Hrvatska književnost i pravaštvo. Izvodi iz “Povijesti hrvatske književnosti”
Croatian literature and State Rights` ideology: Selections from “The History of Croatian Literature”

Author(s): Dubravko Jelčić
Subject(s): Political history, Croatian Literature, Government/Political systems, 19th Century
Published by: Hrvatski institut za povijest
Keywords: the Party of Right; ‘Rightism’; Croatian literature;
Summary/Abstract: The Party of Right is not only vital to Croatian political life in the second half of the 19th century, but of all Croatian political parties it is the most influential in terms of Croatian literature, maintaining this influence right until the end of the 1930s. This influence is not limited to ideology or the level of outlook on the world, as characterized by a critical (in the manner of Starčević) stance toward the reality of Croatian society, but can also be felt on an aesthetic level, where ‘Rightism’ helped to form a specific style of Croatian literary realism. The influence on ‘Rightism’ is already visible in the works of August Šenoa, who as citizen was an adherent of Strossmayer’s National Party, as an author nonetheless infused his work from the first to the last page with the fundamental notions of the Party of Right. The entirety of Croatian literary romanticism, whatever its merits, is unimaginable without the solid persona of Ante Starčević and the ideology of the Party of Right; Croatian literary realism would be unrecognizable for its uniqueness without the ‘Rightist’ chorus tones led out by Ante Kovačić and Eugen Kumičić; with A. G. Matoš dominant ‘Rightist’ ideas are carried forward into the modernist era, while reflexes of this influence can be felt in the thinking of August Cesarec and Miroslav Krleža, two Croatian writers of communist orientation.

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