Slobodan Novak

Slobodan Novak (born November 3, 1924) is a Croatian prose writer, novelist.

Biography

Novak was born in Split on November 3, 1924, the son of father Duje and mother Marija (née Smoje). He was baptized in the local church as Ante Slobodan Novak. He finished elementary school in Rab, attended gymnasium in Split, then graduated in Sušak. During World War II he joined the Yugoslav Partisans, and he later described those days ironically in his autobiographical essays Digresije and Protimbe (2003). He then attended the University of Zagreb and earned a degree in Croatian language and Yugoslav literature in 1953. He worked as lector and concealer and playwright in Croatian National Theatre in Split. Later he worked as a journalist and editor in publishing houses. In 1983 he became a member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts. On July 27, 1999 Slobodan Novak was declared Honorary Citizen of Rab.

Literary work

He started his career with songs full of painful memories from the war. Verses were gathered in his work Glasnice u oluji (English: Vocal Cords in a Storm) (1950). Soon he started to write fiction: he published Krugovima (English: To Circles) and Republici (English: To Republic). He gained the attention of critics and public by publishing his autobiographical novel Izgubljeni zavičaj (English: Lost homeland) (1955) where he deals with his childhood on a lonely island. The novel flows in sign of nostalgic evocation, images full of emotions, lyric and arcadian atmosphere, while the narrative rhythm closely follows the cyclical changes of the seasons. The narrator appears in two characters: in infantile “I” where he observes, registers and absorbs everything around him; and the second character as today’s “I” where he, with a sentimental and quiet dose of resignation recreates his memories and images from youth. This dualism, by which he achieves intimate dissection, is one of the main points in Novak's works.

The greatest aesthetic achievement was his novel Mirisi, zlato i tamjan (English: Frangrances, Gold and Frankincense) published in 1968. This is a story about retired middle-aged intellectual who lives with his wife on an isolated island; he lives his life and nurtures the very old Madona Markantunova, a former rich patrician woman and owner of half of the island. The story takes place in the 1960s.

Novak follows the same thematic and poetic line in his short novel Izvanbrodski dnevnik (English: Outboard Diary) published in 1977. The work was realized as a narrative triptych: it consists of three separate novelistic units which are connected with narrator, characters, situations and motives. Novak described three travels on relation island-mainland-island. But again the reason for the trip is calculation of collective myths and their own illusions.

Later, Novak published a collection of interviews with Jelena Hekman in a book named Digresije (English: Digressions) in 2001. He later published Protimbe (English: Dissent) (2003) which he considered as an expansion of Digresije. Protimbe is one of the greatest works of Croatian autobiographical prose, rich with reminiscences and associations on youth, political and social life in SFR Yugoslavia, on the writer's experience of Croatian War of Independence and political and social changes. In the novel, he also portrays his friends and enemies, from Vlado Gotovac to Antun Šoljan, from Sven Lasta to Vladimir Bakarić. Also, the novel consists of the writer's thoughts and evaluation of the position of Croatianhood, grammar, aesthetics, ICTY, war crimes, Serbian political project, Communism and Croatian national fate.

In general, the quality, expressiveness and uniformity of Novak's works place them towards the top of Croatian modern prose and also equal to the world's literary achievements of existentialist orientation.

Works

Awards and decorations

Awards

Decorations

Decoration	Image
Order of Duke Trpimir
Order of Danica Hrvatska with charchter of Marko Marulić

References

• (Croatian) HAZU - Biography