Srecko Kosovel
Encyclopedia
Srečko Kosovel (18 March 1904 – 26 May 1926) was a Slovene expressionist poet who evolved towards avant-garde forms. Since the 1960s, Kosovel has become a poetic icon, in the league of the most prestigious Slovene literates like France Prešeren
France Prešeren
France Prešeren was a Slovene Romantic poet. He is considered the Slovene national poet. Although he was not a particularly prolific author, he inspired virtually all Slovene literature thereafter....

 and 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...

. Together with Edvard Kocbek
Edvard 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...

, he is considered as the most important Slovene poet of the post-World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 period. He produced an impressive body of work of more than 1000 poems with a quality regarded as unusually high for his age. Most of his works were published almost four decades after his early death.

Upbringing and Early Life

Kosovel was born in 1904 to Anton and Katarina Kosovel (née Streš) in Sežana
Sežana
Sežana is a town and a municipality in the Slovenian Littoral region of Slovenia, near the border with Italy. According to the census of 2008, it has a population of 12,470, of which around 5,332 live in the town of Sežana and the rest in the neighbouring rural areas.Sežana is located about on the...

, a town in the Kras
Kras
Karst ; also known as the Karst Plateau, is a limestone borderline plateau region extending in southwestern Slovenia and northeastern Italy. It lies between the Vipava Valley, the low hills surrounding the valley, the westernmost part of the Brkini Hills, northern Istria, and the Gulf of Trieste...

 region of the County of Gorizia and Gradisca, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His mother, descendant of a wealthy Slovene family from Trieste
Trieste
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...

, was 40 years old at the time of his birth. His father was a local teacher
Teacher
A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...

 and a choir
Choir
A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...

 leader from the Vipava Valley
Vipava Valley
The Vipava Valley is a valley located in the Slovenian Littoral, between the towns of Nova Gorica and Vipava.-Geography:It is a narrow valley, serving as the main passage between Friulian lowland and central Slovenia, and thus also an important corridor connecting Northern Italy to Central Europe...

. Srečko was the youngest of five children; he had a brother and three sisters. Srečko and his family lived in the nearby village of Tomaj
Tomaj
Tomaj is a village in the Sežana Municipality in the Littoral region of Slovenia.The Parish Church in the settlement is dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul and belongs to the Diocese of Koper...

 until 1924.

It seems that Kosovel wrote from an early age. When he was only 11, one of his poems (about the fairness of the city of Trieste
Trieste
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...

) was published in the children's magazine Zvonček. The World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, which broke out in his teenage years, had a traumatising effect on him. It seems he had regular contact with wounded soldiers and saw corpses, since the battlefield
Battles of the Isonzo
The Battles of the Isonzo were a series of 12 battles between the Austro-Hungarian and Italian armies in World War I. They were fought along the Soča River on the eastern sector of the Italian Front between June 1915 and November 1917...

 was only some 15 kilometers from his home.

Kosovel finished elementary school in 1915.

Early Years In Ljubljana

In 1916, Kosovel 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...

 with his sister to continue with his studies, staying there until his death. In 1919, he met Branko Jeglič, a poet who later became a close friend to Kosovel. Jeglič produced a student literary newspaper called Kres ("Bonfire"), which Kosovel participated in. Jeglič died soon after and Kosovel published a touching obituary in a Slovenian newspaper of Trieste. At this time, Kosovel also made his first true attempt in poetry. Much of his poetry at this time and later concerned his longing for his family and a reflection on landscapes of the Kras region. It is thought that the poem "Rider in Dark Night", which he showed to his brother, was his first serious poetic attempt.

In 1920, he shared a flat with the young writer and esitor Ludvik Mrzel for 18 months. Kosovel contributed to Mrzel's newspaper as a writer.

Student years and early literary activity

In 1922, Kosovel enrolled in 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 Romance and Slavic philology. In this period, he established a youth literary magazine called Lepa Vida ("The Fair Vida", a motive from Slovene folk poetry), published by an organization of students from the Italian-occupied Julian March
Julian March
The Julian March is a former political region of southeastern Europe on what are now the borders between Croatia, Slovenia, and Italy...

 studying in 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...

. After World War I, Trieste and 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....

 had just been annexed by 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...

, with the local Slovene population exposed to the terrorist acts of the fascist movement and later to the oppression of the Fascist regime
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...

. As an editor of Lepa Vida, Kosovel met the magazine's co-editor Alfonz Gspan, who would later edit Kosovel's first collection of poetry. In the same circle, Kosovel also became acquainted with the poet Ivo Grahor, who introduced Kosovel to the avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....

 movement, and writer Bogomir Magajna
Bogomir Magajna
Bogomir Magajna was a Slovene writer and psychiatrist.- Biography :Magajna was born in 1904 into a farming family in Gornje Vreme near Divača in what was then the Austrian Littoral. He began his schooling in Vremski Britof and was later sent to the Collegium Marianum , Catholic boarding-school in...

.

In the autumn of 1923, Kosovel established the "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...

 Club", named by the Slovenian radical author. The club organized debates on literature, social and political issues, published gazettes (Novi Kres - "New Bonfire"). Internal disputes soon emerged. Kosovel moved closer to socially and artistically revolutionary ideas, while the other influential member, Anton Ocvirk stood on more conservative position. Despite their frequent clashes, Ocvirk would later become the editor of Kosovel's "Collected Works", from the first edition of which he however omitted the most provocative and daring poetic attempts.

In 1923, Kosovel and Ivo Grahor started editing the progressive
Progressivism
Progressivism is an umbrella term for a political ideology advocating or favoring social, political, and economic reform or changes. Progressivism is often viewed by some conservatives, constitutionalists, and libertarians to be in opposition to conservative or reactionary ideologies.The...

 journal Vidovdan. Grahor influenced Kosovel significantly, informing him of recent artistic developments in modern European literature
European literature
European literature refers to the literature of Europe.European literature includes literature in many languages; among the most important of the modern written works are those in English, Spanish, French, Dutch, Polish, German, Italian, Modern Greek, Czech and Russian and works by the...

. He also introduced Kosovel to the works of numerous Soviet and German
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...

 avant-gardiste artists.

The constructivist turn

In 1925, Kosovel was considering establishing a new modernist magazine with the constructivist
Constructivism (art)
Constructivism was an artistic and architectural philosophy that originated in Russia beginning in 1919, which was a rejection of the idea of autonomous art. The movement was in favour of art as a practice for social purposes. Constructivism had a great effect on modern art movements of the 20th...

 artist Avgust Černigoj
Avgust Cernigoj
Avgust Černigoj, also known in Italian as Augusto Cernigoi was a Italian painter, known for his avant-garde experiments in Constructivism....

. Černigoj suggested the magazine be called Konstruktor ("Constructor"), while Kosovel preferred KONS. It was in the summer of 1925, that Kosovel started writing his famous constructivist poems, calling them konsi (kons in singular), short for konstrukcije ("constructions").

At about the same time, Kosovel prepared to publish a collection of his early poems, entitled Zlati čoln ("Golden Boat"). With this selection of poems, he intended to put an end to his early style, strongly influenced by the impressionist
Impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s...

 poetry of Josip Murn. He was however crushed by the negative response of both publishing houses and some of his closest friends.

Kosovel then turned exclusively to his constructivist poetry, which he wanted to publish in a collection entitled Konsi. He however never managed to achieve this; his constructivist poetry would remain unknown to the public until as late as 1967, when Anton Ocvirk decided to release Kosovel's collection under the title Integrali '26.

The same year, in 1925, Kosovel became editor of the magazine Mladina
Mladina
Mladina is a Slovenian weekly left-wing current affairs magazine. It was first published in the 1920s as the youth magazine of the Slovenian Communist Party...

(Youth). This had an enormous impact on his life: he had very ambitious plans with the journal, intending to transform it into a nationwide left-wing publication that would attract all modernist and avant-gardiste artists from 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.-...

 and Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....

, as well as serving as the platform for a radical Slovenian political agenda. He remained the programme editor of the paper until his death.

The last period

The year 1925 was Kosovel's most productive period. It was also a time that saw him shift his politics to the left. As his prose became simpler in style, it had a greater appeal to the proletariat
Proletariat
The proletariat is a term used to identify a lower social class, usually the working class; a member of such a class is proletarian...

. Kosovel conceived the idea of a proletarians' writers union and a publishing house called Strelci ("Archers"), in which his collection of constructivist poetry could also be published.

During all this period, the "Ivan Cankar Club" continued its activity, organizing literary and poetic evenings. In a winter evening in 1926, Kosovel visited the industrial town of Zagorje
Zagorje ob Savi
Zagorje ob Savi is a town and a municipality in central Slovenia. It is located in the valley of Medija Creek, a minor left-bank tributary of the Sava River, east of Ljubljana southwest of Celje, and west of Trbovlje. Traditionally the area was part of the Upper Carniola region. The entire...

 to perform in one of such events. Following his recital, Kosovel waited for the train to return to Ljubljana, catching a cold, which eventually developed into meningitis
Meningitis
Meningitis is inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord, known collectively as the meninges. The inflammation may be caused by infection with viruses, bacteria, or other microorganisms, and less commonly by certain drugs...

. He returned to his home village in the Kras
Kras
Karst ; also known as the Karst Plateau, is a limestone borderline plateau region extending in southwestern Slovenia and northeastern Italy. It lies between the Vipava Valley, the low hills surrounding the valley, the westernmost part of the Brkini Hills, northern Istria, and the Gulf of Trieste...

 to cure himself, but died on 26 May 1926. He was buried on 29 May 1926. His coffin was adorned with a ribbon with the colours of the Slovene flag
Flag of Slovenia
The national flag of Slovenia features three equal horizontal bands of white , blue, and red, with the Slovenian coat of arms located in the upper hoist side of the flag centered in the white and blue bands...

 placed on it. The Italian Carabinieri
Carabinieri
The Carabinieri is the national gendarmerie of Italy, policing both military and civilian populations, and is a branch of the armed forces.-Early history:...

, who had been present at the burial to prevent any "nationalist" outburst, threatened to exhume the coffin to remove the ribbon but this did not occur.

Publications Following Kosovel's Death

In 1927, Alfonz Gspan published his late friend's early poems in a booklet consisting of 66 works. In 1946, Anton Ocvirk published Kosovel's "Collected Works", which were received by interest from the literary community. Ocvirk further published "The Golden Boat" in 1954. These publications however omitted Kosovel's late works. Only in 1967, a book called "Integrals '26" was published, edited by Ocvirk. The third volume of "Collected Works" was published in 1977.

Kosovel also left unfinished works in lyrical prose form, sketches, note, diaries and essays and criticisms concerning cultural problems. Much of it was published in 2004, on the 100th anniversary of Kosovel's birth, in the monograph entitled Ikarjev sen ("Icarus
Icarus
-Space and astronomy:* Icarus , on the Moon* Icarus , a planetary science journal* 1566 Icarus, an asteroid* IKAROS, a interplanetary unmanned spacecraft...

'es Dream"), edited by the literary critics Aleš Berger and Lugwig Hartinger.

A new selection of Kosovel's poetry has been translated into English by Bert Pribac, David Brooks
David Brooks (author)
David Gordon Brooks is an Australian author.He graduated from the Australian National University in 1974. He married Alison Summers in 1975. Brooks and Summers then studied abroad and received their M.A. degrees from the University of Toronto...

, assisted by Teja Brooks Pribac: "The Golden Boat: Selected Poems of Srečko Kosovel" (Salt 2008).

Kosovel's poetry

The poetry of Kosovel is seen to come from three artistic movements: Impressionism
Impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s...

, Expressionism
Expressionism
Expressionism was a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas...

 and Constructivism
Constructivism (art)
Constructivism was an artistic and architectural philosophy that originated in Russia beginning in 1919, which was a rejection of the idea of autonomous art. The movement was in favour of art as a practice for social purposes. Constructivism had a great effect on modern art movements of the 20th...

. Kosovel's poetry also incorporates elements with Dadaism, Surrealism
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....

 and Futurism
Futurism (art)
Futurism was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th century. It emphasized and glorified themes associated with contemporary concepts of the future, including speed, technology, youth and violence, and objects such as the car, the airplane and the industrial city...

. His style is too complex to be identified by a particular movement or current. His works show his concern with social and political oppression in the Slovenen Lands, the fate of Slovenes threatened by foreign powers, the feeling of a decadence of Europe and the hope for a "new dawn". The Kras region, with its ascetic and rigid scenery, is one of the main motifs in Kosovel's poetry. His verses are full of wit
Wit
Wit is a form of intellectual humour, and a wit is someone skilled in making witty remarks. Forms of wit include the quip and repartee.-Forms of wit:...

, irony
Irony
Irony is a rhetorical device, literary technique, or situation in which there is a sharp incongruity or discordance that goes beyond the simple and evident intention of words or actions...

, depth and a sentiment of tragedy
Tragedy
Tragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of...

.

He has been often compared to other brilliant and tragic European authors from his same generation, such as the Hungarian Attila József
Attila József
Attila József was one of the most important and well-known Hungarian poets of the 20th century.-Biography:The son of Áron József, a soap factory worker of Romanian origin from Bánát, and Hungarian peasant girl Borbála Pőcze, he was born in Ferencváros, a poor district of Budapest. He had two elder...

, Italian Cesare Pavese
Cesare Pavese
Cesare Pavese was an Italian poet, novelist, literary critic and translator; he is widely considered among the major authors of the 20th century in his home country.- Early life and education :...

, or Spanish Federico Garcia Lorca
Federico García Lorca
Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca was a Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27. He is believed to be one of thousands who were summarily shot by anti-communist death squads...

.

Famous poems

  • Kons 5
  • A Suicide in Front of a Mirror
  • Ecstasy of Death
  • Red Rocket

External links

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