Glory of Tradition: On Hvar Literature and Theatre During the Independent State of Croatia (1941-1945)

There are two events which initiated more frequent writing on Hvar literary and theatre tradition during the period of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) (daily paper Croatian People/Hrvatski narod, weekly papers Readiness/Spremnost and Literary Weekly/Književni tjednik, and magazine Croatian Review/Hrvatska revija): Croatian festive games on Catherine’s Square (Trg Katarine Zrinske) in Zagreb in August, 1942, and the capitulation of Italy and the reversion of part of Dalmatia and the Croatian Littoral to the control of the NDH in September, 1943. Writings on Hvar literature and theatre did not contain anything new on the work of the famous Hvar literati, especially Hanibal Lucić and Petar Hektorović, the two most frequently discussed authors. Such writing consisted mostly of texts written for different occasions offering a general survey, with an occasional ideological slant, the purpose of which was to emphasise the creative connection between the artist and the rich national tradition, to stress the authentic old Hvar literature and to warn of the prevailing influences of Italian literature. Texts by Slavko Ježić stand out as being seriously researched and comprehensive in their literary historical view, while the critical debate between Ljubomir Marković and Vojmilo Rabadan reveals interesting and scenically potentially useful analytical views on dramatization of Lucić’s The Female Slave (Robinja). Among the works of the living and active Hvar writers of the period, the most notable are Baraban, the 1943 novel by Rajmund Kupareo and Selected Poems (Izabrane pjesme) from 1943 by Cvito Škarpa