Edvard Kocbek
Edvard Kocbek | |
---|---|
essayist, translator | |
Spouse | Zdravka Koprivnjak |
Children | Lučka Kocbek, Matjaž Kocbek, Jurij Kocbek |
Edvard Kocbek (
Biography
Early life and school
Kocbek was born in the village of
He attended the
Youthful activism
After graduating from the lower high school in Ptuj, he enrolled in the
In 1925, Kocbek graduated from the Maribor gymnasium and went to a long excursion through Italy together with his close friend Pino Mlakar.[12] Upon returning, he decided to enroll to the Maribor priest seminar; he however quit after two years and enrolled at the University of Ljubljana, where he studied French language and literature.[10]
In 1928, he became the chief editor of the journal Križ na Gori, which changed its name to Križ (Cross). He remained active in the Catholic youth movement. During this time, he also published his first poems in the prominent Catholic cultural magazine Dom in svet.[13]
Between 1928 and 1929, he stayed a year in
Upon returning to Yugoslavia and finishing his studies, he taught at elementary schools in Bjelovar in Croatia.[15]
In 1931, he received a scholarship to study in Lyon. He also visited Paris, where he met with the French thinker Emmanuel Mounier who introduced him to the personalist philosophy. For the rest of his life, Kocbek would maintain contacts with the circle around the French magazine Esprit, with which he felt the strongest intellectual affinity. Throughout his life, Kocbek maintained contacts with several French Christian left thinkers, most notably with the writer Jean-Marie Domenach.
After his return to Yugoslavia in 1932, he was transferred from Bjelovar to Varaždin, also in Croatia. He however maintained close contacts with Slovene intellectual circles. In 1935, he published his first collection of poems, Zemlja (Soil), a hymnic and modernist hommage to the stillness of the rural life. The same year, he married a Croat woman from Varaždin, Zdravka Koprivnjak.[16]
In 1936, he returned to Slovenia, where he was employed as professor of French language at the Bežigrad Grammar School.
Anti-Fascist resistance
In 1937, Kocbek wrote an article called "Reflections on Spain" (Premišljevanje o Španiji), in which he attacked the
In 1938, Kocbek founded a new journal, Dejanje (The Action), which soon emerged as one of the most influential journals in Slovenia.[18] Young poets such as Ivan Hribovšek gathered around Kocbek and published their work in Dejanje.[19]
Between 1937 and 1941, Kocbek maintained an ambiguous position towards
Shortly after the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, Kocbek was among the founders of the Liberation Front of the Slovene Nation as member of its Christian Socialist group.
After several months in underground during the Italian occupation, Kocbek joined the
Just before the end of
Removal from public life
In 1951, Kocbek published a volume of short stories, entitled "Fear and Courage" (Strah in pogum), in which he touched the issue of moral dilemmas in the Partisan fight during World War II. The Communist regime used the book as an excuse to launch a massive propaganda attack on his person, forcing him to completely withdraw to private life in 1952, placing him under surveillance until the end of his life. In the next decade, he was not allowed to appear in public, let alone publish his books or essays. During this time, he earned his living by translating. Among others, he translated works by
.In the years of his isolation, Kocbek turned almost exclusively to poetry, where he explored philosophical and ethical issues in a modernist style. After 1964, Kocbek was allowed some more public appearance, and many of his poems were allowed to be published for the first time after 1952. His later modernist poetry became an important source of inspiration for the young generations of Slovene authors, including such leading figures like Dominik Smole, Jože Snoj, Tomaž Šalamun, Marjan Rožanc, and many others.
The Zaliv Scandal
Following the 1975 Zaliv Scandal, the Communist regime launched another massive denigration campaign against him. The international pressure on Yugoslavia, especially the intervention of the German writer Heinrich Böll, was most probably the main element that protected Kocbek from judicial prosecution.[21] He died in Ljubljana in 1981 and was buried in the Žale cemetery.
Persecuted figure
After his removal from public life in 1952, Kocbek was under constant surveillance of the Yugoslav Secret Police, the
In 1976, two of his closest friends, Viktor Blažič and Franc Miklavčič, were arrested and placed on trial for belonging to "Kocbek's secret circle." Kocbek himself, however, was never arrested, although he was interrogated by the secret police several times. Several of his personal files were stolen and were never recovered, and his apartment was wired. In the mid-1970s, during a renovation of their apartment, Kocbek's son Jurij Kocbek discovered a microphone hidden in the wall. Kocbek wrote a famous poem for the occasion, entitled A Microphone in the Wall (Mikrofon v zidu), in which he poetically juxtaposed technology to human activity.
Personal life
Kocbek was married and had three children. His daughter Lučka died in 1973 at the age of 34 because of a
In addition to Slovene, Kocbek was fluent in German, French, and Serbo-Croatian, and knew Latin and ancient Greek.
Legacy and commemoration
In the 1980s, and especially in the 1990s, Kocbek's literary oeuvre became highly praised, and his role as a writer was positively re-assessed. In 1998, a street in Ljubljana's
In 2004, the centenary of Kocbek's birth was celebrated with many events, culminating in an official state celebration with the Slovenian Prime Minister
Works
Poetry
- Zemlja ("Earth". Ljubljana: Nova založba, 1934).
- Groza ("Dread". Ljubljana: Slovenska matica, 1963).
- Poročilo: pesmi ("Report: Poems"; Maribor: Založba Obzorja, 1969).
- Žerjavica ("Embers". Trieste: Založništvo tržaškega tiska, 1974).
- Zbrane pesmi ("Collected Poems". Ljubljana: Cankarjeva zalozba, 1977).
Prose
- Strah in pogum: štiri novele ("Fear and Courage: Four Short Stories". Ljubljana: Državna založba Slovenije, 1951).
Essays and diaries
- Tovarišija: dnevniški zapiski od 17. maja 1942 do 1. maja 1943 ("The Comradeship: Diary Entries from 17th May 1942 to 1st May 1943". Ljubljana: Državna založba Slovenije, 1949).
- Slovensko poslanstvo : dnevnik s poti v Jajce 1943 ("The Slovene Mission: Diary from the Journey to Jajce, 1943". Celje: Mohorjeva družba, 1964).
- Listina : dnevniški zapiski od 3. maja do 2. decembra 1943 ("The Document: Diary Entries from 3rd May to 2nd December 1943." Ljubljana: Slovenska matica, 1967).
- Eros in seksus ("Eros and Sexuality". Ljubljana: Naše tromostovje, 1970), with a preface by Franc Rode.
- Svoboda in nujnost: pričevanja ("Freedom and Necessity: Testimonies". Celje: Mohorjeva družba, 1974), with a preface by France Vodnik.
- Krogi navznoter ("Inside Circles". Ljubljana: Slovenska matica, 1977).
- Pred viharjem ("Before the Storm". Ljubljana: Slovenska matica, 1980), with a preface by Janez Gradišnik.
- Sodobni misleci ("Contemporary Thinkers". Ljubljana: Slovenska matica, 1981), with a preface by Janez Gradišnik.
Translations to English
- The Lipizzaners (poetry) (Ljubljana: Association of Slovene Writers, 1989).
- Na vratih zvečer = At the Door at Evening (poetry) (Dorion, Quebec & Ljubljana: The Muses' Co., Aleph, 1990).
- Embers in the house of night : selected poems of Edvard Kocbek (Santa Fe, New Mexico: Lumen, 1999).
- Nothing Is Lost: Selected Poems (Princeton, Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2004).
Further reading
- Viktor Blažič and Niko Grafenauer, eds., Krogi navznoter, krogi navzven : Kocbekov zbornik (Ljubljana: Nova revija, 2004). (in Slovene)
- Janez Gradišnik, ed., Človek je utihnil: spominu Edvarda Kocbeka (Celje: Mohorjeva družba, 1983).(in Slovene)
- Spomenka Hribar, Edvard Kocbek in Križarsko gibanje (Maribor: Obzorja, 1990). (in Slovene)
- Spomenka Hribar, Svetotvornost poezije : hierofanija v poeziji Edvarda Kocbeka (Ljubljana: Nova revija, 2002). (in Slovene)
- Andrej Inkret, In stoletje bo zardelo. Kocbek, življenje in delo (Ljubljana: Založba Modrijan, 2011). (in Slovene)
- Peter Kersche, Literatur und Engagement (Klagenfurt: Kitab, 2004). (in German)
- Franc Miklavčič, Edvard Kocbek - mislec in videc prihodnjih reči (Ljubljana: ZZB NOB, 1997). (in Slovene)
- Igor Omerza, Edvard Kocbek – osebni dosje št. 584 (Ljubljana: Založba Karantanija, 2010). (in Slovene)
- Boris Pahor, La lirica di Edoardo Kocbek (Padua: Padova University Press, 2010). (in Italian)
- Dimitrij Rupel, ed., Kocbekov zbornik (Maribor: Obzorja, 1987). (in Slovene)
- Joanna Sławińska, Poetycka kosmogonia Edvarda Kocbeka (Kraków: Universitas, 1993). (in Polish)
- John Taylor, "A Generous and Courageous Lucidity" In: Into the Heart of European Poetry (New Brunswick, NJ: Transactions, 2009).
See also
- Slovenian literature
- History of Slovenia
References
- ^ "Predsednik Vlade Republike Slovenije". Archived from the original on 10 June 2011. Retrieved 21 January 2009.
- ^ Geburts- und Tauf-Buch. Sv. Jurij ob Ščavnici. 1891–1905. p. 360. Retrieved 27 September 2023.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Andrej Inkret, In stoletje bo zardelo (Ljubljana: Modrijan, 2011), 18
- ^ Andrej Inkret, In stoletje bo zardelo (Ljubljana: Modrijan, 2011), 18–19
- ^ Andrej Inkret, In stoletje bo zardelo (Ljubljana: Modrijan, 2011), 19
- ^ Andrej Inkret, In stoletje bo zardelo (Ljubljana: Modrijan, 2011), 21–22
- ^ a b c d e Andrej Inkret, In stoletje bo zardelo (Ljubljana: Modrijan, 2011), 23
- ^ Andrej Inkret, In stoletje bo zardelo (Ljubljana: Modrijan, 2011), 28
- ^ Andrej Inkret, In stoletje bo zardelo (Ljubljana: Modrijan, 2011), 26
- ^ a b Andrej Inkret, In stoletje bo zardelo (Ljubljana: Modrijan, 2011), 26–27
- ^ Andrej Inkret, In stoletje bo zardelo (Ljubljana: Modrijan, 2011), 29–35
- ^ Andrej Inkret, In stoletje bo zardelo (Ljubljana: Modrijan, 2011), 29
- ^ Andrej Inkret, In stoletje bo zardelo (Ljubljana: Modrijan, 2011), 38
- ^ Andrej Inkret, In stoletje bo zardelo (Ljubljana: Modrijan, 2011), 40
- ISSN 0044-3441.
- ^ Andrej Inkret, In stoletje bo zardelo (Ljubljana: Modrijan, 2011), 63
- ^ "Domov | ZRC SAZU". zalozba.zrc-sazu.si. Archived from the original on 26 July 2011.
- ^ Andrej Inkret, In stoletje bo zardelo (Ljubljana: Modrijan, 2011), 108–111
- ^ Dolgan, Marjan; Fridl, Jerneja; Volk, Manca (2014). Literarni atlas Ljubljane. Zgode in nezgode 94 slovenskih književnikov v Ljubljani. Ljubljana: ZRC SAZU. p. 80.
- ^ Andrej Inkret, In stoletje bo zardelo (Ljubljana: Modrijan, 2011), 110–112
- ^ Detela, L; Kersche, P. (2004): Kocbek Edvard: Literatur und Engagement Archived 12 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine, Kitab, Wien
- ^ ISSN 1854-6544.
- ^ Andrej Inkret, In stoletje bo zardelo (Ljubljana: Modrijan, 2011), 483
- ^ "Uradni list - Vsebina Uradnega lista".
- ^ "KOCBEKOVA ULICA 52C 3000 CELJE - iskanje na zemljevidu najdi.si".
- ^ ISSN 1581-372X.
- ^ Janežič, Rok (2001). "Tivoli urejen za slepe in slabovidne - a zgolj začasno" [Tivoli Adapted for the Blind and Visually-Impaired – but Only Temporarily] (PDF). Pika - Glasilo medobčinskega društva slepih in slabovidnih Ljubljana (in Slovenian). 5 (8). The Inter-Municipal Society of the Blind and Visually-Impaired Ljubljana.