U hrvatsku književnost i kulturnu javnost Petar Šegedin ulazi u doba kada trauma prodire u samu srž društvenog ritma. Dramatično iskustvo rata ali i kontroverzija nesigurnog poraća definiraju estetske projekcije bez obzira na idejni predtekst koncepta koji se oblikuje, drži li se poželjnog optimističkog narativa nove stabilnosti i obnove ili zapitanosti nad nesigurnošću u kojoj se civilizacija zatekla. U dvodesetljetnom rasponu od prvih Šegedinovih egzistencijalnih proza (Djeca božja) do Kiklopa Ranka Marinkovića taj će se poetički ključ u hrvatskom jeziku razbistriti kroz autentične i održive slike, direktnog stiha Kaštelanovih Tifusara, Krležinih pseudodnevničkih ratnih eseja ili Kolarovih karakternih novela. U ovome se radu pokazuje dosljednost Šegedinove radne osnove o fenomenu života koju iz idejnog predteksta postupno razvija do tako naslovljenih cjelina, samostalnih fragmenata ili poglavlja ciklički strukturiranog romana, sve do televizijskoga filma Živjeti, kao svojevrsnoga finala autorove radio i televizijske dramaturške prakse. Paradoks o povratnom kulturnom učinku traume pokazuje se i kroz sudbinu toga filma, čije je premijerno prikazivanje cenzura zaustavila, ali ne zbog gledišta koja bi u njemu bila zastupana, već zbog prijepora oko autorove podobnosti uopće. Dramaturška razrada predloška za film Živjeti dokumentira postojanost i čvrstinu svijeta koji autor razrađuje postupno učvršćujući svoju zarana prepoznatu (anti)tezu o »životu koji živi od života«.Petar Šegedin began to figure in Croatian literature and in the Croatian arts public at a time when trauma had driven deep into the pith and marrow of the rhythm of society. The dramatic experience of the war and the controversy of the uncertain post-war years had defined the aesthetic projections irrespective of the ideational pre-text of the concept being shaped, whether one were cleaving to the much to be desired optimistic narrative of new stability and revival or voicing concern at the insecurity in which civilisation had found itself. In the twenty-year-span from the first existential writings of Šegedin (God’s Children) to the Cyclops of Ranko Marinković, this poetic key in Croatian was to be clarified through the authentic and sustainable images of the direct verse of Kaštelan’s Typhus Carriers, Krleža’s pseudo-diaristic war essays and Kolar’s novellas of character. The present paper demonstrates the consistency of Šegedin’s working base about the phenomenon of life, which he gradually developed from the ideational pre-text into similarly named units, independent fragments or chapters of a cyclically structured novel up to the television film To Live, a finale, as it were, of the author’s radio and television practice. The paradox of the reciprocal cultural effect of trauma can be seen in the destiny of that film, the premiere screening of which was stopped by censorship, not because of the viewpoints represented in it, rather because of the dispute about whether the author was acceptable or not. The dramaturgical development of the proposal for the film To Live demonstrates the constancy and strength of the world that the author elaborates while gradually reinforcing his early recognised anti-thesis about the »life that lives from life«
