Edvard Kocbek
Encyclopedia
Edvard Kocbek (27 September 1904–3 November 1981) was a Slovenia
n poet
, writer
, essayist, translator
, political activist, and resistance fighter
. He is considered as one of the best authors who have written in Slovene, and one of the best Slovene poets after Prešeren. His political role during and after World War II
made him one of the most controversial figures in Slovenia in the 20th century.
area, while his mother Matilda, née Plohl was from the neighboring village of Sveti Tomaž
in the Prlekija
Hills. The couple moved to Sveti Jurij, where Valentin Kocbek worked as an organist
in the local Roman Catholic church. Edvard was the second of four children.
He attended the German-language
high school in Maribor
, where he witnessed with enthusiasm the takeover of the town by the Slovene volunteers led by general Rudolf Maister
. He later switched to the Slovene language high school in Ptuj
. During his stay in Ptuj, he befriended the later editor and priest Stanko Cajnkar and dramatist Ivan Mrak. His Slovene language teacher was Anton Sovre, the most prominent classical philologist and translator from Greek in Slovenia between the two world wars. Sovre was the first to discover Kocbek's literary talent and encourage him to write and to participate in the dramatic circle. He also developed an early passion for French language
and culture. During the same period, he became active in the Catholic athletic club Orel
.
in Maribor; he was the first generation of students who took their courses entirely in Slovene (before that, courses were still partially taught in German). During his high school years in Maribor, he joined a group of young Christian socialists who wanted to continue the legacy of both the Slovene Christian socialist political activist and thinker Janez Evangelist Krek
, and the Social democratic author Ivan Cankar
. This young Catholic movement was inspired by the German Catholic theologian and philosopher Romano Guardini
. They strove for a more authentic liturgy and religiosity, which would base on the believer's personal relationship with God; they rejected clericalism
, social conservativism and capitalism
, and demanded the development of a new social order, based on an ethically renewed individual. The group became eventually known as the "Crusaders" (in Slovene: križarji), after the journal Križ na gori ("Cross on the Mountain"), edited by the poet Anton Vodnik
, who became one of the spiritual leaders of the group.
In 1925, Kocbek graduated from the Maribor gymnasium and went to a long excursion through Italy
together with his close friend Pino Mlakar
. 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
.
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
.
Between 1928 and 1929, he stayed a year in Berlin
, where he frequented courses by Romano Guardini at the Humboldt University
. There, he also established contacts with the local leftist, especially Marxist subculure.
Upon returning to Yugoslavia
and finishing his studies, he taught at elementary schools in Bjelovar
in Croatia
.
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 hymnical and modernist hommage to the stillness of the rural life. The same year, he married a Croat
woman from Varaždin, Zdravka Koprivnjak.
In 1936, he returned to Slovenia, where he was employed as professor of French language at the prestigious Bežigrad Grammar School
.
clergy who supported the pro-Fascist forces of general Francisco Franco
in the Spanish civil war
. The article, published in the liberal Catholic magazine Dom in svet
, caused a scandal among Slovene Catholics, which reached its height by the condemnation of Kocbek's positions by the bishop of Ljubljana, Gregorij Rožman
. As a consequence, Kocbek became the referential figure on the Christian left
in Slovenia.
In 1938, Kocbek founded a new journal, Dejanje (The Action), which soon emerged as one of the most influential journals in Slovenia.
Between 1937 and 1941, Kocbek maintained an ambiguous position towards Communism
: on the one hand, he rejected both "left and right totalitarianism
", on the other he maintained contacts with both Slovene Communists and the left liberal intellectuals around the journals Sodobnost
and Ljubljanski zvon
, in an attempt to establish a popular front
against the Fascist threat.
Shortly after the Axis
invasion of Yugoslavia
in April 1941, Kocbek was among the founders of the Liberation Front of the Slovenian People
. After several months in underground during the Italian occupation, Kocbek joined the Partisan forces. In 1943, he agreed to dissolve the Christian Socialist group within the Liberation Front and recognized the absolute primacy of the Communist Party of Slovenia within the resistance movement.
Just before the end of World War II
, he was nominated as Minister for Slovenia in the interim Yugoslav
government led by Josip Broz Tito
. After the end of the war, he continued was given several other functions within the new Communist regime, all of them without any real power.
, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
, and Max Frisch
.
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.
, edited by Kocbek's friends Boris Pahor
and Alojz Rebula
, published an interview with Kocbek. In the interview, Kocbek condemned the mass summary killings of 12,000 Slovene anti-Communist militiamen (members of the collaborationist Slovene Home Guard), perpetrated by the Communists after the end of World War II. As a consequence, 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. He died in Ljubljana in 1981 and was buried in the Žale
cemetery.
. His personal file (under the number 584), written from 1944 to 1981, has 4,268 pages of reports. Sixty-nine secret police officials followed Kocbek between 1952 and 1981. Many of Kocbek's close friends were hired by the police to spy on him: the most reports were written by the essayist Jože Javoršek
.
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.
In addition to Slovene, Kocbek was fluent in German, French, and Serbo-Croatian, and knew Latin and ancient Greek.
district was named after him, In 2005, the centenary of his birth was celebrated with many events, culminating in an official state celebration with the Slovenian Prime Minister Anton Rop
as the main speaker. The same year, a monument was erected to him in Tivoli Park
in Ljubljana.
A street in Celje
is also named after him.
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
n poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, essayist, translator
Translation
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...
, political activist, and resistance fighter
Resistance during World War II
Resistance movements during World War II occurred in every occupied country by a variety of means, ranging from non-cooperation, disinformation and propaganda to hiding crashed pilots and even to outright warfare and the recapturing of towns...
. He is considered as one of the best authors who have written in Slovene, and one of the best Slovene poets after Prešeren. His political role during and after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
made him one of the most controversial figures in Slovenia in the 20th century.
Early life and school
Kocbek was born in the village of Sveti Jurij ob Ščavnici in the Duchy of Styria, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, now in Slovenia. His father Valentin Kocbek was originally from the nearby Slovenske goriceSlovenske gorice
Slovenske gorice with an area of 1017 km2 is the largest hilly region of Slovenia, a smaller part is located in the Austrian province of Styria...
area, while his mother Matilda, née Plohl was from the neighboring village of Sveti Tomaž
Sveti Tomaž
Sveti Tomaž is a settlement and municipality in northeastern Slovenia. It lies in the Prlekija hills and was until 2006 part of the Ormož municipality. The area traditionally belonged to the region of Styria. It is now included in the Podravska statistical region...
in the Prlekija
Prlekija
Prlekija is a region in northeastern Slovenia between the Drava and Mura rivers. It comprises the eastern part of the Slovenian Hills , stretching from the border with Austria to the border with Croatia. It is part of the traditional province of Lower Styria. Together with the traditional province...
Hills. The couple moved to Sveti Jurij, where Valentin Kocbek worked as an organist
Organist
An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists...
in the local Roman Catholic church. Edvard was the second of four children.
He attended the German-language
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
high school in Maribor
Maribor
Maribor is the second largest city in Slovenia with 157,947 inhabitants . Maribor is also the largest and the capital city of Slovenian region Lower Styria and the seat of the Municipality of Maribor....
, where he witnessed with enthusiasm the takeover of the town by the Slovene volunteers led by general Rudolf Maister
Rudolf Maister
Rudolf Maister was a Slovene military officer, poet and political activist. The soldiers who fought under Maister's command in northern Slovenia became known as "Maister's fighters"...
. He later switched to the Slovene language high school in Ptuj
Ptuj
Ptuj is a city and one of 11 urban municipalities in Slovenia. Traditionally the area was part of the Lower Styria region. The municipality is now included in the Podravje statistical region...
. During his stay in Ptuj, he befriended the later editor and priest Stanko Cajnkar and dramatist Ivan Mrak. His Slovene language teacher was Anton Sovre, the most prominent classical philologist and translator from Greek in Slovenia between the two world wars. Sovre was the first to discover Kocbek's literary talent and encourage him to write and to participate in the dramatic circle. He also developed an early passion for French language
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and culture. During the same period, he became active in the Catholic athletic club Orel
Orel (movement)
The Orel movement is a Moravia-based Czech youth movement and gymnastics organization which emerged between 1902-1909 as Catholic Church-supported competitor of the nationalistic and therefore, in the local policical context, rather anti-Catholic organization Sokol.A similar organization with the...
.
Youthful activism
After graduating from the lower high school in Ptuj, he enrolled in the classical gymnasiumGymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
in Maribor; he was the first generation of students who took their courses entirely in Slovene (before that, courses were still partially taught in German). During his high school years in Maribor, he joined a group of young Christian socialists who wanted to continue the legacy of both the Slovene Christian socialist political activist and thinker Janez Evangelist Krek
Janez Evangelist Krek
Janez Evangelist Krek was a Slovene Christian Socialist politician, priest, journalist and author.He was born in a peasant family in the village of Sveti Gregor , in what was then the Austrian Empire. His father died when he was a child...
, and the Social democratic author Ivan Cankar
Ivan Cankar
Ivan Cankar was a Slovene writer, playwright, essayist, poet and political activist. Together with Oton Župančič, Dragotin Kette, and Josip Murn, he is considered as the beginner of modernism in Slovene literature...
. This young Catholic movement was inspired by the German Catholic theologian and philosopher Romano Guardini
Romano Guardini
Romano Guardini was a Catholic priest, author, and academic. He was one of the most important figures in Catholic intellectual life in 20th-century.- Life and work:...
. They strove for a more authentic liturgy and religiosity, which would base on the believer's personal relationship with God; they rejected clericalism
Clericalism
Clericalism is the application of the formal, church-based, leadership or opinion of ordained clergy in matters of either the church or broader political and sociocultural import...
, social conservativism and capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
, and demanded the development of a new social order, based on an ethically renewed individual. The group became eventually known as the "Crusaders" (in Slovene: križarji), after the journal Križ na gori ("Cross on the Mountain"), edited by the poet Anton Vodnik
Anton Vodnik
Anton Vodnik was a Slovenian poet, art historian, and critic. He was one of the most notable representatives of Slovene Catholic expressionism in the interwar period....
, who became one of the spiritual leaders of the group.
In 1925, Kocbek graduated from the Maribor gymnasium and went to a long excursion through Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
together with his close friend Pino Mlakar
Pino Mlakar
Pino Mlakar was a Slovenian ballet dancer, choreographer, and teacher. He was born in Novo MestoIn 1927 he graduated from the Rudolf Laban Choreographic Institute in Hamburg....
. Upon returning, he decided to enroll to the Maribor priest seminar; he however quit after two years and enrolled at the University of Ljubljana
University of Ljubljana
The University of Ljubljana is the oldest and largest university in Slovenia. With 64,000 enrolled graduate and postgraduate students, it is among the largest universities in Europe.-Beginnings:...
, where he studied French language
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and literature
French literature
French literature is, generally speaking, literature written in the French language, particularly by citizens of France; it may also refer to literature written by people living in France who speak traditional languages of France other than French. Literature written in French language, by citizens...
.
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
Dom in svet
Dom in svet was a Catholic cultural and literary journal in Slovenia, published from 1888 to 1943. Its long-running rivalry with the national-liberal journal Ljubljanski zvon was a major feature of Slovenian cultural life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; historian Péter Krasztev...
.
Between 1928 and 1929, he stayed a year in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, where he frequented courses by Romano Guardini at the Humboldt University
Humboldt University of Berlin
The Humboldt University of Berlin is Berlin's oldest university, founded in 1810 as the University of Berlin by the liberal Prussian educational reformer and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt, whose university model has strongly influenced other European and Western universities...
. There, he also established contacts with the local leftist, especially Marxist subculure.
Upon returning to Yugoslavia
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a state stretching from the Western Balkans to Central Europe which existed during the often-tumultuous interwar era of 1918–1941...
and finishing his studies, he taught at elementary schools in Bjelovar
Bjelovar
Bjelovar is a city in central Croatia. It is the administrative centre of Bjelovar-Bilogora County. During the 2001 census, there were 41,869 inhabitants, 90.51% which are Croats....
in Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
.
In 1931, he received a scholarship to study in Lyon
Lyon
Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....
. He also visited Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, where he met with the French thinker Emmanuel Mounier
Emmanuel Mounier
Emmanuel Mounier was a French philosopher.Mounier was the guiding spirit in the French Personalist movement, and founder and director of Esprit, the magazine which was the organ of the movement. Mounier, who was the child of peasants, was a brilliant scholar at the Sorbonne...
who introduced him to the personalist
Personalism
Personalism is a philosophical school of thought searching to describe the uniqueness of a human person in the world of nature, specifically in relation to animals...
philosophy. For the rest of his life, Kocbek would maintain contacts with the circle around the French magazine Esprit
Esprit (magazine)
Esprit is a French literary magazine. Founded in October 1932 by Emmanuel Mounier, it was the principal review of personalist intellectuals of the time. From 1957 to 1976, it was directed by Jean-Marie Domenach. Paul Thibaud directed it from 1977 to 1989. The philosopher Paul Ricoeur often...
, with which he felt the strongest intellectual affinity. Throughout his life, Kocbek maintained contacts with several French Christian left
Christian left
The Christian left is a term originating in the United States, used to describe a spectrum of left-wing Christian political and social movements which largely embraces social justice....
thinkers, most notably with the writer Jean-Marie Domenach
Jean-Marie Domenach
Jean-Marie Domenach was a French writer and intellectual. He was noted as a left-wing and Catholic thinker.He took over in 1957 the editorship of Esprit, the literary and political journal of personalism founded in 1945 by Emmanuel Mounier and continued from 1950 to 1957 by Albert Béguin...
.
After his return to Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
in 1932, he was transferred from Bjelovar to Varaždin
Varaždin
Varaždin is a city in north Croatia, north of Zagreb on the highway A4. The total population is 47,055, with 38,746 on of the city settlement itself . The centre of Varaždin county is located near the Drava river, at...
, also in Croatia. He however maintained close contacts with Slovene intellectual circles. In 1935, he published his first collection of poems, Zemlja (Soil), a hymnical and modernist hommage to the stillness of the rural life. The same year, he married a Croat
Croats
Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...
woman from Varaždin, Zdravka Koprivnjak.
In 1936, he returned to Slovenia, where he was employed as professor of French language at the prestigious Bežigrad Grammar School
Bežigrad Grammar School
Bežigrad Gymnasium is a selective coeducational state secondary school for students aged between 15 to 20. It is named after the Bežigrad district in Ljubljana, Slovenia, where it is located...
.
Political engagement
In 1937, Kocbek wrote an article called "Reflections on Spain" (Premišljevanje o Španiji), in which he attacked the SpanishSpain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
clergy who supported the pro-Fascist forces of general Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
in the Spanish civil war
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
. The article, published in the liberal Catholic magazine Dom in svet
Dom in svet
Dom in svet was a Catholic cultural and literary journal in Slovenia, published from 1888 to 1943. Its long-running rivalry with the national-liberal journal Ljubljanski zvon was a major feature of Slovenian cultural life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; historian Péter Krasztev...
, caused a scandal among Slovene Catholics, which reached its height by the condemnation of Kocbek's positions by the bishop of Ljubljana, Gregorij Rožman
Gregorij Rožman
Gregorij Rožman was a Slovenian Roman Catholic clergyman and theologian. Between 1930 and 1959, he served as bishop of the Diocese of Ljubljana. He is most famous for his controversial role during World War II...
. As a consequence, Kocbek became the referential figure on the Christian left
Christian left
The Christian left is a term originating in the United States, used to describe a spectrum of left-wing Christian political and social movements which largely embraces social justice....
in Slovenia.
In 1938, Kocbek founded a new journal, Dejanje (The Action), which soon emerged as one of the most influential journals in Slovenia.
Between 1937 and 1941, Kocbek maintained an ambiguous position towards Communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
: on the one hand, he rejected both "left and right totalitarianism
Totalitarianism
Totalitarianism is a political system where the state recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible...
", on the other he maintained contacts with both Slovene Communists and the left liberal intellectuals around the journals Sodobnost
Sodobnost
Sodobnost is a Slovenian literary and cultural magazine, established in 1933. It is considered the oldest of currently existing literary magazines in Slovenia. Although Sodobnost has traditionally been a magazine focused on cultural and literary issues, it nowadays covers a wide range of current...
and Ljubljanski zvon
Ljubljanski zvon
Ljubljanski zvon was a journal published in Ljubljana in Slovene between 1881 and 1941. It was considered one of the most prestigious literary and cultural magazines in Slovenia.- Early period :...
, in an attempt to establish a popular front
Popular front
A popular front is a broad coalition of different political groupings, often made up of leftists and centrists. Being very broad, they can sometimes include centrist and liberal forces as well as socialist and communist groups...
against the Fascist threat.
Shortly after the Axis
Axis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...
invasion of Yugoslavia
Invasion of Yugoslavia
The Invasion of Yugoslavia , also known as the April War , was the Axis Powers' attack on the Kingdom of Yugoslavia which began on 6 April 1941 during World War II...
in April 1941, Kocbek was among the founders of the Liberation Front of the Slovenian People
Liberation Front of the Slovenian People
On 26 April 1941 in Ljubljana the Anti-Imperialist Front was established. It was to promote "an international massive movement" to "liberate the Slovenian nation" whose "hope and example was the Soviet Union"...
. After several months in underground during the Italian occupation, Kocbek joined the Partisan forces. In 1943, he agreed to dissolve the Christian Socialist group within the Liberation Front and recognized the absolute primacy of the Communist Party of Slovenia within the resistance movement.
Just before the end of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, he was nominated as Minister for Slovenia in the interim Yugoslav
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
government led by Josip Broz Tito
Josip Broz Tito
Marshal Josip Broz Tito – 4 May 1980) was a Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman. While his presidency has been criticized as authoritarian, Tito was a popular public figure both in Yugoslavia and abroad, viewed as a unifying symbol for the nations of the Yugoslav federation...
. After the end of the war, he continued was given several other functions within the new Communist regime, all of them without any real power.
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 Balzac, Guy de MaupassantGuy de Maupassant
Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant was a popular 19th-century French writer, considered one of the fathers of the modern short story and one of the form's finest exponents....
, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry , officially Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, comte de Saint Exupéry , was a French writer, poet and pioneering aviator. He became a laureate of France's highest literary awards, and in 1939 was the winner of the U.S. National Book Award...
, and Max Frisch
Max Frisch
Max Rudolf Frisch was a Swiss playwright and novelist, regarded as highly representative of German-language literature after World War II. In his creative works Frisch paid particular attention to issues relating to problems of human identity, individuality, responsibility, morality and political...
.
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
Dominik Smole
Dominik Smole was a Slovenian writer and playwright.-Biography:Smole was born in Ljubljana in what was then the Kingdom of Yugoslavia...
, Jože Snoj
Jože Snoj
Jože Snoj is a Slovenian poet, novelist, journalist and essayist.He was born in Maribor, then part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, into a wealthy Slovene family. His uncle, Franc Snoj, was a prominent member of the Slovene People's Party and a minister in the Royal Yugoslav Government...
, Tomaž Šalamun
Tomaz Salamun
Tomaž Šalamun is a Slovenian poet. He was born in 1941 in Zagreb, Croatia, and raised in Koper, Slovenia. He has published 39 collections of poetry in his native Slovenian language. Šalamun spent two years at the University of Iowa Writer's Workshop in the 1970s and has lived for periods of time in...
, Marjan Rožanc
Marjan Rožanc
Marjan Rožanc was a Slovenian author, playwright and journalist. He is mostly known for his essays, and is considered one of the foremost essayists in the Slovene language, along with Ivan Cankar, Jože Javoršek and Drago Jančar, and as a great master of style.He was born in a working-class suborb...
, and many others.
Last years
In 1975, the Slovene language magazine Zaliv ("The Bay") from TriesteTrieste
Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...
, edited by Kocbek's friends Boris Pahor
Boris Pahor
Boris Pahor is a Slovene writer from Italy. He is considered to be one of the most influential living authors in the Slovene language and has been nominated for the Nobel prize for literature by the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts...
and Alojz Rebula
Alojz Rebula
Alojz Rebula is a Slovene writer, playwright, essayist and translator, who lives and works in the Province of Trieste, Italy. He is a member of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts.-Life:...
, published an interview with Kocbek. In the interview, Kocbek condemned the mass summary killings of 12,000 Slovene anti-Communist militiamen (members of the collaborationist Slovene Home Guard), perpetrated by the Communists after the end of World War II. As a consequence, the Communist regime launched another massive denigration campaign against him. The international pressure on Yugoslavia
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...
, especially the intervention of the German writer Heinrich Böll
Heinrich Böll
Heinrich Theodor Böll was one of Germany's foremost post-World War II writers. Böll was awarded the Georg Büchner Prize in 1967 and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1972.- Biography :...
, was most probably the main element that protected Kocbek from judicial prosecution. He died in Ljubljana in 1981 and was buried in the Žale
Žale
Žale Central cemetery , often abbreviated to Žale, is the largest and the central cemetery in Ljubljana. It is located in the Bežigrad district and operated by the Žale Public Company.- History :...
cemetery.
Persecuted figure
After his removal from public life in 1952, Kocbek was under constant surveillance of the Yugoslav Secret Police, the UDBAUDBA
The Department of State Security was the secret police organization of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.Although it operated with more restraint than other secret...
. His personal file (under the number 584), written from 1944 to 1981, has 4,268 pages of reports. Sixty-nine secret police officials followed Kocbek between 1952 and 1981. Many of Kocbek's close friends were hired by the police to spy on him: the most reports were written by the essayist Jože Javoršek
Jože Javoršek
Jože Javoršek was the pen name of Jože Brejc , a Slovenian playwright, writer, poet, translator and essayist. He is regarded as one of the greatest masters of style and language among Slovene authors...
.
In 1976, two of his closest friends, Viktor Blažič
Viktor Blažič
Viktor Blažič is a Slovenian journalist, essayist, translator and former anti-Communist dissident.He was born in the village of Smolenja vas near Novo Mesto in south-eastern Slovenia, then part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. In 1944, he joined the partisan resistance. After World...
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 cerebral hemorrhage. His older son Matjaž Kocbek (born 1946), became a renowned poet and art theorist, and his younger son Jurij Kocbek (1949-2009) was a photographer and graphic designer.In addition to Slovene, Kocbek was fluent in German, French, and Serbo-Croatian, and knew Latin and ancient Greek.
Legacy
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 BežigradBežigrad
The Bežigrad District or simply Bežigrad is a city district in the northern part of Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. It encompasses the area between the southern rail line to the south, the Upper Carniola rail line to the west, the highway loop to the north, and Šmartno Street and the Žale...
district was named after him, In 2005, the centenary of his birth was celebrated with many events, culminating in an official state celebration with the Slovenian Prime Minister Anton Rop
Anton Rop
Anton Rop is a Slovenian politician. He is currently a member of the National Assembly of Slovenia. He was the fourth Prime Minister of Slovenia, from 2002 to 2004. Until 2005 he was also the president of the Liberal Democratic Party , the legal successor of the Slovenian Association of Socialist...
as the main speaker. The same year, a monument was erected to him in Tivoli Park
Tivoli, Ljubljana
Tivoli Park is the largest park in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. It is located on the outskirts of the Center district, stretching to the Šiška district to the north, the Vič district to the south, and the Rožnik district to the west. The park was laid out during the French imperial...
in Ljubljana.
A street in Celje
Celje
Celje is a typical Central European town and the third largest town in Slovenia. It is a regional center of Lower Styria and the administrative seat of the Urban Municipality of Celje . The town of Celje is located under Upper Celje Castle at the confluence of the Savinja, Ložnica, and Voglajna...
is also named after him.
Poetry
- Zemlja ("Earth". Ljubljana: Nova založba, 1934).
- Groza ("Dread". Ljubljana: Slovenska maticaSlovenska maticaSlovenska matica , also known as Matica slovenska, is the second-oldest publishing house in Slovenia, founded in the 19th century as an institution for the scholarly and cultural progress of Slovenes...
, 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 VodnikFrance VodnikFrance Vodnik was a Slovenian literary critic, essayist, translator and poet from Ljubljana. He was mostly active in the interwar period, when Slovenia was part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia...
. - Krogi navznoter ("Inside Circles". Ljubljana: Slovenska matica, 1977).
- Pred viharjem ("Before the Storm". Ljubljana: Slovenska matica, 1980), with a preface by Janez GradišnikJanez GradišnikJanez Gradišnik , was a Slovenian author and translator.-Biography:He was born in Stražišče near Prevalje, present-day Slovenia, in what was then the Duchy of Carinthia in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He studied at the University of Ljubljana. In the late 1930s and 1940s, he belonged to the...
. - 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 BlažičViktor BlažičViktor Blažič is a Slovenian journalist, essayist, translator and former anti-Communist dissident.He was born in the village of Smolenja vas near Novo Mesto in south-eastern Slovenia, then part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. In 1944, he joined the partisan resistance. After World...
and Niko GrafenauerNiko GrafenauerNiko Grafenauer is a Slovenian poet, essayist, literary historian, editor and translator. He is particularly known as author of popular children literature, and for his active participation in the Slovenian public life, especially in conservative and liberal conservative platforms.He was born in...
, eds., Krogi navznoter, krogi navzven : Kocbekov zbornik (Ljubljana: Nova revijaNova revijaNova revija is a Slovenian publishing house and cultural institute that developed from the literary journal with the same name.- The magazine :...
, 2004). - Janez GradišnikJanez GradišnikJanez Gradišnik , was a Slovenian author and translator.-Biography:He was born in Stražišče near Prevalje, present-day Slovenia, in what was then the Duchy of Carinthia in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He studied at the University of Ljubljana. In the late 1930s and 1940s, he belonged to the...
, ed., Človek je utihnil: spominu Edvarda Kocbeka (Celje: Mohorjeva družba, 1983). - Spomenka HribarSpomenka HribarSpomenka Hribar is a Slovenian author, philosopher, sociologist, politician, columnist, and public intellectual. She was one of the most influential Slovenian intellectuals in the 1980s, and was frequently called "the First Lady of Slovenian Democratic Opposition", and "the Voice of Slovenian...
, Edvard Kocbek in Križarsko gibanje (Maribor: Obzorja, 1990). - Spomenka Hribar, Svetotvornost poezije : hierofanija v poeziji Edvarda Kocbeka (Ljubljana: Nova revija, 2002).
- Andrej Inkret, In stoletje bo zardelo. Kocbek, življenje in delo (Ljubljana: Založba Modrijan, 2011).
- Peter Kersche, Literatur und Engagement (Klagenfurt: Kitab, 2004).
- Franc Miklavčič, Edvard Kocbek - mislec in videc prihodnjih reči (Ljubljana: ZZB NOB, 1997).
- Igor Omerza, Edvard Kocbek – osebni dosje št. 584 (Ljubljana: Založba Karantanija, 2010).
- Boris PahorBoris PahorBoris Pahor is a Slovene writer from Italy. He is considered to be one of the most influential living authors in the Slovene language and has been nominated for the Nobel prize for literature by the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts...
, La lirica di Edoardo Kocbek (Padua: Padova University Press, 2010). - Dimitrij RupelDimitrij RupelDimitrij Rupel is a Slovenian politician.- Biography :Rupel was born in Ljubljana, in what was then the Socialist Republic of Slovenia, into a bourgeois family of former anti-fascist political emigrants from the Julian March .After receiving a bachelor's degree in comparative literature and...
, ed., Kocbekov zbornik (Maribor: Obzorja, 1987). - Joanna Sławińska, Poetycka kosmogonia Edvarda Kocbeka (Kraków: Universitas, 1993).
- John Taylor, "A Generous and Courageous Lucidity" In: Into the Heart of European Poetry (New Brunswick, NJ: Transactions, 2009).