Nova Istra

591 NOVA ISTRA Literary, Art and Cultural Journal Zeitschrift für Literatur, Kunst und Kultur Rivista di letteratura, arte e cultura Pula, Croatia / Kroatien / Croazia, No. 3-4/2015 On 20 th anniversary of the journal and 25 th anniversary of the foundation of the Istrian Branch in Pula After in memoriam for Pajo Kanižaj and Nikola Kraljić, the two extremely impor- tant Croatian contemporary writers, who have recently passed away, there is a wide selection of new currently available poetry (both in dialects and the standard langua- ge) and prose pieces by several distinguished authors of our contemporary literature. ‘The Croatian Literature in the Neighbourhood’ was the central topic of 12 th Pula Essay Days (2014), so we include all the essays presented at the colloquium which gathered eminent literary scholars and university ‘heads’ who dealt less with historical issues but more with contemporary issues regarding the Croatian litera- ture (emerging beyond the borders of today’s Croatia, where the Croatian literary word and culture are autochthonous although completely jeopardised in some parts (e.g. Serbia/Vojvodina, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovakia…), as well as intercultural and cross-cultural exchanges in the form of translations and similar production/books. Beside the Croatian scholars, we hosted our familiar colleagu- es from Italy, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Hungary, Montenegro, Serbia/ Vojvodina… Considering not only history but also contemporariness and contemporaries, the- re is a particularly comprehensive section with the translated study by Oleh Hir- nyk, the distinguished Ukrainian intellectual and theologian. ‘From Totalitarianism to Independence: Croatian-and-Ukrainian Parallels’ is actually encouraged by the Ukrainian edition of the translated book ‘At the Service of the Homeland – Croatia rediviva’, written by the university professor, lawyer, sportsman…Hrvoje Kalčić. The new translations refer to some works from the French, German and Italian literature. ‘Kierkegaard and the Power of Tehnosphere’ is the crucial philosophical text in the section which presents a few other studies and essays. Finally, apart from certain topics dealing with the native region, important prima- rily to the location fromwhich and in which we‘endemically’ act towards the national space and the world, in the light of critical approaches and insights we also write about new books by Croatian and foreign authors (fiction, literary history, poetry, anthology, etc.). Translation: Renata Šamo, Pula