Croatian is not so easy, but it's good to know some more information during your trip.

Dialects in Croatia

Dialects of CroaziaIn Croatia are spoken dialects, grouped in three main language groups: Čakavo, Kajkavo and Štokavo. The first is marked especially in the coastal area of the country (up to Istria) and the islands of Croatia, the second gets to be spoken in the north of the country, near the border with Slovenia and Hungary to touch some villages. Often, it is customary to call the dialect groups according to the corresponding interrogative pronoun, namely Ca, Kaj, I'm (who, what).

The dialect Čakavo is often seen as the first major linguistic group of Croatian literature, meaning that in use as a literary language of the Croats. Among the first documents in that dialect we find the first of Judith Marko Marulić (Latinized Marcus Marulus), a famous writer of the fifteenth of Split, who not only wrote in Latin, but it was one of the first to write in the Illyrian language, using just the dialect above.

The Kajkavo dialect is spoken in the inland areas of the country, in the capital Zagreb and also in the border with Austria (as the Burgenland), Hungary, Romania and also the border with Slovenia. With this, the dialect goes to make up all the dialects of the southern Slavic (ie differing from those of Western countries ranging from Poland to Slovakia, and from the eastern Russian-Ukrainian).