Intervju s voditeljem Škole
The Zagreb School of Slavic Studies – during thirty-eight years of its existence more than twenty-eight hundred attendees from some fifty countries
by Branka Primorac
Krešimir Mićanović was born in Brčko in 1968. He graduated in Croatian Sudies and Southern Slavic Philology from the Faculty of Humanistic and Social Sciences in Zagreb. Since 1995, he has been a research novice in the Section of the Croatian Standard Language of Zagreb Faculty of Humanistic and Social Sciences, while currently he is a senior lecturer in the Section of the Croatian Standard Language in the Department of Croatian Studies at the Faculty of Humanistic and Social Sciences in Zagreb. He has published several scientific and expert works, the monograph Hrvatski s naglaskom: standard i jezični varijeteti (Croatian with an Accent: The Standard and Language Varieties, 2006, 2008) and Hrvatski pravopis (Croatian Orthography, 2007 and 2008, co-authored with L. Badurina and I. Marković). He has published the following fiction: Dok prelazim asfalt (While I Am Crossing the Asphalt, 1988), Vrtlar (The Gardener, 1994), Treba se kretati (One Should Walk, 2005). Since 1997, he has been regularly partaking in the work of the Zagreb School of Slavic Studies, and since 2009, he has been the head of the Zagreb School of Slavic Studies.
Bridge: The 38th Seminar of the Zagreb School of Slavic Studies was held in Dubrovnik from 24th August to 5th September 2009. Could you please briefly refer to the School's rich past?
Krešimir Mićanović: It is not simple to summarise the history of the School in just a few sentences; in this conversation just listing facts would not help much. For the past thirty-eight years the Zagreb School of Slavic Studies – organised by the Department of Croatian Studies of the Faculty of Humanistic and Social Sciences of the University of Zagreb – has been functioning as a living academic community in which – on the one hand – attendees from some fifty world countries have participated, more than twenty-eight hundred people, while – on the other hand – university professors, who have taken part in it as foreign-language instructors and lecturers. Ever since its first seminar, the school has been trying to be a multimedia centre. Writers, actors, painters, directors and musicians have regularly participated in its work. Whoever will be looking at our web site (www.hrvatskiplus.org), will see that a great number of Croatian artists have participated in the seminars. Their participation was proof that the seminars of the Zagreb School of Slavic Studies, I dare say, are prestigious events of artistic presentation and promotion.
Bridge: At the 38th seminar you played – for the first time – the role of the school's head. Did the seminar pass within the routine rhythm of the predecessors or were there any innovations? What did you personally insist on so that the school could function better?
K. M.: Seminars are recognisable in their programme which includes work in instructorships, lectures, cultural events, in other words, the study of and analysis of different segments of the Croatian language, literature and culture. Therefore, the 38th seminar was similarly conceived. Regarding the functioning of the school, I can say that for me it was not an unknown, as for the past thirteen years I have participated in its work as a language instructor, while for the past two years I have also been its deputy head. The role of the head definitely requires a somewhat different involvement, especially in the demanding job of the organisation of the seminar which included some eighty attendees, thirty-five professors, lecturers and guests who participated in the execution of the programme. This year's programme was more intensive as – apart from the regular classes and evening part – we also introduced an optional afternoon programme: workshops, film projections, seeing the selected sights of Dubrovnik.
Bridge: How do you choose lecturers and guests and what is their function in the seminar? Can the attendees affect the choice of guests – writers, theoreticians, film makers?
K. M.: The foothold of the lecturing part of the seminar are the two cycles of lectures: linguistic and literary-scientific. According to the already established tradition, cycles are conceived and lecturers are selected by the heads of the cycle – this year by the professors Ivo Pranjković and Krešimir Bagić. I personally invited the participants of the cultural events to the seminar. Although they did not participate in the selection of the guests (I do not know how it could be accomplishable even if we wanted it), the attendees were very satisfied with the cultural programme in which the following writers took part: Mirko Kovač, Marko Pogačar, Branislav Oblučar, the director Biljana Čakič Veselić and the actor Vilim Matula.
Bridge: How many attendees were there, what were their profiles like, and where did they come from? Are they entirely new names or just old acquaintances? Is it possible to come to school several times in a row or is there a limit to attendance?
K. M.: The attendees are not a homogeneous group: they come from different countries, they belong to different cultures, not everyone speaks Croatian “in the same way”, their previous knowledge about the school and Croatia differs. The 38th seminar brought together almost eighty attendees from twenty-three countries of the world, mainly European, but also from the United States of America, China, Japan, Azerbaijan. In principle, students attend the seminar only once. University lecturers attend it several times as the school is a perfect place for creating and preserving professional contacts. If a certain student manages to – on the basis of international contracts – win the scholarship, for example – for two years in a row – he is welcome to the seminar.
Bridge: The participants come to the seminar with different levels of knowledge of the Croatian language. Which (level) is the one that prevails? Does the beginners' course make any sense in this type of school?
K. M.: That is true, the seminar is attended by students with different levels of knowledge of the Croatian language and with different knowledge of Croatian culture and history. A great majority of attendees speak Croatian quite well, but a small number of – as we call them – beginners is always present. Regarding the procedure of applying to the seminar, it is not possible to avoid the students who have only begun to learn Croatian. I do not think that it would be good if it were possible. Within the stretch of two weeks, the beginners have almost forty periods with a language instructor, which is why our school is a stimulating place for foreigners to start speaking the Croatian language.
Bridge: Among the participants there must be interesting people. Who has left a strong impression on you?
K. M.: I would not be able to single out names of the attendees of our school, but what truly is impressive is the fact that every year the seminar is attended by a significant number of very motivated and hard-working students.
Bridge: The attendees apply for the seminar themselves, naturally with a suitable reference. Who decides if they pay for the course themselves or if their expenses are paid by Croatian taxpayers?
K. M.: The number of attendees is mainly determined through an agreement with the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports. In practice, it means that the Croatian language instructors, whose teaching at foreign universities has been verified by the Ministry, recommend their students for the seminar. A number of attendees come to the seminar on the basis of bilateral contracts between Croatia and other countries, which means that we do not decide upon their selection. A smaller number of attendees are invited by the School Board, and these are, first and foremost, university professors whose primary professional interest is the Croatian language and literature.
Bridge: Is the interest in the participation in the work of the school increasing or decreasing? Do you have to reject some of the applicants?
K. M.: The interest in the school has always been great. Thus, this year again we could not accept all those who were interested in the course and who contacted us either directly or “lobbied” their language instructors to be accepted.
Bridge: Do the Slavic Studies students and experts – or the Croatian Studies students and experts – come to Dubrovnik? In other words, how unconditional is this combination at universities in the world?
K. M.: Traditionally, the largest group of our attendees is the one that studies Slavic Studies and, as part of them, the Croatian Studies. But, every year there are students whose major subject is not Slavic Studies and who combine learning Croatian with other languages. Among the attendees are, frequently, also diplomats who learn Croatian for purely practical reasons.
Bridge: What lectures do the participants prefer to attend: those on linguistic themes (historical? contemporary?), those on today's developments in Croatian literature (which themes? which writers?), or those on Croatian culture?
K. M.: An unambiguous answer to your question would be erroneous. The attendees show interest in various fields, but, fortunately, the interest in one field does not exclude the interest in another. The varied programme of the seminar (linguistics, literature, history, culture, film, theatre, music, translation) tries to satisfy the demands of the attendees, but also arouse their interest in new fields.
Bridge: What are the attendees of the school more inclined to: to be lecturers or translators? Could you specifically – to put it conditionally – say what the benefit is and how greatly Croatia can profit from those seminars?
K. M.: A smaller number of our attendees will be professionally involved in the Croatian language and literature, i.e. remain to work at university, an institute, or intensively engage in translation. However, I do not think that we should only talk about the smaller group when we talk about “Croatian benefit”. It is clear that in the case of the attendees at the seminar, we cannot express profit in a way as it is done in tourism when the number of guests and nights spent is given. I can give an example of the school's concrete effect. The translation of the anthology of Croatian poetry Utjeha kaosa (The Consolation of Chaos) – which was published by the “Zagreb School of Slavic Studies” in 2006 – was published in Hungary this year at the expense of their publisher. The Hungarian edition of the anthology was supported by the school in such a way that, at the 36th seminar, a group of translators was completing its translation.
Bridge: This year, the language selected for the translation workshop was the Bulgarian language. How did that part of the seminar go?
K. M.: The translation workshop is the project of the Zagreb School of Slavic Studies, which aims at encouraging the translation of Croatian literature into foreign languages. After the Polish, Hungarian and French workshops, this year the Bulgarian workshop was held. During the seminar, a group of translators – led by the professor Tatyana Dunkova – was putting the finishing touches to the second version of the translation of the anthology of the Croatian short story Goli grad (The Naked City). We would be glad if the translation of the anthology appeared in Bulgaria. It would be a benefit for Croatian authors, but also for the Bulgarian reader.
Bridge: What would be – in your view – realistic to expect from the participants who sat – for two weeks in 2009 – at the desks of the Postgraduate Studies Centre in Dubrovnik?
K. M.: It is easier to talk about what we prepared for the attendees than what we expect from them. Thus, during a fortnight course in Dubrovnik – I shall only mention the teaching part of the programme – the attendees sat through as many periods of practice with a foreign-language instructor as they would do in an entire semester. They attended twenty lectures held in the Croatian language: lectures in linguistics, literature, history and culture. Bearing in mind their satisfaction – which they verbalised in anonymous questionnaires at the end of the seminar – one should expect, I would say, entirely realistically, that they will greatly profit from the seminar in their future studies and engagement with the Croatian language.
Bridge: What can you tell us about the internet project “Anagram”?
K. M.: In the electronic library “Anagram” there are currently some hundred texts by Croatian reputable professors and scholars in which various segments of the Croatian language, literature, theory and culture are thematised. In the newly-initiated section “Književne prakse” (“Literary Practices”), literary texts by forty-one Croatian writers have been included so far. Conceived as a representative online library, “Anagram” has been constantly increasing and – which makes us particularly happy – is frequently visited. The internet statistics record that since April 2009 – when the site was thoroughly redesigned and the new contents were added – there have been more than forty thousand visitors to this day. Night and day, on workdays, and at weekends.
