Patriotic and Religious Perspectives in the Literature of Boro Pavlović — Echoes of Tradition in Modernity

Abstract

Croatian poetry of the 20th century is characterized by a great diversity of worldviews and ideas regardless of whether one examines it from a synchronic or a diachronic standpoint. The spiritual stratification process of Croatian poetry began at the turn of 20th century with a discussion between traditionalists and modernists on the principles of literary creation, and it developed partially among modernists toward an acceptance of contesting notions regarding Christianity. A step further in this respect was taken during the first two decades, when literary creation in the Yugoslav state of that time was under strong communist ideological pressure which resulted in a departure from the spiritual, but also from national–patriotic content, either by rejecting/neglecting it or through a negativistic attitude toward it. Among those who successfully resisted this pressure and thus preserved the spirit of tradition in modernity is the writer Boro Pavlović (1922–2022). The aim of this article is to determine the relationship between modernity and tradition in his literary work by taking into account the aforementioned elements. As a paradigmatic field for research and interpretation, examples were taken from the author’s patriotic and religious poetry, as well as some of his essays and studies on Croatian writers and literary themes which point to the fact that Pavlović’s literary work is a model of the inclusive interweaving of modernity with tradition in regard to worldviews and ideas, content and themes, but also, though only partially so, in regard to linguistic expression.