Abstract: When the concept of the Conflict on the Literary Left was first formulated in the early 1970s, it provoked considerable controversy and numerous methodological objections. After the breakup of Yugoslavia, however, these criticisms gradually faded, and the Conflict attained canonical status—becoming an unquestioned historical reference and part of the high school curriculum in Croatia. By tracing the cultural and historical currents in Yugoslavia throughout the 1970s and 1980s, this paper seeks to shed light on the processes that led to the formation of such a one-dimensional and simplified perspective. At this stage, we are far more concerned with the reception of the concept itself than with its re-evaluation—a task that will, sooner or later, inevitably come to the fore.

Keywords: Conflict on the Literary Left, Miroslav Krleža, Stanko Lasić, Yugoslav literary history, Social Literature Movement, Antibarbarus, Stalinism, revolutionary aesthetics

Summary: The Conflict on the Literary Left has, in both scholarly and popular discourse, become less a historical event and more a cultural myth—serving to legitimize a particular vision of Croatian national identity. For this very reason, a critical reexamination of Lasić’s concept remains crucial not only for understanding Krleža’s legacy, but also for grasping the broader history of the Yugoslav cultural space. This new revision must take into account the objections that had already emerged in the early 1970s—concerning its ahistorical perspective, problematic periodization, neglect of Serbian writers, and disregard for other avant-garde movements. At the same time, it must acknowledge Krleža’s own thesis from the Promemoria to the Researchers, according to which the Conflict was neither political nor ideological in nature, but primarily personal.