Narratio vespertina secunda de Robinsone

Дефо у немачкој лектири карловачких гимназиста

Слободан, Вукобрат

1

ǂстр. ǂ107

116

1998

Daniel Defo's world-famous novel Robinson Crusoe was translated into German in 1720, only a year after its first publication in England; not long afterwards many Robinsonades came into existence and became widely read and highly popular all over Europe especially in the latter part of the seventeenth century. From K. Petrović's Istorija Karlovačke gimnazije (The History of the Sremski Karlovci High School), published in 1818, it becomes evident that certain anthology extracts either from Defoe's Robinson Crusoe or one of the Robinsonades were used in the school German readers. Nevertheless, from the Latin note in Petrović's Istorija - "vespertina secunda de Robinsone in sermonem Serbicum translata" - we do not get an exact idea as to what extract from Defoe's novel or from its many adapted versions was read in the Sremski Karlovci High School. In case that Robinson Crusoe was referred to it is presumed that Robinson's second religious meditation (which is a part of the hero's Diary, contained in the first half of the book), his devout prayes addressed to God after his deliverance from a serious illnes through divine providence would have been the most likely choice for a German reader. At the same time another suggested possibility is considered: namely that the extract in question could have been taken out of one of the Robinsonades. In that case the author is of the opinion that J. H. Kampe's Robinson der Jüngere. Ein Lebebuch für Kinder (1779/80) may have been the most probable choice for the anthology inq uestion both on account of its religious seriousness as well as on account of its composition (Robinson's adventures together with the rrelation of his belated religious awakening is related to a group of children in the course of many summer evenings). In either case the extract in question does appear to have been one of the mediative, contemplative passages primarily on accountof the moral and religious (Protestant) implications it was known to contain,w hich were so relevant for the prevailing school currisuclum, as well as for the educational preferences it was expected to maintain rather than any of the numerous passages relating Robinson's endeavours for his sole physical survival or the relationof the one of his many adventures.

Conspectus studiorum, narratio, Данијел Дефо, Робинсонаде, роман