Eugen Kumičić

Eugen Kumičić
Born (1850-01-11)11 January 1850
Brseč, Istria,
Austrian Empire
Died 13 May 1904(1904-05-13) (aged 54)
Zagreb, Austria-Hungary
Pen name Jenio Sisolski
Occupation Novelist, playwright, politician
Period 1879–1902
Literary movement Realism, naturalism

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Eugen Kumičić (11 January 1850 – 13 May 1904) was a prominent Croatian writer and politician.

Biography

Kumičić was born in Brseč, Mošćenička Draga (now in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County), a small town in Istria, then part of the Austrian Empire. After majoring philosophy at the University of Vienna, he returned to Croatia and worked as a teacher in high schools in Split, Zadar and Zagreb. From 1875 to 1878 he spent two years in Paris and six months in Venice, preparing for his French and Italian teaching examinations. While in France, he came into contact with naturalist writing, primarily through the works of Émile Zola.

Upon returning to Croatia, he spends the period from 1879 to 1883 teaching in a Zagreb high school. During that time, he becomes actively involved with the Croatian literary scene, as well as political activism. An ardent supporter of Ante Starčević's political program, he quits the civil service in 1883 in order to pursue a political and literary career. Along with Matko Laginja he launches the Primorac magazine in Kraljevica. He also works as editor of the Croatian Party of Rights' magazines Hrvatska vila (1882–1883) and Hrvatska (1887–1888), and publishes essays, opinion pieces and short stories in them. In 1884 he was elected to Croatian Parliament and he spent most of his political career opposing the Hungarian nationalists.

Literary themes

He wrote many novels and short stories, mostly dealing with working-class people in his native Istria. He also tried to introduce elements of naturalism to Croatian literature in his novels dealing with urban life and Croatian history, but his efforts were often hampered by national romantic tendencies. Nevertheless, as he published an influential Zolaesque literary essay about the poetics of writing (O romanu, (Eng. On Novel)) in 1883, he was seen by his contemporaries as the pioneer of naturalist writing in Croatian literature.

His literary work is usually divided into three thematic periods: the first period of his writing is marked by novels and short stories that involve romanticized descriptions of hard working Istrians' life - primarily fishermen, farmers and seamen; the bulk of his next literary phase typically deals with urban settings (the so-called city novels), where his naturalist tendencies are most prominent and which mostly involve themes of financial and moral chaos that Croatian bourgeoisie was depicted as caught up in. His last works were historical novels loosely based on important figures of Croatian history.

Works

Novels

Short stories

Plays

Essays

Sources

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