Pisma Ivane Brlić-Mažuranić Milanu Ševiću. Od građe za enciklopediju do diferenciranja u književnom polju
Letters of Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić to Milan Šević: From Encyclopaedic Content to the Differentiation of a Literary Genre

Summary/Abstract: In this study, the letters of Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić addressed to Milan Šević are published for the first time. From this material, it is clear that Milan Šević asked Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić for the letters of Jovan Jovanović Zmaj, and for her own biographical data, and that he planned to publish in Cyrillic script Croatian Tales of Long Ago, or some of her other literary writings. Šević`s view that children’s literature should be established on its own and become an independent fictional genre (Šević used to call it “differentiation”) obtained its approval in the creative work of Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić. The letters of Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić repeat facts and details noted earlier in her autobiography, treating her own poetry collection Slike [Images] (1912) in the same way in both sources (the letters and the autobiography). Her repeated insistence on the special status of this poetry collection suggests that she intended to position herself beyond children’s literature, i.e. to differentiate herself. Many spots in her “Autobiography” which speak of poetry support such a statement, as does the attestation of Želimir Mažuranić in his letters to Milan Šević that Croatian Tales of Long Ago is certainly not children’s literature, even though the tales may be read by children, too, and even though the book has educational value.

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