Croatian Japanologist Vladimir Devidé

Hrvatska japanologija duguje neizmjerno mnogo akademiku profesoru Vladimiru Devidéu. Matematičar po zvanju, Devidé je bio istinski zaljubljenik u Japan i neumorni promicatelj japanske kulture u Hrvatskoj i regiji. Održao je preko 200 japanoloških predavanja te napisao dvadesetak knjiga od kojih je, za japanologiju možda najznačajnija Iz japanske književnosti (1985.), jedina antologija japanske književnosti na hrvatskome jeziku i hrvatskoga autora. Izbor tekstova uvrštenih u antologiju odražava mainstream u dijakronijskim prikazima važnih autora japanske kulturne i književne povijesti, no ova je knjiga, kao i šira Devidéova japanološka ostavština, ujedno i refleksija zanimanja za Japan kakvo je prednjačilo u „zapadnome“ svijetu pedesetih, šezdesetih i sedamdesetih godina prošloga stoljeća. Devidé je u tome smislu svjedok svojega vremena, on opisuje Japan onako kako je to činila većina vodećih svjetskih japanologa spomenutoga razdoblja. Cilj je ovoga rada predstaviti dio Devidéova nasljeđa u kontekstu trendova u japanologiji u posljednjih nekoliko desetljeća.Croatian Japanology owes much to academician and professor Vladimir Devidé. Although he was a mathematician by profession, his name in Croatia is inevitably associated to Japan and Japanese culture. Devidé was tireless in his promotion of Japan in Croatia, holding more than 200 public lectures on Japan and its culture. He also wrote some of the first books on Japanology in Croatian, such as the first and, for now, only anthology of Japanese literature (From Japanese Literature, 1985). The choice of literary works listed in his anthology reflects the mainstream in diachronic representations of the most important authors in Japanese cultural and literature history. It also reflects, however, the kind of interest in Japan which was rather popular in the “western” world of the sixties and the seventies of the past century. In this sense, Devidé is a witness of his time, he writes and describes Japan in a way similar to some of the most popular Japanologists of the aforementioned decades. My aim is to present part of Devidé’s legacy in the context of changing trends in Japanese studies in past few decades