Jože Javoršek

Jože Javoršek a adăugat o fotografie

acum 8 ore

R.I.P
Jože

Jože Javoršek was the pen name of Jože Brejc (October 20, 1920 – September 2, 1990), a Slovenian playwright, writer, poet, translator and essayist. He is regarded as one of the greatest masters of style and language among Slovene authors. A complex thinker and controversial personality, Javoršek is frequently considered, together with the writer Vitomil Zupan, as the paradigmatic example of the World War II and postwar generation of Slovene intellectuals.

Jože Javoršek a publicat o actualizare

acum 8 ore

Life Javoršek was born as Jože Brejc in the small Lower Carniolan town of Velike Lašče, in what was then the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. He studied comparative literature at the University of Ljubljana. During his student years, he became involved with Slovenian Christian Socialist groups, where he met the poet and thinker Edvard Kocbek. Kocbek had a huge influence on Javoršek, encouraging him to pursue a literary career. During World War II, Javoršek joined the Partisan resistance, where he fought alongside the later philosopher and literary critic Dušan Pirjevec and the writer Vitomil Zupan. It was during his underground activity in the Italian-ruled Province of Ljubljana that he adopted the pseudonym Jože Javoršek. After the end of the War in 1945, he worked as the personal secretary of Edvard Kocbek, who was appointed Minister for Slovenia in the Yugoslav government. He continued his studies at the French Sorbonne and shortly worked as assistant at the Yugoslav embassy in Paris. In the French capital, he frequented the circles of French left-wing intellectuals; among others, he became acquainted with Albert Camus, and established a close friendship with Louis Guilloux, Gérard Philipe, and Marcel Schneider. He returned to Slovenia in…Citește mai mult

Jože Javoršek a publicat o actualizare

acum 8 ore

Work Javoršek wrote poetry, plays, novels and essays. He started as a poet. Already as a teenager, he published several poems in the left-wing Slovenian magazines of the time, such as Mladina and Kocbek's Dejanje. After World War II, a collection of his wartime poems, entitled Partizanska lirika ("Partisan Lyrics"), was issued in 1947. After his experience in jail, he turned mostly to plays, essays and prose. During his lifetime, he published another collection of poems under the title Usoda poezije ("The Fate of Poetry", 1972), which he himself edited with extensive critical and biographical commentary. Javoršek gained recognition foremost as a playwright. His early plays, based on existential concerns, but filled with irony, playfulness and artistic use of language games, largely contributed to the modernization of the Slovene theatre in the 1950s. In his plays, he was critical towards the established political powers and social conformism. He wrote several novels, the most notable being Hvalnica zemlji ("An Ode to the Earth", 1971) and Nevarna razmerja ("Dangerous Liaisons", 1978). But it was in his essays and memoirs that he gained most recognition and also caused most controversy. One of the first essayistic works that made him famous to the wider…Citește mai mult

Jože Javoršek a publicat o actualizare

acum 8 ore

Personality During his lifetime, Javoršek was considered a controversial and unique personality. His dubious relationship with the establishment, as well as his sometimes extremely acrimonious attacks on the contemporary literary circles, both Slovene and French, gained him the nickname The Lonely Rider. His last work, "Memories of the Slovenes", published partly posthumously in three parts, created a controversy and shed a new light on the Slovene literary and cultural scene of the War and Postwar period. Among the several scabrous details described by Javoršek in the copious work, are the misdeeds of the influential thinker Dušan Pirjevec Ahac allegedly perpetrated during the war resistance, as well as the conduct of notable personalities such as the literary critic Josip Vidmar and the poet Edvard Kocbek, for whom Javoršek worked as a personal secretary. The work also includes details about the personal lives of Slovenian Communist leaders Edvard Kardelj and Boris Kidrič. Despite his negative experience in jail, Javoršek remained a convinced supporter of Socialism. Although he started as a Christian Socialist, he later rejected Christianity, as can be seen from his writings, and embraced a nietzschean style of vitalism and skepticism. Javoršek regarded himself as being primarily a theater manager and…Citește mai mult

Jože Javoršek a publicat o actualizare

acum 8 ore

If Shakespeare had been a slightly more important person during his lifetime, at least as important as Ben Jonson, history would have provided us with more details about his life. But Shakespeare was not at the top of the social ladder, he was little more than a parasite of contemporary magnates. Nor did he belong to the great minds of his time. He was too uneducated to achieve such a position, as it is known. The romantic ideas according to which Shakespeare was a great wit, a great historian or a great thinker, are nowadays completely rejected […]. Today, it is evident that Shakespeare was first of all a true dodger of his era. He used the various materials from history or from the contemporary circumstances in England to create attractive theatrical masterpieces. First of all, we have to understand that Shakespeare never thought of theatre as literature. The theatre was a dangerous and slightly indecent institution, which every respectful and truly honored member of the society would rather avoid.

Jože Javoršek a publicat o actualizare

acum 8 ore

Influence and legacy Although he tried to avoid direct clashes with the Communist establishment after his release from jail, Javoršek was one of the main driving force behind the establishment of the Stage '57, an alternative theatre created in 1957 by the younger generations of Slovene artists, which had a crucial role in shaping their generation against the pressures of the repressive cultural policies of the Communist regime. Already during his lifetime, he gained recognition in other parts of Yugoslavia, especially in Serbia. Some consider him to be one of the best essayists in Slovene, together with Ivan Cankar, Marjan Rožanc and Drago Jančar. His book La Memoire Dangereuse, published in the 1980s by the French publishing house Arléa, gained him an important recognition beyond Yugoslav borders. The book has been translated also to German and Serbo-Croatian.

Jože Javoršek a publicat o actualizare

acum 8 ore

Personal life Javoršek's first wife died while he was in prison. Their only son, Svit, committed suicide in 1969, at the age of 23. He later married the translator Marija Kiauta.

Jože Javoršek a publicat o actualizare

acum 8 ore

Essays Srečanja ("Encounters", 1958) Okus sveta ("The Flavour of the World", 1961) Indija Koromandija ("The Neverland", 1962) Vodnik po Ljubljani ("A Guide to Ljubljana", 1965) Shakespeare in politika ("Shakespeare and Politics", 1965) Kako je mogoče? ("How Is It Possible", 1969) Esej o Molieru ("An Essay on Molière", 1974) Primož Trubar (1977) Lili Novy (1984) La Memoire Dangereuse ("The Dangerous Memory", 1987) Spomini na Slovence ("Memories of the Slovenes", 1989)

Jože Javoršek a publicat o actualizare

acum 8 ore

Sources Jože Horvat, "Umrl je Jože Javoršek" in Delo, yr.32, n.206 (November 4, 1990), 1. Milenko Karan, "Nasprotnika ni nikoli doživljal kot sovražnika" in Delo, yr.32, n.238 (October 11, 1990), 14. Jože Kastelic, Jože Brejc (Jože Javoršek) (Ljubljana: Literarni klub, 1999). Dušan Mevlja, "Jože Javoršek: in memoriam" in Večer, yr. 46, n.207 (September 5, 1990), 15. Aleksij Pregarc, "Jože Javoršek: in memoriam" in Primorski dnevnik, yr.46, n.203 (September 9, 1990), 17. Barbara Rančigaj, Jože Javoršek in drama absurda (Ljubljana: Filozofska fakulteta Univerze v Ljubljani, 2004). Jože Šifrer, "Jože Javoršek" in Delo, yr.32, n.208 (September 6, 1990), 7. Slobodan Selenić, "Jože Javoršek" in Scena: časopis za pozorišnu umetnost (Belgrade, 1990). Franc Zadravec, Jože Javoršek: Nevarna razmerja. Slovenski roman dvajsetega stoletja (Ljubljana: Znanstveni inštitut Filozofske fakultete, 1997–2002). Ciril Zlobec, "Samotni jezdec Javoršek: v spomin" in Dnevnik, yr. 38, n.243 (September 6, 1990), 8. Ivan Zoran, "Odšel je samotni jezdec" in Dolenjski list, yr.41, n.37 (September 13, 1990).