Demeter, Dimitrije

Born July 21, 1811, in Zagreb; died there June 24, 1872. Croatian playwright of the Croatian national renaissance.

Demeter was a proponent of Illyrism and defended the reforms of V. Karadžić. In 1850 he signed an agreement on the unity of the Serbian and Croatian languages. He published almanacs and was editor of several newspapers. He managed a Zagreb theater that he created. Demeter translated the plays of German romanticists and dramatized I. I. Lazhechnikov’s novel. The Icy House. His play Teuta (1844), which deals with the fighting between the ancient IIlyrians and Romans, was the first Croatian romantic tragedy. In his epic poem The Grobničko Field (1842), a portrayal of the Croatian victory over the Tatar-Mongols in 1242, Demeter calls for a struggle for national liberation. In the last years of his life, he held conservative views.