Tomislav Ladan (25 June 1932 – 12 September 2008) was a Croatian essayist, critic, translator and novelist. Ladan was born in

Ivanjica ) , motto = , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map_caption = Location within Serbia##Location within Europe , pushpin_relief = 1 , pushpin_map = Serbia#Europe , coo ...

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...

, and spent his formative years in his native

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

(

Travnik Travnik is a town and a municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is the administrative center of Central Bosnia Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated in central Bosnia and Herzegovina, west of Sarajevo. As of 2 ...

Bugojno Bugojno ( sr-cyrl, Бугојно) is a town and municipality located in Central Bosnia Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated on river Vrbas, to the northwest from Sarajevo. Ac ...

), where he graduated from the Philosophical Faculty at

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see names in other languages'') is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its administrative limits. The Sarajevo metropolitan area including Sarajevo ...

. Since he couldn't get

permanent employment Permanent employees work for an employer and are paid directly by that employer. Permanent employees do not have a predetermined end date to employment. In addition to their wages, they often receive benefits like subsidized health care, paid vac ...

in the then

Serbs The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are the most numerous South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans in Southeastern Europe, who share a common Serbian ancestry, culture, history and language. The majority of Serbs live in their na ...

-dominated Bosnian cultural life because of his sometimes ostentatious Croatian identity, Ladan worked intermittently as a private tutor, translator and journalist — until the Croatian doyen of belles letters,

Miroslav Krleža Miroslav Krleža (; 7 July 1893 – 29 December 1981) was a Yugoslav and Croatian writer who is widely considered to be the greatest Croatian writer of the 20th century. He wrote notable works in all the literary genres, including poetry (''Ba ...

, found him a job at the Yugoslav Lexicographical Institute in

Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital and largest city of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb stands near the international border between Croatia and Slov ...

. Ladan was the director of the same institute and the editor-in-chief of an eight-language parallel dictionary. Ladan wrote several books of essays that cover diverse fields such as cursing in Croatian, voluminous polygraphy playing with etymological meanings of the words that define human culture, from God to globalization (''Riječi'', "Words"), and nuances of medieval spiritual culture (''Parva medievalia''). Ladan's only novel, ''Bosanski grb'' ("Bosnian coat of arms") (1975) is a postmodernist fiction written as a combination of Rabelaisian linguistic feast and a treatise on the historical destiny of Croats in central Bosnia. As a critic over more than four decades, Ladan surveyed virtually all works written in Croatian, Serbian, and Bosnian — not infrequently to the consternation of the "objects" of his criticism. Follower of T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound and

Frank Kermode Sir John Frank Kermode, FBA (29 November 1919 – 17 August 2010) was a British literary critic best known for his 1967 work '' The Sense of an Ending: Studies in the Theory of Fiction'' and for his extensive book-reviewing and editing. He was ...

, Ladan didn't pay much attention to the deconstructionists (

Derrida Derrida is a surname shared by notable people listed below. * Bernard Derrida (born 1952), French theoretical physicist * Jacques Derrida (1930–2004), French philosopher ** ''Derrida'' (film), a 2002 American documentary film * Marguerite Derri ...

) or Foucault, both of whom he found arid and sterile. His best critical essays also evaluate such writers as

William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most o ...

and Robert Musil. Ladan was also a noted translator from Greek, Latin, English, German, Swedish and Norwegian.

References

U spomen, Tomislav Ladan

External links

Umro Tomislav Ladan
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ladan, Tomislav Croatian essayists Croatian male writers Male essayists Croatian novelists Male novelists Croatian translators 1932 births 2008 deaths People from Ivanjica People from Travnik Deaths from cancer in Croatia Croats of Serbia 20th-century novelists 20th-century translators 20th-century essayists 20th-century male writers