August Šenoa

Monument to August Šenoa, the poet of the city of Zagreb

Bust of August Šenoa on Josip Juraj Strossmayer Square in Zagreb

August Šenoa (born November 14, 1838 in Zagreb ; † December 13, 1881 ibid) was a Croatian writer, critic, editor and dramaturge.

Life

August Šenoa was born in Zagreb in 1838, then part of the Austrian Empire, as the son of a family of German-Czech origin. His family name was originally spelled Schönoa . He studied law in Prague and Zagreb, but did not finish his studies. He also lived in Vienna for a while, but returned to Zagreb in 1866, where he worked for a time as a notary and was a senator on the city council, and he was also the head of the State Theater in Zagreb. He translated documents from English, Czech, French and German. From 1874 to 1881 he edited the literary journal " Vijenac " (or as it was written at the time: "Vienac", German "Kranz"). He died in Zagreb at the age of 43 and was buried in the Mirogoj Cemetery in Zagreb.

job

In his novels he fused the lively and creative language of Croatian national sentiment with a realistic description of the development of the petty bourgeoisie .

He is considered the "father of the Croatian novel" and of modern Croatian literature. In a particularly impressive way, he describes crowd scenes (comparable to Cecil B. DeMille ) and the struggle of Croatian peasants and nobles against the foreign rule of the Venetians, Austrians and Hungarians in the 15th to 18th centuries in romanticized language . It is said that Šenoa created the Croatian readership through his popular writing style.

Works

Šenoa's works mark the transition in Croatian literature from Romanticism to Realism . Šenoa introduced the genre of the historical novel in Croatia. He wrote more than ten novels, among which we can highlight:

Zlatarevo zlato , 1871 (The Goldsmith's Gold)
Seljačka buna , 1877 (uprising of the peasants)
Diogenes , 1878
Čuvaj se senjske ruke , 1875 (Pirates of Senj)
Prosjak Luka , 1879 (Beggar Luka)

Some of his works have also been translated into German.

literature

T. Maštrović: Šenoa August. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 12, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2001-2005, ISBN 3-7001-3580-7 , p. 180.

Web links

Commons : August Šenoa - album with pictures, videos and audio files

personal data
SURNAME	Šenoa, August
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Croatian writer, critic, editor, poet and dramaturge
DATE OF BIRTH	November 14, 1838
PLACE OF BIRTH	Zagreb
DATE OF DEATH	December 13, 1881
Place of death	Zagreb