engleski

Margins of the Age of Sensibility: Language without Novels

The aim of the paper is to answer why, contrary to the developed book markets, not a single novel was published in Croatian language in the course of the 18th century. To reach this aim, different aspects of book production and reading practices advancement will be researched, with emphasize on market conditions, language situation, forms of (intended) text appropriation, and, finally, social effects of reading. Size, potentials, and overall development of the Croatian-language book market during the 18th century were detrimental for development of free, professional author who would be an economic agent, able to make a living by the pen (M. Rose, J. Walsh). Croatian literary scene was dominated by the clergy, out of (only) 123 authors identified in the 18th century, 107 were priests or monks, which resulted with predominance of religious works until the end of the century. The other genres were also mostly cultivated by the clergy that hindered increase in overall text plurality. From the other hand, preserved bookseller’ catalogue from Croatian capital Zagreb, from the very end of the century, lists numerous novels in the “brand-new books” rubric, but all of them printed in German or French. These titles, imported to satisfy the needs of also imported administration and military personnel, were not accessible for domestic monolingual middle and lower population. As a consequence, multilingual society appeared as an obstacle for development of a domestic novel and forms of reading associated with it. For this middle and lower population, left to their own reading capabilities, the writers developed a typical strategy of “unruly” reading, by filling paratextuals of religious books with reading aloud instructions. However, two preserved instructions question common classification of reading forms (e.g. by R. Wittmann) and their association with different genres, as they suggest that reading of religious book should be, at the same time, “unruly”, “useful”, and “sentimental”. Finally, regarding the social effects of reading and in comparison with developed European book markets, it could be argued that predominance of one genre, religious literature, without any challenges of “new” texts, contributed to the preservation of social stability in the whole, particularly by “cementing the interlocking forms of sociability” (R. Chartier). The fact that the first Croatian novel appeared in 1833, at the eve of the Croatian national revival and subsequent profound social changes, appears very significant in this context. To conclude, if the “novel must have been a much- demanded commodity, since it seems to have monopolized the ‘belles-lettres’ category” (F. Furet) in the 18th century Western Europe, and if the novel could not succeed in the Croatia of the same period, comparative analyses of these two milieus could cast some light on general understanding of both preconditions and effects of novel writing and reading during the early modern period.

history of reading; book market; novel

nije evidentirano