Ilija Kuljaš – peraška prerada Molijera i/ili legitimisanje društvenoga poretka
ILIJA KULJAŠ – PERAST’S VERSION OF MOLIERE AND/OR LEGITIMIZATION OF SOCIAL ORDER

Summary/Abstract: Ever since its first publication in Dubrovnik’s Slovinac in 1880, comedy Ilija Kuljaš has been referred to as a vernacular variation of Moliere’s Bourgeois Gentleman. Taking into account the existent critical writing on this play and previously neglected details about its origin and author, the paper points to the possibility that the text might have originated in Perast in the mid-eighteenth century. Since Ilija Kuljaš considerably departs from its alleged “template”, Bourgeois Gentleman, it is possible to regard it as a brand new comedy. It is a new text on multiple levels, primarily owing to its genre shift in comparison to the alleged template, and its integration into the socio-cultural context in which it is created and where it has a dual function: to represent everyday life and legitimize the existing social order.

• Details
• Contents