Slovenian poetry: between elegy and serenity

January 18, 2006 After a few centuries of various stages of written culture (starting in the 10th century with the oldest written document in any of the Slavonic languages), circumvented by the Renaissance but significantly marked by Protestantism (Primož Trubar /1508-1586/ and the first translation of the Bible into Slovenian /1584/ by Jurij Dalmatin/)- which in the mid-16th century placed in the hands of the Slovenes the fundamentals of the literary language - Slovenian poetry as individual lyrical expression emerged only as late as the beginning of the 19th century – with Romanticism. The advent of artistic poetry – particularly in the light of the formerly highly predominant folk and religious poetry – was very potent, not only in terms of depth, but also of genre. Slovenian poetry, naturally, was influenced by the European environment and tradition; the encouragement was in fact double: the nearby Germanic world contributed the global spirit of Romanticism, while the slightly more distant Romance literature, along with the tradition of the Renaissance, offered a rich variety of lyrical forms. Slovenian Romanticism combined the two into an original cultural expression, which can be considered the "entrance ticket" for Slovenian literature into the European literary arena. The key personality of the belated Slovenian “Renaissance” was a poet who in his time rose high above all others: France Prešeren (1800-1849). Still today, he is considered to be the most important Slovenian poet and a man of letters in general; his work – in accordance with the “spring” of certain other smaller European nations – was not only artistically supreme, but also had a role in the constitution of the Slovenian nation as such. This is why Prešeren has the same significance for the Slovenes as Mickiewicz for the Poles, Pushkin for the Russians, Dante for the Italians or Shakespeare for the British.


Regarding the links with the European literary streams, Slovenian poetry has, for the last 150 years, fared better than prose or drama. The age of Realism, elsewhere in Europe marked by great novels, produced no comparable works in Slovenia; by contrast, the new Romanticism, which in other countries as well soared the highest on the wings of poetry, fid find suitable expression in Slovenian poetry: the impressionist (Josip Murn /1879-1901/), symbolist (Oton Župancic / 1878-1949/) and later expressionist styles (Alojz Gradnik /1882-1962/, Srecko Kosovel /1904-1926/, Edvard Kocbek /1904-1981/, Božo Vodušek /1905-1978/, Lojze Krakar /1926-1995/ and others) gave birth to poetic masterpieces of the first half of the 20th century. In addition, Slovenian poetry found its place in the historical avant-garde of the twenties (Anton Podbevšek /1898-1981/, Srecko Kosovel 1904-1926) as well as in the post-war ultra-modernism – despite the ideologically tainted conservatism, originally of the Catholic, and later of the Socialist type. Or because of them! When Slovenian literature in general was not on a friendly footing with the official canons, the clash usually happened in the freshly turned land of poetry.


The late fifties witnessed the advent of poets – literary periodicals made it possible to speak of them as a group, if not as a unified poetic program – who penetrated ever deeper than into privacy: their poetry touched upon fundamental existential issues. The phenomenon was definitely related to European existentialism. It represented the revolt against the social project instrumentalising humaneness which – in the name of ideology – was taking over the existential space. The topical feeling of dehumanization was coupled by memories of war horrors; the poets had experienced war as children. This is why the poetic images of their poetry are expressionistic and surrealist, which means that the work of this poetic generation started severing the ties with the up-to-then relatively traditionalist poetic expression: the classical verse was becoming freer, and the disharmonious perception of the world affected the poetic form. The authorities decided not to persecute the poets and their poetry directly, but – for the time being – prevented their publication. This poetry, which is best defined as existentialist, left the deepest trace in post-war Slovenian poetry. Poets like Jože Udovic /1912-1986/, Dane Zajc /1929/, Gregor Strniša /1930-1970/, Kajetan Kovic /1931/, Veno Taufer /1933/, Saša Vegri /1934/, Niko Grafenauer /1940/, and Svetlana Makarovic /1939/, all belong to this generation.


In the late sixties and throughout the seventies poetry had broken with the described poetic tradition and set a new poetic law, according to which Slovenian poetry (no longer) has any other national-cultural role but to be “pure” poetry. Tomaž Šalamun (1941) and Iztok Geister Plamen (1945) were the leading protagonists. They managed to heal the poetic generations that succeeded them both of elegy as well as of revoltism. One of them, Šalamun, had many followers; nowadays, he is the most widely translated Slovenian poet, especially in the Anglo-Saxon world. The other representatives of the above-mentioned stream present their variations of the avant-garde attack on language, tradition and “good taste: Ivo Svetina (1948), Milan Jesih (1950), and Ifigenija Zagoricnik Simonovic (1953).


In the last twenty years poetry has therefore been able to concentrate on itself. The development is taking various turns, and not all of them can be classified as yet. However, one thing seems to be clear: on the one hand, Slovenian poetry has taken over the achievements of modernism, and on the other accepted the incentives of post-modernism. This is the historical framework, in which we can discern quite obvious individual poetics. Some poets have stepped out of the shadow, others emerged anew. Among the former are undoubtedly Niko Grafenauer (1940), Milan Dekleva (1946), Jure Detela (1951-1992), and Vladimir Memon (1953-1980): they have combined the accomplishments of modernism with early signs of post-modernism in Slovenia. They roam the territory in between the stage of philosophical ontology, and melancholically rummage among the remnants of metaphysics. Slightly younger poets, notably Iztok Osojnik (1951), Boris A. Novak (1953), Jure Potokar (1956), Brane Mozetic (1958), and Maja Vidmar (1961) have based their creativity on different traditions.

In the intensive creativity of the last two generations the poetry of Aleš Debeljak (1961), Alojz Ihan (1961), Uroš Zupan (1963) and Aleš Šteger (1973) could be observed in the post-modernist context. In general, it could be said that Slovenian poetry now again tends towards serenity rather than elegy. And the poetry of the youngest poets Peter Semolic (1967), Taja Kramberger (1970), Tone Škrjanec (1953), Primož Cucnik (1971) and Gregor Podlogar (1974) show that two hundred years of artistic flame does not show any signs of dying out at the beginning of the new millennium.