Dijalektički antibarbarus

1,287 Dialectic Antibarbarian is one of the most powerful polemical works by Miroslav Krleža, published in 1939 in the magazine Pečat. It was later included in the collected works.

The title ironically alludes to the old linguistic “antibarbarians”. Krleža transforms it into a critique of “barbarism” within left-wing literature – the dogmatic, simplified and servile application of Marxism to art. The main target of the polemic were party critics (especially Radovan Zogović and the like) who demanded vulgar social tendentiousness and accused Krleža of bourgeois aestheticism.

Krleža brilliantly defends the right to artistic diversity, stylistic luxury and creative freedom. The text is full of irony, sarcasm and intellectual superiority, but also deep bitterness due to the conflict within his own camp.

The work represents the culmination of the so-called “conflict on the left” on the eve of World War II. Although not dissident in the true sense, it clearly demonstrates Krleža's determination not to sacrifice artistic quality for the sake of an ideological line.

Dialectic Antibarbarus is considered a masterpiece of Croatian polemical prose – a rare example of lucid, passionate and stylistically virtuoso criticism of one's own side. It is indispensable for understanding Krleža's worldview, his struggle for the autonomy of art, and the cultural conflicts in 20th-century Yugoslavia.