In the period between 1835 and 1848 the literary output in Croatia echoed the precepts of European romanticism. A multitalented and enterprising generation of writers set out to modernize Croatian culture, to codify a literary language, to unify an orthography, to document folk literary genres, and to reaffirm and strengthen the importance of a national literature for both the upper class and the emerging middle class. This generation is known as the Illyrian movement. All of its members were polyglots, educated abroad, well-read in major European literatures, and aware of the current romantic theories. Ivan Mazuranic was one of its central figures.

Croatian romanticism was not a reaction to the neoclassical aesthetic canon. On the contrary, it sought to integrate the neoclassical literature of Dubrovnik with the current European romantic theories of art. The leaders of the Illyrian movement had to overcome Croatian regionalism and contend with a threatening Hungarian...