Dalmatia and the Banate of Croatia in Pavlinović’s Puti (Godine 1867–75)

Abstract

The aim of this article is to reconstruct two landscapes that Mihovil Pavlinović constructs in the introductory pages of his travelogue Puti (Godine 1867–75). The political activity of this Dalmatian priest is directed at the unification of the Croatian provinces and the Croatization of the detached and alienated (urban and island) Dalmatia. To achieve his goal, this national revival traveler-narrator builds two conflicting images of southern and northern Croatia. The article shows which stylistic means he uses and how he tries to influence the reader—that is, to gain supporters for Dalmatia’s annexation of the Banate of Croatia. Referring to polysensory experiences, including basic physiological needs, Pavlinović constructs opposing worlds and opposing spaces: a northern Croatian paradise on earth and a southern Croatian dead, burial ground (a world of day and night). It also shows the close connection of culture and mentality with space, landscape, and nature. The provinces of the Triune Kingdom, in its realization and in accordance with the tasks of revival literature, represent literary ideological landscapes. My research is grounded in humanistic geography and spatial reversal.