Famous Like Me > Writer > A > Ivan Aralica
Profile of Ivan Aralica
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Name: |
Ivan Aralica |
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Date of Birth: |
10th September 1930 |
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Place of Birth: |
Promina kraj Drni^Úa, Croatia, Yugoslavia |
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Profession: |
Writer |
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From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia
Ivan Aralica (Promina near Knin, 1930–) is a Croatian novelist and essayist.
Having finished pedagogical school and Philosophical Faculty at Zadar University, Aralica had worked in post-war period as a high school teacher in the backwater villages of rural hinterland of northern and central Dalmatia. After a period of Communist infatuation (which resulted in a few weak novellas that can be labeled as socialist realism period pieces), Aralica was swept into the vortex of turbulent events known as “Croatian spring†(1971). During this tumultuos era he allied with those who advocated greater Croatian autonomy and freedom for Croatian people in Communist Yugoslavia. The crackdown on the Croatian national movement and subsequent professional and social degradation resulted in Aralica’s return to his Christian and Catholic roots, abandonment of doctrinaire propagandist literature and formation of his own literary credo. Among world authors, he was influenced chiefly by realist fiction and early Modernism, the key authors being Ivo Andric, Thomas Mann and Knut Hamsun.
From 1979 to 1989 Aralica has published eight novels, which can be best described as modernist rewriting of historical fiction. The best among them (Psi u trgoviÅ¡tu/Dogs in a bazaar, 1979; DuÅ¡e robova/Slaves’ souls, 1984; Graditelj svratiÅ¡ta/Builder of an inn, 1986; Asmodejev Å¡al/Asmodey’s shawl, 1988) show similar traits: these are essentially novels of complex narrative techniques recreating dramatic events in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina from 16th to 18th century and describing historical fatum of Croats caught in the “clash of civlizationsâ€- a three centuries long warfare between Austria, Ottoman empire and Venice. The author has successfully mastered many divergent elements in his fiction, so that his finest novels are both replete with contemplative wisdom sayings on human condition and rammed with action; also, his artistry is expressed in numerous naturalist passages integrated in the over-arching Christian vision of life where natural and the supernatural fuse into one reality.
After the democratic changes in Croatia and the collapse of Yugoslavia (1990-1991), Aralica was elected to the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts; also, he re-entered politics, this time on the list of Croatian Democratic Union (Hrvatska demokratska zajednica/HDZ), a party headed by first Croatia’s president Franjo Tudjman. Aralica held a few influential postions, the most important among them being vice-president of Croatian Parliament. During this period he wrote two books of brilliant political essays (one about the genesis of Serbian imperialism, the other on historical complexities of the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina), and two weaker novels that show many signs of repetition and lack of genuine inspiration on the author’s side.
The year 2000 was another turning point for Aralica: his party, HDZ, lost the elections and power, and writer was embroiled in bitter polemic with new authorites (which were to hold power in next four years). However, this period meant creative rejuvenation for Aralica who started writing satirical novels of ideas (novels with keys, ie. thinly disguised quasi-faction). The major work of this period is “Fukaraâ€/Good for nothing, 2002, a satirical-political attack on multiculturalist ideology as promulgated by American controversial billionaire George Soros. This novel, packed with drastic scenes and exuberant comedy, as well as with nuanced essayist passages analysing post-modern ideologies, has outgrown his initial literary predecessors Aldous Huxley and Truman Capote.
Still vigorously writing in his eight decade, Aralica is considered the finest Croatian novelist of the 2nd half of the 20th century and one among the greatest Croatian writers of all times.
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