Nova Istra

377 NOVA ISTRA Literary, Art and Cultural Journal Zeitschrift für Literatur, Kunst und Kultur Rivista di letteratura, arte e cultura Pula, Croatia / Kroatien / Croazia, No. 1-2/2016 The first section contains, as usual, new texts by the contemporary Croatian writers; here it means poetry and prose by the authors of different generations, poetics and reputation in the Croatian literature today – from those who are already well-known to those who are at the beginning of being seriously recognised. The translation section includes prose pieces, essays and poems that fit into more or less recent literature – French, American, Italian, Polish and Slovene. There is exclusively presented an unpublished lecture by Vanja Sutlić (1925-1989), one of the greatest 20th-century philosophers in Croatia, whose works were included in inter- national references; this is followed by a philosophical text on his thought written by one of his students. The essay-section comprises of literary texts which deal with the issues of urbanism/ ideal city, difficult position of the Croats from Boka, the autochthonous people in Boka Kotorska (today a part of Montenegro), keeping their history, culture and tradition secret, as well as their possible disappearance under the pressures of several states and political systems, especially during 20th century, up to these days. There is another text about the correspondence between the exquisite Hungarian intellectuals Sándor Weöres and Béla Hamvas, along with even three compatible texts about the poemThe Baška Tablet (a won- derful Old-Croatian monument carved out of stone, in the Glagolitic script around 1100 A.D.) by the esteemed contemporary poet from Croatia Mile Pešorda. At Marul’s section (Marko Marulić, the great Croatian writer and Latinist /1450- ‑1524/) shows poetry by young poets from Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia, the USA and Croatia, who participated in the programme of the same title, organised by this journal and the Istrian Branch of the CroatianWriters’ Association in Pula in 2014 and 2015. The publication of two texts (one of them being originated from the witnesses of the event, in the Croatian translation for the first time in the current issue) represents our contribution to the celebration of 150th anniversary of the Vis Battle (1866), in which the Austrian Fleet (crews mostly consisted of the Croats from Dalmatia and Istria), under the command of the Admiral Wilhelm von Tegetthoff, severely defeated the Italian Fleet and, thus, strengthened its status of sea power in the Adriatic and the Mediterranean.This bat- tle is important for the development of Pula (also as the main naval port in the Habsburg Monarchy) in the new history. The texts related to the native region present three Croatian sonnets about the city of Pula in 19th century, as well as political and social circumstances in 1945, immediately after the SecondWorldWar, along the Croatia-Slovenia borderline in the west (especially in Istria), when the demarcation between Italy (the war loser) and ex-Yugoslavia almost caused an armed conflict between the allied forces and the Yugoslavian army (in particular because of the issues around Trieste, Pula, the western part of the Istrian coastline, etc.). Finally, the reviews refer to recent publications from the Croatian literature and histori- ography, along with the Austrian (Ingeborg Bachmann) literature in translation. Translation: Renata Šamo, Pula