CZECH AND SLOVAK EXPERIENCES OF STJEPAN KARLOV ŽGURIĆ

Autor u tekstu daje pregled života i prevoditeljskog, kritičkog i književnog rada Stjepana Žgurića (1872.–1914.), naglašavajući njegov doprinos hrvatskoj recepciji čeških i slovačkih prozaika književnog realizma, te utjecaj čeških književnika na Žgurićev nevelik izvorni književni opus. Članku prilaže kraću Žgurićevu korespondenciju s istaknutim češkim i slovačkim književnicima.Today it is rather unknown that at the turn of the nineteenth to twentieth century Stjepan Žgurić, chaplain of Daruvar and pastor of Gornja Stubica, was one of the most important persons regarding the Croatian reception of Czech and Slovak prose realism. He published his first translations in magazine Smilje, when he still was at high school. However, most of his translations from Czech, together with his reviews of works of contemporary Czech and Slovak writers, were published in journal Vienac. Still, he largely ignored the Czech modernist literary movement, which was then in full swing. Žgurić was the first one who translated into Croatian novels of Alois Jirásek and Elena Maróthy-Šoltésova. From Žgurić’s poorly preserved correspondence it is clear what was his criteria of choice regarding the translations: beside educational function (notes of V. Sokolova, V. Kosmák, V. Benša-Šumavski etc.), he was trying to find some analogy with the Croatian contemporary situation in the literary works that he translated. Similarly, in his short stories Žgurić attempted to reveal life and problems of ordinary people to the Croatian bourgeois intelligentsia. In these stories one can notice evident influence of Czech literature, especially concerning the work of K. V. Rais. But after becoming pastor in Gornja Stubica (1903), Žgurić completely stop to write and translate. Today we can judge his work also on the basis his correspondence with the prominent Czech and Slovak writers, and it is quite probable that many of his writings remained unpublished