Pisci i problemi

Marin Franičević’s book of essays and literary criticism, Pisci i problemi (Writers and Problems; Kultura, Zagreb, 1948), represents a highly significant document in literary history, as it was the first book of criticism on Croatian literature published by a single author after the Second World War. Produced during a specific and ideologically charged post-war period, the book reflects the then-dominant dogmatic aesthetic views of Socialist Realism, which primarily demanded socio-political engagement and alignment with the new social order from both literature and writers. Through a series of texts, Franičević discusses key aesthetic and practical issues concerning the literature of the time—ranging from analyses of individual writers and poetry collections to broader reflections on the role of lyric poetry, the nature of artistic truth, and the ideological function of criticism. Although the work has subsequently been characterized in literary history as a typical example of early post-war critical practice, it simultaneously testifies to Franičević’s exceptional knowledge of Croatian poetry and foreshadows his later comprehensive historical and scholarly work on Croatian literature.