This thesis is intended as a contribution to the understanding of
national identity construction by national elites in early modern
Europe. It examines the development of national identity among the
Croats and concentrates upon the life and work of the Croatian writer
and scholar Pavao Ritter Vitezovic (1652-1713). His work in the
fields of national history, linguistics and genealogy is treated as
typical of the type of early modern scholar concerned with national
identity, here termed identity constructor.
The phenomenon of identity construction among the early modern Croats is
set in the context of current debates over western and eastern models of
national development. This is followed by an account of the development
of a Croatian identity in the fields of politics and culture during the
early modern period. Chapter Two is concerned with the social and
intellectual forces which led early modern scholars to address questions
of national identity. It examines Vitezovic's intellectual and moral
world, in particular the character of his patriotism and its origins in
humanist learning and in chivalry. Chapter Three looks at ideas of
national renewal in Vitezovic's work. It discusses his analysis of the
threats facing the Croats in terms of external enemies, namely the
Turks and the lack of coherence among the Christian alliance, and
internal enemies, namely the Croats' own decadence and indifference to
their national identity. The next three chapters examine aspects of the identity which
Vitezovic presented to the Croats in order to halt their decline into
obsolescence. Chapter Four uses Vitezovic's ethnographic writings to
examine how national identities are fashioned from existing material to
suit current circumstances. It discusses his use of Slav and Illyrian
literature to inspire the Croats with nostalgia for their former period
of greatness. This longing would rouse the Croats from their present
state of apathy and direct them towards the task of national self-renewal.
Chapters Five and Six look at the importance of statehood for
Croatian national identity. Chapter Five examines how Vitezovic set
the existing political institutions of the Kingdom of Croatia within
the context of the Croats' national history and defined the relations
between the Croats and their king, the Habsburg Emperor. The
following chapter looks at Vitezovic's grand scheme for an enlarged
Kingdom of Croatia to be built under the aegis of the Emperor after
the Ottoman withdrawal from the Balkans. It considers how historical
and ethnic arguments are used to invest territory with national content.
The concluding chapter examines problems of change and continuity
within national identities. A brief survey of developments in Croatian
national identity in the half century after Vitezovic's death and
before the rise of the romantic movement is followed by a general
conclusion on the constraints which determine how a nation creates its
identity