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Miroslav Krleza (1893-1981) | |
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Novelist, poet, essayist, short-story writer, and playwright, a central figure in modern Croatian literature. Krleza published his first poems and plays before World War I. He was among Yugoslavia's most prolific writers for almost seven decades. Krleza's most ambitious work is the six-volume novel Zastave (1967). It paints a panoramic overview, mixed with biographical reminiscences, of European life between 1912 and 1922. "Philip stopped in front of the old crumbling wall, feeling it with his hand, as if he were touching a dear but forgotten grave. The wind and rain had washed away the corsets; the plaster was flaking off the bricks; and only in one place a tiny blue tongue of the coke flame flickered out from under the painted iron stove: catching sight of the long-faded advertisement, Philip felt the far-off, dead pictures melting away within him, and he seemed to be confronting some immeasurably vast space alone." (from The Return of Philip Latinowicz, 1932) Miroslav Krleza was born in Zagreb, Croatia, at that time in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Upon finishing the lower grades of secondary school in Zagreb, Krleza entered in 1908 a preparatory military school in Peczuj. He attended the Lucoviceum military Academy in Budapest and in 1912 he volunteered for the Serbian army. However, his military career started ironically. Krleza was suspected by the Serbs of being an Austrian spy. He was forced to return to Austria-Hungary where he was arrested by the Austrians. Finally he was deprived of his officer's rank and sent to the front of Galicia as a common soldier. In his early literary career beginning in 1914, Krleza was an idealist and a romanticist. After World War I Krelza returned to Zagreb and devoted himself to writing. The war had shattered his illusions - his embittered prose and poetry reflected his strong antiwar feelings. Krleza opposed the monarchist régime of Yugoslavia and founded in 1919 Plamen, a left-wing review. He was also in constant conflict with freemasons, nationalists and clerics. In 1923 he founded Knjizevna republica, then Danas (1934), Pecat (1939), and in 1945 Republika. Deeply impressed by the Soviet revolution he became attracted to Marxist ideas. Krleza was a member of the Communist Party from 1918 until 1939, when he was expelled. Krleza's early dramas, Legenda (1914), Kraljevo (1918), and Adam i Eva (1922) reveal his transformation from a young idealist into a socially conscious artist. Krleza's plays are characterized by straightforward dialogue and merciless revelation of social injustice. The dramatic trilogy, Gospoda Glembajevi (1928), U agoniji (1928), and Leda (1932), which depict the disintegration of the Glembay family and the downfall of bourgeois society, are considered his best. Krleza focused on individual members of the family from various generations and on their climb to the top of the Austro-Hungarian socio-economic elite. In Gospoda Glembajevi a young painter, Leone Glembay, kills his stepmother after the bankruptcy of the family estate, in U agoniji Laura, the granddaughter of the banker Glembay's younger brother, commits suicide after disappointment in love, and in Leda the characters deceive each other sexually and otherwise. Krleza's importance as a leader of the socially oriented writers grew steadily between the two world wars. Krleza produced most of his best work during the period from the late 1920s to the mid-1930s. Povratak Filipa Latinovicza (1932, The Return of Philip Latinovicz) was a story of a Croatian artist, Filip, who returns from Paris to his small native town on Croatia's Danubian plain. Filip is haunted by traumatic childhood experiences, and tries to discover the identity of his father. Filip survives his purgatory while other characters die. He realizes that corruption and dishonesty reign and gradually fades into oblivion. "Paris had its Balzac and Zola; Dublin its Joyce; Croatia its Krleza... one of the most accomplished, profound authors in European literature," wrote The Saturday Review. In the poetry collections Knjiga Lirike (1932) and Pjesme u tmini (1937) Krleza predicted the victory of Socialism. This took the form of an apocalyptic vision in Balade Petrice Kerempuha (1936), written in the Kajkavian dialect. Dijalekticki antibarbarus (1939) mocked the orthodox Stalinists, after which he was expelled from the Communist Party. The satirical novel Banket u Blitvi (1938-1962) dealt with the political situation in Europe in the interwar period in the imaginary country Blitvian (a play on words on Litva, Serbo-Croatian for Lithuania). Hrvatski bog Mars (1922) was a short-story collection. It depicted the miserable condition of the Croatian soldier in the Austro-Hungarian army and exploitation of the peasants. Balade Petrice Kerempuha (1936), a collection of poems, was written in the Croatian kajkavski dielect, and was a synthesis of the author's entire poetic oeuvre. During World War II Krleza remained in Zagreb but did not join the partisans. As a writer he was silent but was still harassed by the pro-Nazi Croatian government. He supported the post-war Communist régime enthusiastically and was rehabilitated by Marshal Tito (1892-1980), prime minister and president of Yugoslavia from 1953. Krleza was elected in 1947 vice president of the Academy of Science and Art. In 1951 he became director of the Croatian Institute of Lexicography, he also was the editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia Yugoslavia. From 1958 to 1961 Krleza was president of the Writers' Union. In 1967 he supported Croatian national and cultural claims and recorded his sceptical views on democratic progress in the Balkans in Razgovori s Miroslavom Krlezom (1969). Throughout his life Krleza stood in the forefront of the struggle against petit-bourgeois attitudes and backwardness in general. He wrote with enormous creative energy, and defended his views fiercely and fearlessly. "Whether human folly is the work of God or not, it does not diminish in practice," he wrote in On the Edge of Reason (1938). "Centuries often elapse before one human folly gives place to another, but, like the light of an extinguished star, folly has never failed to reach its destination. The mission of folly, to all appearances, is universal." Krleza's style was baroque, he had a keen eye for color and his characters were sketched masterfully and with delicate nuances. Even though Krleza was a Marxist himself, he expressed his disdain for Stalinism and all totalitarian systems. After the communists took power, he was often regarded with suspicion by his fellow Marxists. Krleza died in Zagreb on December 29, 1981. For further reading: Encyclopedia of World Literature in the 20th Century, ed. by Steven R. Serafin (1999, vol. 2); The Writer as Naysayer by Ralph Bogert (1991); Dramatica krleziana by Darko Gasparovic (1989); Krlezini evropski obzori by Viktor Zmegac (1986); Krleza by Enes Cengic (1982); U Krlezinom sazvjezdu by Vasilije Kalezic (1982); Columbia Dictionary of Modern European Literature, ed. by Jean-Albert Bédé and William B. Edgerton (1980); Thirty Years of Yugoslav Literature by T. Eekman (1978); Interpretacija Krlezina romana "Povratak Filipa Latinovicza" by Mladen Engelsfeld (1975); O pjesnickom teatru Miroslava Krleze by Branimir Donat (1970); Razgovori s Miroslavom Krlezom by Predrag Matvejevic (1969); Studien zur Romantechnik Miroslav Krlezas by S. Schneider (1969); Contemporary Croatian Literature by M. Vaupoptic (1966) - For further information: Vjetrovi nad provincijalnim gradom; Miroslav Krleza; Miroslav Krleza Selected works:
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