Vitomil Zupan
Vitomil Zupan | |
---|---|
Born | Ljubljana, Duchy of Carniola, Austria-Hungary (now in Slovenia) | 18 January 1914
Died | 14 May 1987 Ljubljana, Slovenia, Yugoslavia | (aged 73)
Occupation | Writer, playwright, poet, screenwriter |
Nationality | Slovenian |
Notable works | Menuet za kitaro, Komedija človeškega tkiva, Levitan, Igra s hudičevim repom |
Children | Dim Zupan |
Vitomil Zupan (18 January 1914 – 14 May 1987) was a post-
Life
Zupan was born in
After the
After the capitulation of Italy, in 1943 he joined the Slovene Partisans, first in combat units and soon after in the cultural unit, where he was assigned to write resistance propaganda theater plays.[4] After World War II, until 1947, when he fully dedicated himself to writing, he served at Radio Ljubljana as the cultural program's chief editor. For his novel Rojstvo v nevihti (Birth in a Storm) he was awarded his first Prešeren Award the same year. He married Nikolaja Dolenc and they had two sons, Dim Zupan and Martel Zupan;[3] however, after the Tito–Stalin split in 1948, he was accused of anti-government conspiracy, spying, antipatriotic activity, immoral acts, murder, and attempted rape, and was sentenced in a show trial to almost twenty years in prison. He was released in 1955 and his two sons lived without their father, similar to his own childhood. He graduated from the University of Ljubljana in 1958.[4]
He published his works for several years only under a pseudonym and was again able to publish under his name again from the 1960s onward. His best-known novel, Menuet za kitaro (Minuet for Guitar), was adapted by the Serbian director Živojin Pavlović for his 1980 film See You in the Next War (Slovene: Nasvidenje v naslednji vojni, Serbian: Doviđenja u sledećem ratu) and Zupan received his second Prešeren Award—this time for lifetime achievement.
Zupan died in Ljubljana in 1987 and is buried in the Žale cemetery.
Work
Vitomil Zupan is best known for his semi-autobiographical novels centered on the quest of an individual for his identity in the modern world. He gave an idiosyncratic description of the years he spent with the Slovene Partisans in his 1975 novel Menuet za kitaro (Minuet for Guitar), described the ruthless environments in repressive institutions, such as the army and the prison in the 1982 novel Levitan, and described the period before and during World War II in the third part of his trilogy, Komedija človeškega tkiva (A Comedy of Human Tissue).
In the 1978 novel Igra s hudičevim repom (A Game with the Devil's Tail), he wrote about a middle-aged man who becomes involved in a sexual affair with his housekeeper, filled with depictions of sexuality and the banality of everyday life, because of which he was accused of pornography. However, his novels were also filled with philosophical and cultural references, and he wrote poetry, most of which remained unpublished during his lifetime. A collection of Zupan's poetry from his prison years was first published in 2006 and revived interest in Zupan's literary legacy.
He also wrote the children's book Potovanje v tisočera mesta (Travelling to a Thousand Cities; NIP "Kosmos", 1956).
Reception and legacy
The Yugoslav critics were part of official Titoist nomenclature, and rejected his bohemian style and freethinking attitude and accused his writings of being decadent, cynical, and a glorification of evil, amorality, and nihilism.
Alternative Slovene writers and literary thinkers, such as
Selected bibliography
- Rojstvo v nevihti (1943). Birth in a Storm
- Potovanje na konec pomladi (1972). Journey to the End of Spring
- Bele rakete lete na Amsterdam (1973). White Rockets Fly to Amsterdam
- Klement (1974)
- Menuet za kitaro: Na petindvajset strelov (1975). Minuet for Guitar (in Twenty-Five Shots), trans. Harry Leeming (Dalkey Archive, 2011)
- Igra s hudičevim repom (1978). A Game with the Devil's Tail
- Komedija človeškega tkiva (1980). A Comedy of Human Tissue
- Levitan (1982)
- Potovanje v tisočera mesta (1983). Travelling to a Thousand Cities
- Apokalipsa vsakdanjosti (1988). Apocalypse of the Everyday
References
- ^ Marcel Štefančič, Jr. (2013). Maškerada, Kino Dvor, 17. 10. 2013
- ^ Zdenko Vrdlovec: Recenzija dela Maškarada, Dnevnik, 9 November 2013
- ^ a b c d Vitomil Zupan, lovec na izkušnje, Delo, 18 January 2014
- ^ a b c Stanko Janež (1971). Živan Milisavac (ed.). Jugoslovenski književni leksikon [Yugoslav Literary Lexicon] (in Serbo-Croatian). Novi Sad (SAP Vojvodina, SR Serbia): Matica srpska. p. 590.
Notes
Sources
- "Interview with Taras Kermauner on Slovenian National TV (February 3, 2008)". RTV SLO. Archived from the original on 11 April 2008. Retrieved 18 April 2008.
- "Vitomil Zupan: Stvar Jurija Trajbasa". Absolventi PefMB. Retrieved 18 April 2008.
- Vesna Milek, "Pesmi zoper smrt: portret Vitomila Zupana" in Delo 48(114) (20 May 2006): 26–28.
- Bernard Nežmah, "Vitomil Zupan, Levitan: ponatis legendarnega dela iz leta 1982" in Mladina (13 May 2002): 81.
- Alenka Puhar, "Pesmi starega restanta: Zupanovo zbrano zaporniško delo" in Delo 48(111) (17 May 2006): 15.
- Slovenska matica, 1983).
Further reading
- Andrej Inkret, "Zupan, Vitomil", article in Enciklopedija Slovenije, vol. 15 (Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, 2001), 235–236.
- Janko Kos et al., Interpretacije: Vitomil Zupan (Ljubljana: Nova revija, 1993)
- Vlado Žabot, Estetski vidiki v Zupanovem Levitanu (Ljubljana: Univerza v Ljubljani, 1986).