Dušan Pirjevec
Encyclopedia
Dušan Pirjevec, known by his battle name Ahac (20 March 1921 – 4 April 1977), was a Slovenia
n resistance fighter, literary historian and philosopher. He was one of the most influential public intellectuals in post-World War II
Slovenia.
, which was then a suburb of the Italian
town of Gorizia
, and is now part of the Slovenia
n town of Nova Gorica
. He was the son of the renowned Slovene literary historian Avgust Pirjevec
. His sister, Ivica Pirjevec, later became a famous anti-Nazi resistance hero and was captured and killed by the Nazis in 1944 (a street in the Ljubljana neighbourhood of Tacen in the district of Šmarna gora
bears her name). Soon after Dušan's birth, the family moved to Ljubljana
, in what was then the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, where his father worked as the chief librarian of the National Research Library
. Dušan attended the Ljubljana Technical High School, and in 1939 he enrolled to the University of Zagreb
, where he studied agronomy
. In 1940, he joined the Communist Party of Yugoslavia.
Already in his teenage years, Pirjevec developed an interest in literature, especially in the French poètes maudits
. In the years before World War II
, he published several articles under different pseudonyms in the distinguished liberal-progressive literary journal Ljubljanski zvon
. Together with the young poet Karel Destovnik Kajuh
, he was the co-editor of the radical magazine Svobodna mladina ("The Free Youth").
In the early 1940s, he took part of the so-called "the Conflict on the Literary Left", a polemics involving the critical Croatian left wing writer Miroslav Krleža
against the Communist Party's ideological hardliners around Boris Ziherl and Edvard Kardelj
. In the polemics, was largely evolving around the relation between personal artistic freedom and collective revolutionary engagement, Pirjevec defended Krleža's insistence on artistic freedom, trying to show that it is not in conflict with a Marxist Leninist position.
in April 1941, Pirjevec joined the partisan resistance in the Liberation Front of the Slovenian People
, adopting the battle name Ahac, by which he remained known for the rest of his life. In late 1941, he was involved in the fight against the Italian Fascist
occupation regime in the so-called Province of Ljubljana
. He chose the fighting name Ahac (Agathius). The choice was highly symbolic: since the late 16th, Saint Agathius was venerated in the Slovene Lands
as the patron saint
against Turkish
invasions, and in the 17th century he was also venerated as the saint protector of Carniola
.
His talent in organization was spotted by the Communist leader Aleš Bebler who secured Pirjevec's promotion to the rank of political commissar
in the military units active in Lower Carniola
. During this time, he became notorious for his bellicosity and brutal treatment of opponents. In a highly controversial memoir published posthumously in 1990, fellow fighter and famous essayist Jože Javoršek
even accused Pirjevec of burning war prisoners alive. He was also involved in an internal enquiry over the massacre of a group of Roma people in the region of White Carniola
in 1942, but was acquitted. In 1943, he was sent to organize the resistance fight to the Slovenian Littoral
and to Friulian Slovenia in Italy
, and in 1944 to southern Carinthia
.
After the end of the War, Pirjevec was placed in the propaganda
units of the newly established Communist regime in Slovenia. Between 1945 and 1947, he worked as the editor of the daily journal Ljudska pravica ("People's Justice"), the main Communist newspaper in Slovenia. There, he met the literary critic Bojan Štih
, who introduced him to contemporary trends in literature. In 1947, Pirjevec became the chairman of the Agitprop
section at the University of Ljubljana
. During this period, he became a close personal friend Vitomil Zupan
, with whom he engaged in several provocations of what they saw as the "reactionary and petit bourgeoise" cultural scene in Ljubljana. In summer 1948, he was arrested and trialed in a show trial
for numerous severe crimes, such as subversive activity, immoral acts and rape. Unlike his close personal friend who was arrested and accused of the same crimes in the same trial, Pirjevec was sentenced to a relatively mild sentence of two years in prison. He was released already after half a year, and put on probation. He was excluded from the Communist Party and stripped of all his war honours.
and comparative literature
at the University of Ljubljana
under the supervision of the famous literary historian Anton Ocvirk. Between 1952 and 1961, he was employed as a clerk at the Institute for Literature of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts
, later rising to the position of personal assistant to the Institute's president Josip Vidmar
.
In 1958, Pirjevec became an assistant at the Department for Comparative Literature of the University of Ljubljana. In 1959, he was actively involved the so-called "Slodnjak affair", when the conservative-minded literary historian Anton Slodnjak was dismissed from his post of professor of Slovene literature for having published an anthology of Slovene literature in Germany
, which included several authors which were not well viewed by the Communist regime. The same year, Pirjevec was admitted again to the Communist Party.
Between 1961 and 1962, Pirjevec started a long polemic with the Serbia
n writer Dobrica Ćosić
regarding the cultural policies in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
. In contrast to Ćosić, who argued for a more unified and centralized cultural policy in Yugoslavia, Pirjevec defended the cultural autonomy of the single republics in the Yugoslav federation. The polemic gave Pirjevec a high degree of public visibility.
In 1961, Pirjevec achieved his PhD in comparative literature and in 1963 he became a professor at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Ljubljana. In the late 1960s, he rose to prominence among students as a charismatic professor. The Department of Comparative Literature, where he taught, became one of the most vibrant centers of Slovene intellectual scene of the 1960s and 1970s. Among Pirjevec's pupils were Dimitrij Rupel
, Niko Grafenauer
, Rudi Šeligo
, Andrej Inkret and many other intellectuals who later formed the core of the intellectual movement focused around the alternative journal Nova revija
. In this period, Pirjevec also developed a close friendship with literary historian Taras Kermauner
and philosopher Ivo Urbančič
, who represented critical positions towards the existing Communist system. In 1964, Pirjevec criticized the regime's decision to prohibit the publication of the alternative journal Perspektive, and was again expulsed from the Party for this reason.
In the 1960s, Pirjevec published several monographs on modern Slovene literature, focusing especially on the fin-de-siecle period. Most famous were his studies on the writer and essayist Ivan Cankar
. He also published numerous studies of classical works of the western canon
, in which the most famous is his treatise on the problem of evil in the works of Dostoyevski. He based his scholarly research on the esthetic theories of Hegel, Georg Lukács
and Mikhail Bakhtin
, but also on Sartre's existential philosophy and Roman Ingarden
phenomenology of the literary science. He was also receptive to currents coming from the new historicism
.
During this period, Pirjevec maintained close contacts with the Praxis School
, which was trying to formulate an alternative and humanist vision of Marxism
. He was also member of the Committee of the famous Korčula
Summer School organized by the Praxis group. Between 1969 and 1971, he served as editor of the Slovenian journal Sodobnost
.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Pirjevec was sympathetic to the student movement that developed at the University of Ljubljana. In 1971, he joined the protests against the arrest of two students of the University, Frane Adam and Milan Jesih
, which escalated in the occupation of the Faculty of Arts by the students.
From the 1970s, Pirjevec gradually left his previous Marxist positions. Under the influence of the philosopher Ivan Urbančič, he grew increasingly closer to the philosophy of Martin Heidegger
, whom he personally met in 1974.
He died in Ljubljana on August 4, 1977 and was buried in the cemetery of Šmartno pod Šmarno goro.
, Pirjevec is considered one of the most influential intellectuals in Slovenia in the period between 1945 and 1980. He influenced not only literary critic and history, but also philosophers such as Tine Hribar
, Ivan Urbančič and Dean Komel
. He was crucial in the intellectual development of several public figures, among whom the most famous was writer and sociologist Dimitrij Rupel
, who later became the first Slovenian foreign minister. Pirjevec was portrayed in several novels and memoirs, including Gert Hofmann
's Die Fistelstimme (1982) Milan Dekleva
's Oko v zraku ("The Eye in the Air"), Iztok Osojnik
's Braşow in Rudi Šeligo
's Izgubljeni sveženj ("The Lost Bundle"), and Taras Kermauner
's Navzkrižna srečavanja ("Crossed Encounters").
Pirjevec's view on the national question, articulated in polemics with the ideologue of Yugoslav Socialism Edvard Kardelj
, was particularly influential among the dissident Slovene intellectuals of the late 1970s and 1980s. Pirjevec was the single most quoted author in the "Contributions to the Slovenian National Program
", a public manifesto written by 16 non-Communist intellectuals in 1987, which is frequently seen as the beginning of the Slovene movement for independence that culminated in the declaration of independence of Slovenia in 1991.
In 1997, a bust of Pirjevec was erected in the hall of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Ljubljana. In 1998, a memorial plaque was placed in his native house in Nova Gorica
.
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 resistance fighter, literary historian and philosopher. He was one of the most influential public intellectuals in post-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...
Slovenia.
Early years and revolutionary activity
Dušan Pirjevec was born in SolkanSolkan
Solkan is a suburb of the town of Nova Gorica in the Goriška region of western Slovenia, close to the border with Italy. Although it is nowadays completely integrated into Nova Gorica, with which it forms a single urban area, it has maintained the status of a separate urban settlement, due to its...
, which was then a suburb of the Italian
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...
town of Gorizia
Gorizia
Gorizia is a town and comune in northeastern Italy, in the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia. It is located at the foot of the Julian Alps, bordering Slovenia. It is the capital of the Province of Gorizia, and it is a local center of tourism, industry, and commerce. Since 1947, a twin...
, and is now part of the Slovenia
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 town of Nova Gorica
Nova Gorica
Nova Gorica ; 21,082 ; 31,000 ) is a town and a municipality in western Slovenia, on the border with Italy...
. He was the son of the renowned Slovene literary historian Avgust Pirjevec
Avgust Pirjevec
Avgust Pirjevec was a Slovene literary scholar, lexicographist and librarian.- Biography :Pirjevec was born in a Slovene-speaking family in Gorizia, a town in the Austrian Littoral . He studied Slavic philology at the University of Vienna. He graduated in 1913 with a thesis on Fran Levstik...
. His sister, Ivica Pirjevec, later became a famous anti-Nazi resistance hero and was captured and killed by the Nazis in 1944 (a street in the Ljubljana neighbourhood of Tacen in the district of Šmarna gora
Šmarna gora
The Šmarna Gora District or simply Šmarna Gora is a district of Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia....
bears her name). Soon after Dušan's birth, the family moved to Ljubljana
Ljubljana
Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants...
, in what was then the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, where his father worked as the chief librarian of the National Research Library
National and University Library of Slovenia
The National and University Library is one of the most important national educational and cultural institutions of Slovenia. It was established in 1774 by a decree released by the Empress Maria Theresa. It is located in the centre of Ljubljana, in a building designed by the architect Jože Plečnik...
. Dušan attended the Ljubljana Technical High School, and in 1939 he enrolled to the University of Zagreb
University of Zagreb
The University of Zagreb is the biggest Croatian university and the oldest continuously operating university in the area covering Central Europe south of Vienna and all of Southeastern Europe...
, where he studied agronomy
Agronomy
Agronomy is the science and technology of producing and using plants for food, fuel, feed, fiber, and reclamation. Agronomy encompasses work in the areas of plant genetics, plant physiology, meteorology, and soil science. Agronomy is the application of a combination of sciences like biology,...
. In 1940, he joined the Communist Party of Yugoslavia.
Already in his teenage years, Pirjevec developed an interest in literature, especially in the French poètes maudits
Poète maudit
A poète maudit is a poet living a life outside or against society. Abuse of drugs and alcohol, insanity, crime, violence, and in general any societal sin, often resulting in an early death are typical elements of the biography of a poète maudit....
. In the years before 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 published several articles under different pseudonyms in the distinguished liberal-progressive literary journal 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 :...
. Together with the young poet Karel Destovnik Kajuh
Karel Destovnik Kajuh
Karel Destovnik, pen name and nom de guerre Kajuh was a Slovenian poet, translator, resistance fighter, and Yugoslav national hero.- Life and work :...
, he was the co-editor of the radical magazine Svobodna mladina ("The Free Youth").
In the early 1940s, he took part of the so-called "the Conflict on the Literary Left", a polemics involving the critical Croatian left wing writer Miroslav Krleža
Miroslav Krleža
Miroslav Krleža was a leading Croatian and Yugoslav writer and the dominant figure in cultural life of both Yugoslav states, the Kingdom and the Republic . He has often been proclaimed the greatest Croatian writer of the 20th century.-Biography:Miroslav Krleža was born in Zagreb, modern-day...
against the Communist Party's ideological hardliners around Boris Ziherl and Edvard Kardelj
Edvard Kardelj
Edvard Kardelj also known under the pseudonyms Sperans and Krištof was a Yugoslav communist political leader, economist, partisan, publicist, and full member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts...
. In the polemics, was largely evolving around the relation between personal artistic freedom and collective revolutionary engagement, Pirjevec defended Krleža's insistence on artistic freedom, trying to show that it is not in conflict with a Marxist Leninist position.
Resistance fighter
Soon after the Axis invasion of YugoslaviaInvasion 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, Pirjevec joined the partisan resistance in 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"...
, adopting the battle name Ahac, by which he remained known for the rest of his life. In late 1941, he was involved in the fight against the Italian Fascist
Italian Fascism
Italian Fascism also known as Fascism with a capital "F" refers to the original fascist ideology in Italy. This ideology is associated with the National Fascist Party which under Benito Mussolini ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, the Republican Fascist Party which ruled the Italian...
occupation regime in the so-called Province of Ljubljana
Province of Ljubljana
The Province of Ljubljana was a province of the Kingdom of Italy and of the Nazi German Adriatic Littoral during World War II. It was created on May 3, 1941 from territory occupied and annexed to Italy after the Axis invasion and dissolution of Yugoslavia, and it was abolished on May 9, 1945, when...
. He chose the fighting name Ahac (Agathius). The choice was highly symbolic: since the late 16th, Saint Agathius was venerated in the Slovene Lands
Slovene Lands
Slovene Lands or Slovenian Lands is the historical denomination for the whole of the Slovene-inhabited territories in Central Europe. It more or less corresponds to modern Slovenia and the adjacent territories in Italy, Austria and Hungary in which autochthonous Slovene minorities live.-...
as the patron saint
Patron saint
A patron saint is a saint who is regarded as the intercessor and advocate in heaven of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or person...
against Turkish
Ottoman Turks
The Ottoman Turks were the Turkish-speaking population of the Ottoman Empire who formed the base of the state's military and ruling classes. Reliable information about the early history of Ottoman Turks is scarce, but they take their Turkish name, Osmanlı , from the house of Osman I The Ottoman...
invasions, and in the 17th century he was also venerated as the saint protector of Carniola
Carniola
Carniola was a historical region that comprised parts of what is now Slovenia. As part of Austria-Hungary, the region was a crown land officially known as the Duchy of Carniola until 1918. In 1849, the region was subdivided into Upper Carniola, Lower Carniola, and Inner Carniola...
.
His talent in organization was spotted by the Communist leader Aleš Bebler who secured Pirjevec's promotion to the rank of political commissar
Political commissar
The political commissar is the supervisory political officer responsible for the political education and organisation, and loyalty to the government of the military...
in the military units active in Lower Carniola
Lower Carniola
Lower Carniola was a kreis of the historical Habsburg crown land of Carniola from 1849 till 1919 and is nowadays a traditional region of Slovenia. Its center is Novo Mesto, while other urban centers include Kočevje, Grosuplje, Krško, Trebnje, Mirna, Črnomelj, Semič, and Metlika.-See also:* Upper...
. During this time, he became notorious for his bellicosity and brutal treatment of opponents. In a highly controversial memoir published posthumously in 1990, fellow fighter and famous 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...
even accused Pirjevec of burning war prisoners alive. He was also involved in an internal enquiry over the massacre of a group of Roma people in the region of White Carniola
White Carniola
White Carniola is a traditional region in southeastern Slovenia on the border with Croatia and is the most southern part of the historical and traditional region of Lower Carniola. Its major towns are Metlika, Črnomelj, and Semič, and the principal river is the Kolpa, which also forms part of the...
in 1942, but was acquitted. In 1943, he was sent to organize the resistance fight to the Slovenian Littoral
Slovenian Littoral
The Slovenian Littoral is a historical region of Slovenia. Its name recalls the historical Habsburg crown land of the Austrian Littoral, of which the Slovenian Littoral was a part....
and to Friulian Slovenia in 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...
, and in 1944 to southern Carinthia
Carinthia (state)
Carinthia is the southernmost Austrian state or Land. Situated within the Eastern Alps it is chiefly noted for its mountains and lakes.The main language is German. Its regional dialects belong to the Southern Austro-Bavarian group...
.
After the end of the War, Pirjevec was placed in the propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
units of the newly established Communist regime in Slovenia. Between 1945 and 1947, he worked as the editor of the daily journal Ljudska pravica ("People's Justice"), the main Communist newspaper in Slovenia. There, he met the literary critic Bojan Štih
Bojan Štih
Bojan Štih , was a Slovene literary critic, stage director, and essayist. He was one of the most influential figures in modern Slovene theatre after 1945....
, who introduced him to contemporary trends in literature. In 1947, Pirjevec became the chairman of the Agitprop
Agitprop
Agitprop is derived from agitation and propaganda, and describes stage plays, pamphlets, motion pictures and other art forms with an explicitly political message....
section 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:...
. During this period, he became a close personal friend Vitomil Zupan
Vitomil Zupan
Vitomil Zupan , who also wrote under the pseudonym Langus, was a Slovenian writer, poet, playwright, essayist and screenwriter. He is considered one of the most important authors in the Slovene language of the second half of the 20th century.-Biography:Vitomil Zupan was born in Ljubljana, then part...
, with whom he engaged in several provocations of what they saw as the "reactionary and petit bourgeoise" cultural scene in Ljubljana. In summer 1948, he was arrested and trialed in a show trial
Show trial
The term show trial is a pejorative description of a type of highly public trial in which there is a strong connotation that the judicial authorities have already determined the guilt of the defendant. The actual trial has as its only goal to present the accusation and the verdict to the public as...
for numerous severe crimes, such as subversive activity, immoral acts and rape. Unlike his close personal friend who was arrested and accused of the same crimes in the same trial, Pirjevec was sentenced to a relatively mild sentence of two years in prison. He was released already after half a year, and put on probation. He was excluded from the Communist Party and stripped of all his war honours.
The scholar
Between 1948 and 1952, Pirjevec studied French languageFrench 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 comparative literature
Comparative literature
Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the literature of two or more different linguistic, cultural or national groups...
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:...
under the supervision of the famous literary historian Anton Ocvirk. Between 1952 and 1961, he was employed as a clerk at the Institute for Literature of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts
Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts
The Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts is the national academy of Slovenia, which encompasses science and the arts and brings together the top Slovene researchers and artists as members of the academy....
, later rising to the position of personal assistant to the Institute's president Josip Vidmar
Josip Vidmar
Josip Vidmar was a prominent Slovenian literary critic and essayist. Vidmar is remembered because of his role in the Slovenian resistance during World War II, and for his influence in the cultural policies of the Titoist regime in Slovenia from the mid 1950s to the mid 1970s.He was born in...
.
In 1958, Pirjevec became an assistant at the Department for Comparative Literature of the University of Ljubljana. In 1959, he was actively involved the so-called "Slodnjak affair", when the conservative-minded literary historian Anton Slodnjak was dismissed from his post of professor of Slovene literature for having published an anthology of Slovene literature in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, which included several authors which were not well viewed by the Communist regime. The same year, Pirjevec was admitted again to the Communist Party.
Between 1961 and 1962, Pirjevec started a long polemic with the Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
n writer Dobrica Ćosić
Dobrica Cosic
Dobrica Ćosić is a Serbian writer, as well as a political and Serb nationalist theorist. He was the first president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1992 to 1993...
regarding the cultural policies in the Socialist Federal Republic of 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,...
. In contrast to Ćosić, who argued for a more unified and centralized cultural policy in Yugoslavia, Pirjevec defended the cultural autonomy of the single republics in the Yugoslav federation. The polemic gave Pirjevec a high degree of public visibility.
In 1961, Pirjevec achieved his PhD in comparative literature and in 1963 he became a professor at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Ljubljana. In the late 1960s, he rose to prominence among students as a charismatic professor. The Department of Comparative Literature, where he taught, became one of the most vibrant centers of Slovene intellectual scene of the 1960s and 1970s. Among Pirjevec's pupils were Dimitrij Rupel
Dimitrij Rupel
Dimitrij 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...
, Niko Grafenauer
Niko Grafenauer
Niko 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...
, Rudi Šeligo
Rudi Šeligo
Rudi Šeligo was a Slovenian writer, playwright, essayist and politician. Together with Lojze Kovačič and Drago Jančar, he is considered as one of the foremost Slovenian modernist writers of the post-World War II period.- Life :...
, Andrej Inkret and many other intellectuals who later formed the core of the intellectual movement focused around the alternative journal Nova revija
Nova revija
Nova revija is a Slovenian publishing house and cultural institute that developed from the literary journal with the same name.- The magazine :...
. In this period, Pirjevec also developed a close friendship with literary historian Taras Kermauner
Taras Kermauner
Taras Kermauner was a Slovenian literary historian, critic, philosopher, essayist, playwright and translator.- Life :...
and philosopher Ivo Urbančič
Ivo Urbancic
Ivo Urbančič is a Slovenian philosopher. He is considered to be one of the fathers of the phenomenological school in Slovenia...
, who represented critical positions towards the existing Communist system. In 1964, Pirjevec criticized the regime's decision to prohibit the publication of the alternative journal Perspektive, and was again expulsed from the Party for this reason.
In the 1960s, Pirjevec published several monographs on modern Slovene literature, focusing especially on the fin-de-siecle period. Most famous were his studies on the writer and essayist 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...
. He also published numerous studies of classical works of the western canon
Western canon
The term Western canon denotes a canon of books and, more broadly, music and art that have been the most important and influential in shaping Western culture. As such, it includes the "greatest works of artistic merit." Such a canon is important to the theory of educational perennialism and the...
, in which the most famous is his treatise on the problem of evil in the works of Dostoyevski. He based his scholarly research on the esthetic theories of Hegel, Georg Lukács
Georg Lukács
György Lukács was a Hungarian Marxist philosopher and literary critic. He is a founder of the tradition of Western Marxism. He contributed the concept of reification to Marxist philosophy and theory and expanded Karl Marx's theory of class consciousness. Lukács' was also an influential literary...
and Mikhail Bakhtin
Mikhail Bakhtin
Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin was a Russian philosopher, literary critic, semiotician and scholar who worked on literary theory, ethics, and the philosophy of language...
, but also on Sartre's existential philosophy and Roman Ingarden
Roman Ingarden
Roman Witold Ingarden was a Polish philosopher who worked in phenomenology, ontology and aesthetics.Before World War II, Ingarden published his works mainly in the German language...
phenomenology of the literary science. He was also receptive to currents coming from the new historicism
New Historicism
New Historicism is a school of literary theory, grounded in critical theory, that developed in the 1980s, primarily through the work of the critic Stephen Greenblatt, and gained widespread influence in the 1990s....
.
During this period, Pirjevec maintained close contacts with the Praxis School
Praxis School
The Praxis school was a Marxist humanist philosophical movement. It originated in Zagreb and Belgrade in the SFR Yugoslavia, during the 1960s.Prominent figures among the school's founders include Gajo Petrović and Milan Kangrga of Zagreb and Mihailo Marković of Belgrade...
, which was trying to formulate an alternative and humanist vision of Marxism
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
. He was also member of the Committee of the famous Korčula
Korcula
Korčula is an island in the Adriatic Sea, in the Dubrovnik-Neretva County of Croatia. The island has an area of ; long and on average wide — and lies just off the Dalmatian coast. Its 16,182 inhabitants make it the second most populous Adriatic island after Krk...
Summer School organized by the Praxis group. Between 1969 and 1971, he served as editor of the Slovenian journal 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...
.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Pirjevec was sympathetic to the student movement that developed at the University of Ljubljana. In 1971, he joined the protests against the arrest of two students of the University, Frane Adam and Milan Jesih
Milan Jesih
Milan Jesih is a Slovene poet, playwright and translator. He is the current president of the Slovene Writers' Association.Jesih wa born in Ljubljana in 1950. He studied comparative literature at the University of Ljubljana and was a member of the avant-garde poetry group 442...
, which escalated in the occupation of the Faculty of Arts by the students.
From the 1970s, Pirjevec gradually left his previous Marxist positions. Under the influence of the philosopher Ivan Urbančič, he grew increasingly closer to the philosophy of Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger was a German philosopher known for his existential and phenomenological explorations of the "question of Being."...
, whom he personally met in 1974.
He died in Ljubljana on August 4, 1977 and was buried in the cemetery of Šmartno pod Šmarno goro.
Personal life
Pirjevec was married twice. His first wife was his partisan co-fighter, the university professor of French language Marjeta Vasič, the second was the actress and later writer Nedeljka Kacin. His daughter Alenka Pirjevec is a famous theatre actress and puppeteer. His second daughter with Slovenian journalist Olga Ratej is a Slovenian dramaturg Ira Ratej.Influence and legacy
Together with Edvard KocbekEdvard Kocbek
Edvard Kocbek was a Slovenian 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...
, Pirjevec is considered one of the most influential intellectuals in Slovenia in the period between 1945 and 1980. He influenced not only literary critic and history, but also philosophers such as Tine Hribar
Tine Hribar
Tine Hribar is a Slovenian philosopher and public intellectual, notable for his interpretations of Heidegger and his role in the democratization of Slovenia between 1988 and 1990, known as the Slovenian Spring...
, Ivan Urbančič and Dean Komel
Dean Komel
Dean Komel is a Slovenian philosopher.He was born in the small village of Bilje in the Goriška region of Slovenia, then part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia....
. He was crucial in the intellectual development of several public figures, among whom the most famous was writer and sociologist Dimitrij Rupel
Dimitrij Rupel
Dimitrij 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...
, who later became the first Slovenian foreign minister. Pirjevec was portrayed in several novels and memoirs, including Gert Hofmann
Gert Hofmann
Gert Hofmann was a German writer and professor of German literature. Hofmann was born in Limbach, Saxony and died in Erding ....
's Die Fistelstimme (1982) Milan Dekleva
Milan Dekleva
Milan Dekleva is a Slovene poet, writer, playwright, composer and journalist.Dekleva was born in Ljubljana in 1946. He graduated in comparative literature from the University of Ljubljana and...
's Oko v zraku ("The Eye in the Air"), Iztok Osojnik
Iztok Osojnik
Iztok Osojnik is a Slovenian poet and essayist.He was born in Ljubljana. He studied comparative literature at the University of Ljubljana under the supervision of the famous literary historian and philosopher Dušan Pirjevec...
's Braşow in Rudi Šeligo
Rudi Šeligo
Rudi Šeligo was a Slovenian writer, playwright, essayist and politician. Together with Lojze Kovačič and Drago Jančar, he is considered as one of the foremost Slovenian modernist writers of the post-World War II period.- Life :...
's Izgubljeni sveženj ("The Lost Bundle"), and Taras Kermauner
Taras Kermauner
Taras Kermauner was a Slovenian literary historian, critic, philosopher, essayist, playwright and translator.- Life :...
's Navzkrižna srečavanja ("Crossed Encounters").
Pirjevec's view on the national question, articulated in polemics with the ideologue of Yugoslav Socialism Edvard Kardelj
Edvard Kardelj
Edvard Kardelj also known under the pseudonyms Sperans and Krištof was a Yugoslav communist political leader, economist, partisan, publicist, and full member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts...
, was particularly influential among the dissident Slovene intellectuals of the late 1970s and 1980s. Pirjevec was the single most quoted author in the "Contributions to the Slovenian National Program
Contributions to the Slovenian National Program
Contributions to the Slovenian National Program , also known as Nova revija 57 or 57th edition of Nova revija was a special issue of the Slovenian opposition intellectual journal Nova revija, published in January 1987...
", a public manifesto written by 16 non-Communist intellectuals in 1987, which is frequently seen as the beginning of the Slovene movement for independence that culminated in the declaration of independence of Slovenia in 1991.
In 1997, a bust of Pirjevec was erected in the hall of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Ljubljana. In 1998, a memorial plaque was placed in his native house in Nova Gorica
Nova Gorica
Nova Gorica ; 21,082 ; 31,000 ) is a town and a municipality in western Slovenia, on the border with Italy...
.
Sources
- Aleš Gabrič, Socialistična kulturna revolucija (Ljubljana: Cankarjeva založba, 1995).
- Mihailo Đurić, Das Denken am Ende der Philosophie. In memoriam Dušan Pirjevec (Ljubljana: 1982).
- Taras Kermauner, Skupinski portret z Dušanom Pirjevcem (Ljubljana: Znanstveno in publicistično središče, 2002).
- Janko KosJanko KosJanko Kos is a Slovenian literary historian, theoretician and critic.He was born in Ljubljana in what was then the Kingdom of Yugoslavia as the son of the painter and sculptor Tine Kos...
, Slovenska književnost (Ljubljana: Cankarjeva založba, 1982), 267-268.