Tomislav Ladan (25 June 1932 – 12 September 2008) was a Croatian essayist, critic, translator and novelist.
Ladan was born in
Ivanjica
Ivanjica ( sr-Cyrl, Ивањица, ) is a town and municipality located in the Moravica District of southwestern Serbia. As of 2022 census, the municipality has a population of 27,767 inhabitants. With an area of 1090 km2, it is the eighth ...
,
Serbia
, image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg
, national_motto =
, image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg
, national_anthem = ()
, image_map =
, map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...
, and spent his formative years in his native
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...
(
Travnik
Travnik ( cyrl, Травник) is a town and a municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is the administrative center of the Central Bosnia Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated in central Bosnia and Herzegovina, ...
,
Bugojno
Bugojno ( sr-cyrl, Бугојно) is a town and municipality in the Central Bosnia Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated on the river Vrbas, to the northwest of Sarajevo. Accord ...
), where he graduated from the Philosophical Faculty at
Sarajevo
Sarajevo ( ), ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'' is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 2 ...
. Since he couldn't get
permanent employment in the then
Serbs
The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Southeastern Europe who share a common Serbian Cultural heritage, ancestry, Culture of Serbia, culture, History of Serbia, history, and Serbian lan ...
-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 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 ('' The Ballads o ...
, found him a job at the
Yugoslav Lexicographical Institute
Yugoslav or Yugoslavian may refer to:
* Yugoslavia, or any of the three historic states carrying that name:
** Kingdom of Yugoslavia, a European monarchy which existed 1918–1945 (officially called "Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes" 1918–1 ...
in
Zagreb
Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...
. 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
A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...
, ''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
A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as Art criticism, art, Literary criticism, literature, Music journalism, music, Film criticism, cinema, Theater criticism, theater, Fas ...
over more than four decades, Ladan surveyed virtually all works written in
Croatian,
Serbian
Serbian may refer to:
* Pertaining to Serbia in Southeast Europe; in particular
**Serbs, a South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans
** Serbian language
** Serbian culture
**Demographics of Serbia, includes other ethnic groups within the co ...
, and
Bosnian — not infrequently to the consternation of the "objects" of his criticism. Follower of
T. S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist and playwright.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National Biography''. New York: Oxford University ...
,
Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...
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 wa ...
, Ladan didn't pay much attention to the
deconstruction
In philosophy, deconstruction is a loosely-defined set of approaches to understand the relationship between text and meaning. The concept of deconstruction was introduced by the philosopher Jacques Derrida, who described it as a turn away from ...
ists (
Derrida
Jacques Derrida (; ; born Jackie Élie Derrida;Peeters (2013), pp. 12–13. See also 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was a French Algerian philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in a number of his texts, ...
) or
Foucault
Paul-Michel Foucault ( , ; ; 15 October 192625 June 1984) was a French historian of ideas and philosopher who was also an author, literary critic, political activist, and teacher. Foucault's theories primarily addressed the relationships be ...
, 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. He is best known for William Faulkner bibliography, his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, a stand-in fo ...
and
Robert Musil
Robert Musil (; 6 November 1880 – 15 April 1942) was an Austrian philosophical writer. His unfinished novel, ''The Man Without Qualities'' (), is generally considered to be one of the most important and influential modernist novels.
Family
M ...
.
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 essayists
Croatian male novelists
1932 births
2008 deaths
People from Ivanjica
Writers from Travnik
Deaths from cancer in Croatia
Croats of Serbia
20th-century Croatian novelists
20th-century Croatian translators
20th-century essayists
20th-century Croatian male writers
Burials at Mirogoj Cemetery