MOTIV KRAVE U HRVATSKOJ NOVELISTICI PRVE POLOVINE 20. STOLJEĆA
The Motif of a Cow in Croatian Novellas of the First Half of the 20th Century

Summary/Abstract: The motive of a cow appears in some of the most significant Croatian novellas of the first half of the 20th century. The paper compares the literary-historical and social context of its appearance in the novellas “Boškarina” by Vladimir Nazor (Savremenik / Contemporary, 1910), “Svoga tijela gospodar / The Master of His Own Body” by Slavko Kolar (Hrvatska revija / Croatian revue, 1931) and “Mrak na svijetlim stazama / The Darkness on the Bright Paths” by Ivan Goran Kovačić (Hrvatska revija / Croatian revue, 1935). The representation of a cow as the only treasure is influenced by the poetics of the period which a particular novella belongs to. Under the influence of Modernist styles of Neo-Romanticism and Art Nouveau, Nazor's novella elevates a thin cow to the hyperbolised breadwinner in the environment which intertwines Christianity with pagan beliefs. Kolar's and Kovačić's novellas were created in the period of socially engaged literature and they both establish sharp differences between the two worldviews: Christianity is legitimate, and paganism suffers social condemnation. In Kolar's novella, a family saves itself from poverty by the marriage of a son after the old cow was lost by his own guilt. The cow in Kovačić's novella is taken away from an aged shepherd because he did not pay a military tax. In all novellas, the motive of a cow initiates the plot and is connected with the unfortunate destiny of human characters, whose happiness is subordinated to the material demands of their family or social community.

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