National identity is defined through the interaction of various factors within a specific area, which does not represent merely a geographical category, but rather the contours of a cultural area within which identity is formed. In the Croatian case, this area is shaped by the Mediterranean and Central European identity framework. Identity represents a complex and dynamic construct of the collective consciousness of a given nation’s members, shaped by history, language, literature, and intangible cultural heritage. It is built and modified through constant interaction between local and global influences, along with multilayered relationship between the past and the present.
The selected historical studies within this project bear witness to historical processes and experiences in the Croatian historical area that collective communities subsequently accept and interpretatively shape as being part of their identity narrative. Furthermore, microhistorical studies of Croatian local areas reconstruct specific historical situations that constitute a key identity framework for communities situated within a concrete cultural area at the crossroads of the Mediterranean and Central Europe.
The research of traces of oral history and local narratives as somponents of Croatian intangible heritage, opens new interpretative framework for understanding the ways in which identities were formed, negotiated, and transmitted within a specific spatio-temporal context. Considering that research of language and literature as means of constructing Croatian identity is also essential—through diachronic analysis of texts and discourses—the project activities additionally include comparative linguistic and literary research.
