Croatian literature in light of Ottoman attacks to the Adriatic Sea in the sixteenth century

Abstract

The paper outlines the political, historical, social and cultural turmoil on the eastern Adriatic coast in the beginning of the 16th century, where part of the Croatian people had found themselves cornered between a narrow coastal strip and the islands, due to the progression of the Ottoman Empire towards the west. Despite this difficult situation, we can track the foundations of the Croatian literature and the national literary canon to this region and age. By exploring and interpreting certain literary works (written by Marko Marulić, Petar Zoranić and Petar Hektorović), the paper posits the important genre and thematic motivations for writers creating the national canon in a time of constant war dangers and conflicts. The work provides representations of Turks in the context of Croatian literature, as well as the cultural imagery of Croatia in the 16th century, influenced by writers belonging to different cultural spheres in the cities of the Adriatic coast (especially in Zadar, Split, Hvar and Dubrovnik).