Selected chapters of Croatian culture, history and literature

The general topics covered are the following: Contemporary Croatia – shaping the modern Croatia    - end of communist block (1989); Homeland war; international recognition; institutions; crisis Three languages and three scripts (Middle Ages, in general)   - three scripts related to different (origins) cultures, their development, three languages of culture Croatian Humanism and Renaissance   - new world vision, new relations in the society, modernity, individualism, European globalism, Arts Three literary languages   - three group of dialects – three literary languages; a 4th literary language?; Croatian protestants' idea Croats and Turks, Croatia as an antemurale Christianitatis ‘Bulwark of Christendom’   - notion; Turkish invasion; fights with the Turks in Arts; repercussions on everyday life and the economy Republic of Dubrovnik   - Croatian south (till 1806); rich merchandisers and diplomats (Mediterranean, India, England); legacy Yugoslav idea among Croats     - Yugoslavia made up by Croats; circumstances and history; “Yugoslavia as a dungeon of Croatian people” Croatian and Serbian – one or two languages?     - mutual intelligibility; separate developments; very different non-standard dialects; European analogies Ustashi regime and the WW II/Communism in Croatia (Yugoslavia)     - Ustashas – from insurgents to fascists; contacts with IRA; Communism: showdown, sovietization, new ways Ivo Andrić – a Croatian Nobel Prize Winner/Miroslav Krleža – a greatest Croatian writer of the 20th c.   - Andrić – royalist; exotic world; universal messages; Krleža – communist; Central European ambient; artist and power