Polemički stil A.G. Matoša

Antun Gustav Matoš is the father of the Croatian literary polemics. By confronting his con- temporaries, he shaped a unique style of polemicizing which is characterized by straight- forwardness, wit, elegance of speech and artistry. This style is based on various procedures which Matoš used in his polemics as well as on different textual patterns through which he articulated his polemical thought. The paper descibes and exemplifi es seven stylistic proce- dures (portraying in oposition, polemical quote, polemical naming, polemical verb, polemical maxim, word play, polemical point) and eight textual patterns (literary criticism, fi ctitious dialogue, comical story, polemical poem, aphorism, drama, polemical epistle). The opulence of Matoš’s style produces a polemics which is both carnevalesque and fi ctional. He brings together what is seemingly incompatible – the polemics which is based on the truth principle and fi ction which is essentially indifferent towards that principle.