The Place of Medieval Croatian Literacy within the Studies of Croatian Language and Literature at the Beginning of the 21st Century

Abstract

The Chair of Slavonic philology, with special regard to the history of Croatian and Serbian languages and literatures, has been one of the six chairs existing from the very foundation of the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb in 1874. Regardless of the later reorganisation of studies (which ultimately resulted in the emergence of the Department of Croatian language and literature), the Old Church Slavonic language and other Paleoslavonic topics (e.g. paleography) retained the central place among the lectures in the Slavonic studies. Although the Old Church Slavonic language has mostly kept such a status to the present day, n recently there began an increased questioning of the need for such a course within the university curricula of national Croatian philology in particular, or Slavonic philologies in general. In this paper, based on the examination of actual curricula at Croatian universities where Old Church Slavonic language and medieval Croatian literacy are taught, their place is discussed within the studies of Croatian language and literature, and with special regard to the so often proclaimed request for interdisciplinarity.Katedra za filologiju slavensku s osobitim obzirom na povijest jezika i literature hrvatske i srpske jedna je od šest katedara koje postoje od sama osnutka tada Mudroslovnoga fakulteta 1874. godine. Neovisno o kasnijim studijskim preustrojima koji su naposljetku rezultirali i izdvajanjem Odsjeka za kroatistiku, središnje mjesto među slavističkim kolegijima zauzela su već tada predavanja o staroslavenskome jeziku i drugim paleoslavističkim temama (npr. paleografskim). Premda je takav status staroslavenski jezik zadržao većinom do danas, u posljednje se vrijeme može sve češće naići na propitivanja potrebe za takvim kolegijem na kroatističkome, odnosno slavističkome studiju. U ovome se radu na temelju aktualnih nastavnih planova i programa hrvatskih visokih učilišta na kojima se poučavaju staroslavenski jezik i hrvatska srednjovjekovna pismenost, uz poseban naglasak upravo na filozofske fakultete, razmatra njihovo mjesto u svjetlu danas toliko često proklamirana zahtjeva za interdisciplinarnošću