Contemporary Wars in the Dalmatian Literary Culture of the 17th and 18th Centuries

• Published in: Narodna umjetnost Vol. 40; no. 1; pp. 128 - 158
• Main Author: Dukić, Davor
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research 2003; Institut za etnologiju i folkloristiku
• Subjects: Cultural Essay; Political Essay; Societal Essay; borders; Venetians; war; Dalmatia; the Other; Croatian literature of 17th and 18th centuries; Morlachs
• ISSN: 0547-2504

Commencing from the cultural dichotomy between rural hinterland (Morlach) and urban coastal (Romano-Slavic) Dalmatia, the author studies the similarities and diversities in the accounts of the then-
-contemporary Venetian-Turkish wars in the works of Dalmatian writers of the 17th and 18th centuries. The analysed corpus of texts is made up of: chronicles of the Makarska Franciscans (P. ©ilobadoviÊ, N. Gojak, P. AntuloviÊ); F. DivniÊ's historical account of the Candian War in Dalmatia; and works by J. Kavanjin, F. Grabovac and A. KaËiÊ MioπiÊ. The analysis focuses on: the mechanisms used in explanation and contextualisation of the wars in Dalmatia; evaluations of border area war strategy (pillaging and enslavement); the conception of the enemy and inter-Christian divisions (confessional, social, and the like). Finally, the accounts of war in the texts in question (narrative sources) are compared with published archive sources.