Ogledi o jugoslavenstvu i Srednjoj Europi u očima umjetnika – homo politicusa. Memoari Ivana Meštrovića "Uspomene na političke ljude i događaje"
The Image of Yugoslavism and Central Europe through the Eyes of a Homo Politicus Artist. Ivan Meštrović's Memoirs: "Uspomene na političke ljude i dogaᵭaje"

Author(s): Ewa Szperlik
Subject(s): Cultural history, Studies of Literature, Croatian Literature, Polish Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Ivan Meštrović; memoir; autobiographical prose; Yugoslavism; Central Europe
Summary/Abstract: The paper analyses the memoirs of Ivan Meštrović, a prominent Croatian sculptor and politician (a member of the Yugoslav Committee). The memoirs were written in exile (Buenos Aires 1961) and are an account of the turbulent events in Europe in the first half of the 20th century. The work has been poorly researched and is dominated by autobiographical discourse, the position of the narrator (a participant in events) and a subjective view of the past. Meštrović presents the past events and the so-called great history (the First World War, the collapse of the Habsburg Monarchy and the fall of tsarist Russia, design of nation-states) from a personal, often intimate perspective, allowing readers to interpret the past in the key of geopoetics, auto/bio/geo/graphy (E. Rybicka), interactions between the literary text and the geographical space, emotive topography (fatherland, exile). Adhering to the rules of the autobiographical pact (Ph. Lejeune), the memoir (as a subgenre of autobiographical writing) becomes a source of historical knowledge and testimony about the era.

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