The objective of this dissertation was to identify, describe and interpret the structural elements within the corpus of occasional poems, dedications and inscriptions dedicated to Bishop Strossmayer, in order to determine construction modalities of the referential subject (according to Hamon) which refer to the Bishop Strossmayer, the historical person. The second objective is to assess the semantic impact of occasional poems, dedications and inscriptions on the establishment of Strossmayer’s cultural status at the regional and national level. The paper analyzes in which way textual determinants contributed towards development of Strossmayer’s historical image. Austin’s theory of speech acts is used to illustrate the performative aspect of occasional poems, related to pragmatic conditions of their creation (Pšihistal) and a way of recording his cultural activities in the paratextual forms of dedication (Genette), as well as extensive corpus of non-literary reception of Strossmayer’s personality and works (Strossmayeriana) important for the construction of the nineteenth-century Croatian culture. Occasional poems are analyzed primarily as cultural and pragmatic texts, and secondarily as literary texts. Strossmayer’s cultural identity stems from textual projection of his position, as well as his actual cultural activities. This dissertation aims to portray Strossmayer as the first writer of Croatian culture, in order to contribute towards development of a comprehensive synthesis of Strossmayer’s cultural legacy. The thesis is divided in six chapters and the Introduction, Conclusion, and References, Sources and Network sources: Occasional poems as Speech Acts; Corpus of occasional poems on Bishop Strossmayer, Assessment of occasional poems on Bishop Strossmayer, Bishop Strossmayer as transmetaprojection media subject, Occasional poems as Cultural Acts, Images of Bishop Josip Juraj Strossmayer. The methodological approach is interdisciplinary, based upon pragmatic approach (speech act theory, paratext pragmatics), literary theory (with emphasis on stylistics, rhetorical, intertextual, intermedial and transmedial corpus analysis), literary-historical, anthropological, philosophical and Cultural Studies approach. Other media theories and methods are also applied in the analysis of the intermedial structure of a particular part of the corpus. The corpus can be defined as a collection of philanthropists’ gifts returned upon the preferred concept of compensation. The introductory chapter approaches the previous findings on the images of Bishop Strossmayer in the occasional poems, which have been insufficiently researched. Pšihistal was the first to note that the occasional poems should be considered primarily performative. In the second chapter, occasional poems are defined as speech acts (performative). In order to prove the hypotheses, it was necessary to study and redefine the genre of occasional poems by applying the theoretical approaches of foreign (Nagy, Pangritz, Drux, Dwarf Sugano, etc.) and domestic scholars (Pšihistal, Novaković, Jovanović, etc.). Occasional poems were defined as speech acts on the basis of Austin’s doctrine and Nagy’s definitions of genre derived from Todorov‘s precepts. Occasional poems can be defined as a separate genre because they meet the criteria of the community in which they are used, and the genre itself is equated with the concept of the speech act situation. Occasional poems are characterized by: a) public performance before the addressee, delivered by an authorized speaker, b) ritualism, c) conventionality, and d) what Austin calls sincerity; otherwise it means rejecting the whole procedural code and remaining infelicitous, i.e. - they do not achieve effects listed in the structure of the speech act. In that case, they can have only a secondary aesthetic function and partially independent literary aspects, while the primary function is pragmatic and overall subsequently cultural. It is an activity that involves not only contextually verified performative effect, but also repetitiveness and genre quotation. Poetic occasional poems make use of a common imagery, established rhetorical formulas and figures that build a common set of utterances - the images of Josip Juraj Strossmayer to be successful/felicitous. Cultural and pragmatic functions avoid illegitimate readings of the corpus, i.e., neglecting the context, the occasion on which the act takes place, the authority of the speaker, the locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary aspects; they do not ignore the nature of genre as a speech and cultural act, nor as a form of communication performed on a special occasion and having a primarily social (cultural) function. The third chapter focuses on the assessment of the corpus of occasional poems in a letter form to the Bishop Strossmayer according to the following criteria: Authority of the Speaker, Public Performance, Conventionality, and Rituality. Most occasional poems writers were priests, monks, and nuns, and not literary authors, evidencing the performativity of the genre analogous to the performative character of liturgical rites/ceremonies in which words are turned into acts and/or events. Occasional poems are divided into genres, according to the speech act’s situation, the speaker’s authority, and the authorial-diachronic category. In all, 326 occasional poems written by 164 authors were sent to Bishop Strossmayer, 138 of which were written by Croatian authors (including 33 who cannot be identified), and 26 foreign (including two anonymous). A strong sense of national identity is accentuated. In the third chapter, Austin’s theory of speech acts is applied. The assessment of felicity/ infelicity of occasional poems established their performative rather than constative nature. A successful occasional poems had to meet the following requirements: a) Felicities / successful occasional poems are always performed by an authorized person; b) there are clear rules on how to perform occasional poems, i.e. performative utterance to the Bishop; c) belonging to Strossmayer’s cultural circle requires an utterly positive attitude, which is also expected of the content of the performative; d) to belong to Strossmayer’s cultural circle one needed to respect the strict rules; f) the participants had to continue to act according to the principles expressed in the occasional poems and publicly distance themselves from those who break/violate the rules. In an effort to define performativity and identify the meaning of the term performative in Croatian language as oblikotvornik (defining the form); preustrojnik (restructuring); zbiljotvornik (actualizing/making real); preobraznik (transformative), a method resembling modern theological science was also applied. The constative was analogously interpreted as činjeničnik (fact-establishing); potvrdnik (confirming), or istinosnik (truth-establishing). Similar to the genre of memorial liturgies, the locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary dimensions were related to činidbena (carefully considered before making a decision of judgment about something); hvalidbena (praising), and molidbena (prayable) feature that accomplish performative effects in the liturgy. 292 of 326 occasional poems examined were successful/felicitous, and 34 were labelled as failed/infelicitous due to several types of protocol/felicity condition violations resulting in a hollow professed act, or abuses according to Austin. The Assessment of occasional poems is based on the classification of illocutionary aspects (Stojanović-Prelević) created after analyzing different types of illocutionary force. An extended Stojanović-Prelević classification was partially adopted, and in addition to Austin’s five wellknown classes of illocutionary force, a predictive class was added, since a large number of occasional poems writers use a predictive to foresee how Strossmayer is to be perceived in a cultural memory. Typical pragmatics of occasional poems, dedications, and inscriptions in books given to Strossmayer, are also analyzed. The titles are written in Strossmayer’s culture text, in a common pragmatic framework with dedications and inscriptions. In paratexts, Strossmayer serves as the moral compass for the group of people who devote Occasional poems to him, and/or give Strossmayer books as gifts in either public acts of dedication or in private inscriptions. Strossmayer is regarded as transmeta-projection media subject in his church. In addition to dedication to his cathedral, Strossmayer’s self-dedication within his own architectural texts is also a dedication to the larger cultural text that he contributed to. It is important to take special note of Strossmayer’s semiological status. Bishop Strossmayer was employed as a character-image, and both as a non-literary expression of a character and a literary expression of a character. In the entire occasional poems corpus Strossmayer is “automatically tagged” and authors always mention these characteristics. The character’s referentiality is retained, the role is unaltered, the context is consistent, and the accomplishments stay clear even in derogatories. There is a clear intention to affirm Strossmayer’s position through a number of images/word images. Occasional poems and portraits of the bishop (textual, visual, and musical works of art) obviously have pragmatic goals. Whereas other pieces were paid for, occasional poems writers received no compensation, and the bishop’s feedback was often circumstantial. Fifth chapter focuses on the images within the corpus crucial for classification of occasional poems as cultural events and on the collectivity/communion images to define identity and culture. The most significant formative structures identified by the interpretation pattern that would support the thesis are antonomasia and synecdoche. Tropes which contributed towards creating Strossmayer’s image of a bishop were: patron (benefactor), builder, founder of Croatian identity, writer of culture or cultural memory, Croatian king and shepherd. These are listed in various ways as cultural acts in the occasional poems. According to the occasional poems, Cultural tuscanization was the largest cultural venture in Croatian history and is also the topic-and motive-related foundation of contemporary Croatian culture. Although Matoš derives Strossmayer’s undertakings from his slogan “Everything for Faith and Homeland” in a dual sense, Strossmayer’s constructive cultural project was planned and carried out with the concept of the trinity. As a desired role model, His “European” cultural profile is emerging in the corpus. His cultural project’s implementation has in this regard been divided into three key periods: Incubation (1850–1860), Cultural tuscanization (1860–1900), and Synthesis (1900–1955). Since occasional poems were conveyors of the cultural-program performance, hence the corpus of performative identification, morphology of the occasional poems corpus was used to determine the cut-off years. Occasional poems serve as a cultural record of Strossmayer’s idea; they identify and (re)shape it in sync, so that writing about it in the corpus turns into a) writing into a cultural project but also b) writing about its outcomes. In the sixth chapter, the fundamental questions about Bishop Strossmayer from the perspective of occasional poems were addressed, such as the subject of logos. Word pictures/images are also referred to in this chapter. However, their purpose was to remind the interlocutors of the bonding answers connoted. Several determinant images of Bishop Strossmayer have been identified: the Croatian King (Shepherd), builder of National Identity, the Patron, the Orator (Golden-mouthed), the Bishop (Vladika), and the Builder. They attempt to shape Croatian national identity and culture in full conformity with Strossmayer’s model. The most prominent antonomasia and a cultural memory character connected to Josip Juraj Strossmayer is the image of Mecene (also spelled Mecenata or Mecenata). Even those who have had a strong dislike for Strossmayer cannot deny that, as shown in the corpus of occasional poems, he is the greatest patron in Croatian history. In contrast to other images reflecting his professional role (Bishop, Vladika, etc.) or the global fame he attained (orator), or as an observation of the results of his endeavors (builder, culture writer), Strossmayer commits himself to the image of a patron. The fact that Bishop Strossmayer is perceived as a symbol of national identity is one of his most significant impacts recognized in our corpus. A complex yet persuasive identity image of Josip Juraj Strossmayer provides the response to the question on the ideal form of Croatian national identity delved into by thosewriters. Strossmayer is not just an identity (re)shaper—he is also a paradigm of national identity and its ideal embodiment. This corpus is crucial to Strossmayer’s identity program since he expects ongoing writing activities on occasional poems and shapes the corpus’s outcomes in accordance with the genre characteristics, which include the development of a national identity largely at odds with the prevailing ideologies of its time and place. Apart from having intellectual resources, the affluent Strossmayer can also financially support his national identity program. His greatest achievements, including the building of the Djakovo Cathedral, the Academy of Sciences and Arts, re-establishment of the University of Zagreb and the (Strossmayer) Gallery of Old Masters generate the ideal Croatian identity (culture) he wants to establish and communicate. Croatians are for him a wealthy, educated, tolerant nation, a Tuscan element among the Slavs, predestined to great achievements, much greater than their financial, military, or demographic strength, relied on the threefold concept according to which the Djakovo Cathedral was built: focusing (a) on the upgrading of Croatia’s national identity, (b) on the ideas of pan-Slavism and church unity in (c) the global Catholic Church, where Croatians have a particular role assigned. The occasional poemsBishop Strossmayer is a symbol of the accomplishment of Croatian national identity. He portrays the future of Croatia by embodying all the qualities of a collective subject. In the corpus of occasional poems, which in the 19th century were inseparable from his name, the image of the Bishop stands out in the set, not only as evidence of his official duties but also as a desirable asset. In the second half of the 19th century, writing or saying “bishop” meant writing or saying “Josip Juraj Strossmayer,” a terminology that has survived into present. The word “Bishop,” written with the capital “B”, appears in almost every occasional poems, almost always in the paratext of the title, and regularly in the body of text. The antonomasia of Vladika frequently appears alongside the image of the bishop. It serves as a synonym for “bishop” and designates a prominent position in the Greek Catholic Church and Orthodox Churches. He most frequently refers to himself as a Vladika for ecumenical purposes. They are brothers in Christ, both on the same mission to unite the divided churches. Bishop Strossmayer successfully completed his mission, although his appointment to Vladika did not result in rallying the idea of brotherhood and of upcoming church unity. The image of the Builder is one of the significant corpus performative names of J. J. Strossmayer. So, envisioning and constructing a cathedral or a temple (both spiritual and material) becomes a community-wide effort, with occasional poems being not only the testimony of a single speaker but a reflection of a collective idea and collective will. The orator’s (‘Golden-mouthed’) antonomasia becomes topical primarily following his performance at the First Vatican Council, where he becomes a globally relevant person. The bishop’s greatest oratorical role model is Ivan Chrysostom, who is close to the already mentioned image of the bishop. Strossmayer favors the clergy of the pre-Schism period and the concept of unity, which he promoted at the Vatican Council as the legacy of the early holy Fathers. In several places, Matoš addresses Strossmayer simply by his first name Josip Juraj, but also “the Croatian king”. This naming was also adopted by some occasional poems writers. In the series of symbolic meanings in our Corpus, Bishop Strossmayer as the king can be understood as a superego, as an ideal that to strive for, as an ethical and psychological value. Strossmayer is the one who has earned his royal privileges/features: he is the best representation of the Croatian nation – both a ruler and a role model in one, unlike politicians of that time. Starčević was intolerant in his ideological justification, and Jelačić was more a general and a subordinate than the sovereign ruler of his people. Therefore, Strossmayer was presented as a true sovereign by the grace of the Holy Spirit and due to his virtuous values. For political reasons, such as the banning of Okrugić’s occasional dramatic poemThe meeting of the fairies..., the image of a king is sometimes replaced with a shepherd. This antonomasia appears frequently on a number of occasions. It does not refer to a spiritual shepherd only (although it has this meaning in many cases) but primarily to a protector/guardian and leader of the nation. The last chapter comes to the conclusion that the images of Bishop Strossmayer are nationally formative and permanently inscribed in every narrative of contemporary Croatian culture. Even when questioned and or contested as infelicitous/failed occasional poems within the corpus, they remain a part of cultural valuables attained by versatile activities of Bishop Strossmayer, as well as all those who joined his projects, including the authors of our corpus.