Nova Istra
Eurozine
Nova Istra
2003-11-07
Summary for Nova Istra 3-4/2003
In this issue, modern Croatian literature is represented with some prose pieces written several of authors of different generations.
The title "Surrealist revolution and paranoia of boyish game" includes translations of the French surrealist texts, published in the journal known as La Révolution Surréaliste. Among the selected authors, the following ones are to be pointed out: Paul Éluard, Louis Aragon, Antonin Artaud, André Breton, Salvador Dalí, etc.
The current issue also provides the recent Croatian translations of poems by the modern Portuguese poet called Fernando Dias Antunes.
A special translation section is devoted to the small anthology of modern Russian unrestricted verse and contemporary Czech poetry.
"Michel Houellebecq and the end of the sexual liberation myth" is an essay on the literary works by the famous French writer.
The same section also consists of an essay about Danilo Kis and of the text dealing with the relation between the Croatian literary tradition of the 19th century Realism and the abortion issue viewed from the modern perspective.
An essay on divine texts taken from the Croatian literary corpus in Bosnia and Hercegovina and dated from 17th and 18th c. is also of special interest.
The theatre section includes an intriguing and controversial theatrological discussion entitled "New European drama or, perhaps, drama of new Europe".
Alongside, the music section provides some insights into two episodes belonging to the music history of Pula as the most important and the biggest Istrian town under the fascist Italian occupation, i.e. the guest performances of the distinguished names of the Italian opera "Totti dal Monte and Beniamino Gigli" in the 1930s.
A special section deals with the sacral architecture in the Istrian Peninsula, Croatia, in the 1990s.
This time, a selection of more specific regional subject matters includes historical issues dated from the16th and 17th c., with special emphasis on an essay referring to the relation between word and picture in the scenes depicting the martyrdom of St. George in the local church of Lovran on the western part of the Istrian coast, the so-called Liburnia.
The reviews are dealing with the latest books in the fields of literature (Haruki Murakami, etc.), history and jazz music.
Finally, the current issue also provides black and white art photographs.
Translation: R. S.