Nova Istra

398 NOVA ISTRA Literary and cultural journal Pula, Croatia, No. 1-2/2014 SUMMARY Unfortunately, the current volume first brings the official objection to the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia because of its frequent refusal to grant our journal, Nova Istra . According to evaluations of the cultural public, authors and re- viewers, this is one of the best periodical publications on literary and cultural issues in the country.The editor-in-chief believes that the reason does not lie in its quality, but in criteria far from literature and culture. Since 2012, the Ministry has refused to sponsor the journal and its publisher with 2/3 of the funds, providing no expla- nation. At the same time, the most responsible people in the Ministry have largely supported titles and individuals who are close to them, without paying any atten- tion to the real and potential conflicts of interest. Quite non-European behaviour! The section on contemporary literature presents, as it is usual, contributions cha- racteristic for different genres and signed by writers who belong to different genera- tions and poetics, but some new names on the literary scene are also included. The literary opus by Viktor Vida (1913 – 1960), a distinguished writer and Croati- an refugee in Italy and Argentina with a tragic destiny – born in Boka Kotorska (to- day a part of Montenegro) – was the central topic of the 18 th Antun Šoljan (another great Croatian writer in 20 th century) Days in the city of Rovinj.This issue contains contributions by literary scholars, historians and reviewers who have comprehensi- vely analysedVida’s entire opus for the first time – all the genres in which he showed his great talent, his public engagement and his destiny. New translations cover three authors, introduced to the Croatian readership for the first time. They belong to the Swiss (French-speaking), Hungarian and Chilean literature. The current volume also includes new studies and essays on a variety of topics, as follows: neuralgic issues of the Croatian reality and ways in which they are inter- preted by writers/in literature; destiny of women camp inmates fromVukovar who were raped in 1991-1992 (the Croatian War of Independence), during the Serbian