Dinko Simunović

Dinko Simunović

Dinko Šimunović (born September 1, 1873 in Knin , † August 3, 1933 in Zagreb ) was a Croatian writer.

Life

The writer grew up in a small village near the Cetina River , northeast of Split . This original area with its patriarchal traditions would have a strong impact on his later work. Simunović became a teacher like his father. He attended the teacher training college in Arbanasi near Zadar . Then he worked as a teacher in the small Dalmatian villages of Hrvace (1892-1900) and Dicmo (1901-1909). Only then did Šimunović begin to write and in 1905 published an excerpt from a story in the magazine Lovor in Zadar. He was noticed and transferred to the trade school in Split. He taught here from 1909 until his retirement; During this time he wrote most of his literary work. In 1929 Šimunović moved to Zagreb because of his children, where he died four years later. He is buried in the Mirogoj cemetery in Zagreb.

Works

Memorial plaque on Šimunović's house

Šimunović is one of the most important storytellers of Croatian literature of the 20th century. In a realistic narrative style, he lets the old patriarchal world of the southern Slavs rise, a sunken world that is understood as heroic and which he approaches in the spirit of old folk tales. As an artist, Šimunović is the only one of his kind, he went his special way, independent of the literary trends of the time. There are only a few translations in German.

• Mrkodol , Stories 1909
• Tuđinac , novel 1911
• Đerdan , 1914; Setting: Jakov Gotovac, Volkssingspiel, 1954–1955
• Mladi dani , 1919
• Mladost , 1921
• Dvije pripovijetke , 1922
• Alkar , 1922 (German Salko, der Alkar, 1943)
• Porodica Vinčić , novel 1923
• Sabrana djela I-II , 1930
• Sa Krke i sa Cetina , 1930
• Posmrtne novele , 1935
• The poor, German 1932
• Der Feigling, German 1940
• At the drinking troughs of the Cetina, German 1944

Afterlife

In the town of Sinj there is a monument to Dinko Šimunović by Ivan Meštrović .

Web links

• Literature by and about Dinko Šimunović in the catalog of the German National Library