Igor Mandić (20 November 1939 – 13 March 2022) was a Croatian writer, literary critic, columnist and essayist. According to Croatian historian
Slobodan Prosperov Novak
Slobodan Prosperov Novak (born 11 April 1951), is a Croatian literature historian, comparativist and theatrologist.
Biography
Prosperov Novak was born in Belgrade, but spent his childhood in Dubrovnik. He graduated comparative literature in 1973 ...
, Mandić was the most important and the most versatile anti Croatian newspaper writer of the second half of the 20th century.
His polemic texts have marked a
Yugoslav publicist epoch of the 1960s and 1970s. Known for his fresh, sharp writing style
and contrarian views, he has been dubbed "the master of quarrel".
Biography
Early life
Igor Mandić was born in Šibenik on 20 November 1939.
Both of his parents were of mixed Croatian and Italian ancestry, from the region of Istria. His paternal grandfather was born in Kastavštine, but due to work moved to the Šibenik region at the end of the 19th century to become one of the areas first electrician's. Igor Mandić's father Emilio, whom Mandić described as a
self-made man
A self-made man is a person whose success is of their own making.
Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, has been described as the greatest exemplar of the self-made man. Inspired by Franklin's autobiography, Fr ...
", was born in the small town of Konjevrate next to Šibenik. He owned a book store that had an important role in intellectual life of the Šibenik area.
His mother Adele Sirola was born in Pula to an ethnic-Italian father and an Italian-speaking Slavic mother. The Mandić and Sirola families were highly influential in Istria. During the Italian occupation of
Dalmatia
Dalmatia (; ; ) is a historical region located in modern-day Croatia and Montenegro, on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea. Through time it formed part of several historical states, most notably the Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Croatia (925 ...
in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, Mandić's father did business with the Italians, all the while secretly helping the
Partisan resistance by supplying them with
typewriter
A typewriter is a Machine, mechanical or electromechanical machine for typing characters. Typically, a typewriter has an array of Button (control), keys, and each one causes a different single character to be produced on paper by striking an i ...
s, a precious commodity during wartime. Nevertheless, the communist authorities
nationalized his shop in 1948, leaving the family without its only source of income.
Mandić finished elementary school in
Split
Split(s) or The Split may refer to:
Places
* Split, Croatia, the largest coastal city in Croatia
* Split Island, Canada, an island in the Hudson Bay
* Split Island, Falkland Islands
* Split Island, Fiji, better known as Hạfliua
Arts, enter ...
, where his family had moved after they lost the book store.
After graduating from the classical gymnasium in Split in 1958, Mandić studied
comparative literature
Comparative literature studies is an academic field dealing with the study of literature and cultural expression across language, linguistic, national, geographic, and discipline, disciplinary boundaries. Comparative literature "performs a role ...
at the
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, graduating in 1963.
During his university years Mandić began to write literary and music reviews, publishing them in student newspapers, literary magazines and cultural weeklies.
Work at Vjesnik
In 1965, after completing his compulsory military service, Mandić settled permanently in Zagreb, working as a part-time literary critic for the Croatian daily ''
Vjesnik
''Vjesnik'' () was a Croatian state-owned daily newspaper published in Zagreb. Originally established in 1940 as a wartime illegal publication of the Communist Party of Croatia, it later built and maintained a reputation as Croatia's newspaper ...
''.
A year later, Mandić got a full-time job in ''Vjesnik'' as a literary and music critic, and also a columnist in ''Vjesnik u srijedu'', a popular weekly magazine published by the same company.
Mandić's articles and columns quickly attracted attention. Particularly controversial was his music criticism; among others, his statement that
Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer during the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popular ...
's works "belong
din a museum" drew an array of irate
letters to the editor
A letter to the editor (LTE) is a letter sent to a publication about an issue of concern to the reader. Usually, such letters are intended for publication. In many publications, letters to the editor may be sent either through conventional mai ...
coming from individuals and organizations alike.
The editorial board was in a dilemma, as they wanted to keep Mandić, yet also to maintain good relations with the music establishment.
To resolve the problem, ''Vjesniks director Božidar Novak asked
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 ...
, a leading Croatian and Yugoslav writer and intellectual of the era, what he thought about Igor Mandić's writings.
Krleža replied that, while he didn't agree with everything Mandić wrote, the society needed more critics such as him.
This proved to be crucial in saving Mandić's job in ''Vjesnik''.
Mandić himself was not aware of the full extent of opposition to his views, and only learned about Krleža's intervention many years later.
A similar controversy erupted in 1974, when Mandić described Tchaikovsky's works as "the
kitsch
''Kitsch'' ( ; loanword from German) is a term applied to art and design that is perceived as Naivety, naïve imitation, overly eccentric, gratuitous or of banal Taste (sociology), taste.
The modern avant-garde traditionally opposed kitsch ...
iest opus in the history of music".
The "Mandić Affair"
In 1977, Mandić published a collection of his literary reviews, containing an October 1971 review of ''We Are All Guilty'', a book by Croatian writer
Petar Šegedin who was subsequently
purge
In history, religion and political science, a purge is a position removal or execution of people who are considered undesirable by those in power from a government, another, their team leaders, or society as a whole. A group undertaking such an ...
d for his "extreme nationalism".
Following the publication, Mandić was criticized in a July 1977 speech by
Dušan Dragosavac
Dušan Dragosavac ( sr-cyr, Душан Драгосавац; 1 December 1919 – 21 December 2014)[League of Communists of Croatia
League of Communists of Croatia (, SKH) was the Socialist Republic of Croatia, Croatian branch of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (SKJ). It came into power in 1945. Until 1952, it was known as Communist Party of Croatia (, KPH). The party ...](_blank)
, who found that this review did not sufficiently distance itself from Šegedin's theses, and accused Mandić of "nationalistic deviation".
Mandić felt this criticism was unfair and responded with an unprecedented
open letter
An open letter is a Letter (message), letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally.
Open letters usually take the form of a letter (mess ...
to Dragosavac, published in ''Oko'' magazine, in which he stood by his text, arguing that "one cannot falsify the history of literature by omitting parts which in no way have been ideologically condemned".
Dragosavac replied with an open letter of his own, maintaining that Mandić's review was unacceptable because of its "ideological-political aspects", but assured him that his status as an author should not be endangered.
The attack on Mandić was continued by ''Komunist'', the official publication of the
League of Communists of Yugoslavia
The League of Communists of Yugoslavia, known until 1952 as the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, was the founding and ruling party of SFR Yugoslavia. It was formed in 1919 as the main communist opposition party in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats ...
, which — in an article titled "Misuse of our Democracy" — accused Mandić of "nationalism in action", and also criticized ''Oko'' and ''Vjesnik'' for publishing the two open letters without comment, that is, without saying who was right and who was wrong.
Mandić responded with a letter in which he rejected the "nationalist" label, citing several of his
Croatian Spring
The Croatian Spring (), or Maspok, was a political conflict that took place from 1967 to 1971 in the Socialist Republic of Croatia, at the time part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. As one of six republics comprising Yugoslavi ...
-era articles in which he was critical of nationalistic excesses. Finally, Mandić was attacked in an article published in ''Vjesnik'' itself, which also warned against "
bourgeois
The bourgeoisie ( , ) are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between the peasantry and Aristocracy (class), aristocracy. They are tradition ...
ideology, and the traditionally
anticommunist
Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism, communist beliefs, groups, and individuals. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, and it reached global ...
and
separatist
Separatism is the advocacy of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial, regional, governmental, or gender separation from the larger group. As with secession, separatism conventionally refers to full political separation. Groups simply seekin ...
base of
Croatian nationalism".

In the aftermath of the affair, Mandić was barred from publishing in Croatian newspapers and magazines for more than a decade.
He kept his employment, but was reassigned to ''Erotika'', Vjesnik's
softcore magazine,
and, while he was still able to publish his books, they went without a single review in the media.
In this period he collaborated with some
Belgrade
Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...
-based magazines such as ''
NIN'' and ''
Duga''.
1990s and 2000s
From 1993 to 1995, Mandić wrote cultural commentaries for ''
Slobodna Dalmacija
(, where "Free" is an adjective) is a Croatian daily newspaper published in Split.
History
was first issued on 17 June 1943 by Tito's Partisans in an abandoned stone barn on Mosor, a mountain near Split, while the city was occupied by the I ...
'', and since 1997 he worked as a freelance writer, publishing in various periodicals such as ''
Novi Plamen''.
Mandić was the editor-in-chief of ''Vjesnik'' from February to October 2000.
He succeeded in introducing good-quality content and democratizing the government-controlled newspaper after a decade of
Croatian Democratic Union rule, but was dismissed by the Supervisory Board for failing to boost circulation and make the paper profitable.
Mandić was interviewed in
Boris Malagurski's documentary film ''
The Weight of Chains 2'' (2014). In the later years he was writing a popular weekly column for ''
Nedjeljni Jutarnji'', ''Ćorava kutija''.
Personal life
Mandić died on 13 March 2022 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 ...
, at the age of 82.
Awards
In 1999, he received
Matica hrvatska
Matica hrvatska () is the oldest independent, non-profit and non-governmental Croatian national institution. It was founded on February 2, 1842 by the Croatian Count Janko Drašković and other prominent members of the Illyrian movement during ...
's award ''
A. G. Matoš'' for his book ''Književno (st)ratište''.
In 2005, he received a life achievement award of the
Croatian Journalists' Association.
In 2006, at the book fair ''Sa(n)jam knjigu u Puli'' he received the Kiklop Award for his book ''Sebi pod kožu''.
In 2008, he received the Joško Kulušić Lifetime Achievement Award from ''
Slobodna Dalmacija
(, where "Free" is an adjective) is a Croatian daily newspaper published in Split.
History
was first issued on 17 June 1943 by Tito's Partisans in an abandoned stone barn on Mosor, a mountain near Split, while the city was occupied by the I ...
'' daily newspaper.
Works
Mandić was a very prolific writer. He published literary critiques, socio-culturological feuilletons and essays. He was a lifetime collaborator of various radio and television stations.
He published following books:
* ''Uz dlaku'' (critics, Mladost, Zagreb 1970)
* ''Mysterium televisionis'' (essays, Mogućnosti, Split 1972)
* ''Gola masa'' (feuilletons, Znanje, Zagreb 1973)
* ''Nježno srce'' (polemics, Znanje, Zagreb 1975)
* ''Mitologija svakidašnjeg života'' (feuilletons, Otokar Keršovani, Rijeka 1976)
* ''Od Bacha do Cagea'' (essays and critics, Mladost, Zagreb 1977)
* ''101 kratka kritika'' (Zagreb 1977)
* ''U sjeni ocvale glazbe'' (polemics, Znanje, Zagreb 1977)
* ''Policajci duha'' (polemics, Globus, Zagreb 1979)
* ''Šok sadašnjosti'' (essays, Centar za informacije i publicitet, Zagreb 1979)
* ''Arsen'' (monography, Zagreb, 1983)
* ''Književnost i medijska kultura'' (essays, Nakladni zavod Matice hrvatske, Zagreb 1984)
* ''Što, zapravo, hoće te žene'' (feuilletons, Znanje, Zagreb 1984; Varaždin and Pula 1985)
* ''Principi krimića'' (essays, Mladost, Beograd 1985)
* ''Jedna antologija hrvatske poratne poezije'' (anthology, Prokuplje, Zagreb, 1987)
* ''Zbogom dragi Krleža'' (polemics, Književne novine, Beograd 1988; 2nd ed. Profil international, Zagreb 2007)
* ''Bračna kuhinja'' (co-authored with Slavica Mandić; feuilletons, Grafički zavod Hrvatske, Zagreb 1989; 2nd ed. Profil international, Zagreb 2006)
* ''Ekstaze i mamurluci'' (essays, August Cesarec, Zagreb 1989)
* ''Romani i krize'' (critics, Beograd, 1996)
* ''Književno (st)ratište'' (critics, Nakladni zavod Matice hrvatske, Zagreb 1998)
* ''Za našu stvar'' (critics and polemics, Konzor, Zagreb 1999; 2nd expanded ed. Biblioteka XX. vek, Beograd 2001)
* ''Prijapov problem'' (essays,
Arkzin, Zagreb 1999)
* ''Između dv(ij)e vatre'' (columns, Nin, Beograd 2000)
* ''Bijela vrana'' (columns and polemics, Prosvjeta, Zagreb 2000)
* ''Hitna služba'' (a selection of columns from Vjesnik 1999-2005, Sysprint, Zagreb 2005)
* ''Sebi pod kožu. Nehotična autobiografija'' (Profil international, Zagreb 2006)
* ''Notes'' (columns, Matica hrvatska, Zagreb 2007)
* ''U zadnji čas'' (Profil International, Zagreb 2009)
References
Further reading
*
External links
*
Igor Mandić - građanin nepokorni
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mandic, Igor
1939 births
2022 deaths
20th-century Croatian non-fiction writers
20th-century essayists
20th-century Croatian male writers
21st-century Croatian non-fiction writers
People from Šibenik
Croatian essayists
Croatian male essayists
Croatian literary critics
Croatian non-fiction writers
Yugoslav journalists
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb alumni
Croatian music critics
Vjesnik editors
Burials at Mirogoj Cemetery