Veno Taufer
Encyclopedia
Veno Taufer is a Slovenia
n poet
, essayist, translator and playwright
. Together with Dane Zajc
and Gregor Strniša
, he is considered one of the foremost Slovenian modernist poets of the postwar era. Under the Communist regime, he was a driving force behind alternative cultural and intellectual projects in Socialist Slovenia
, which challenged the cultural policies of the Titoist system. During the Slovenian Spring (1988–1990), he actively participated in the efforts for the democratization
and independence of Slovenia.
, Slovenia, then part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
. His father was a left liberal activist, and prominent member of the Sokol
athletic movement. Due to his political activities, he was transferred by the Yugoslav conservative regime to the heavily industrial district of Zasavje
in central Slovenia
, where Veno spent his childhood. In 1943, during the German occupation of Yugoslavia
in World War II
, his father was killed by the Nazis as one of the leaders of the local partisan resistance.
In 1944, he moved to Ljubljana, where he attended high school. He enrolled at the University of Ljubljana
, where he studied comparative literature
. In the late 1950s, he became one of the initiators, together with Taras Kermauner
, of a circle of young Slovene artists and intellectuals who challenged the rigid cultural policies of the Yugoslav Communist regime. In 1957, he became one of the co-editors of the literary journal Revija 57, the first autonomous journal in Slovenia prior to the Communist takeover in 1945. Due to its open criticism of the Communist regime, the journal was soon censored by the authorities and several of its collaborators, like Jože Pučnik
and Taufer himself, were imprisoned.
In 1961, he briefly worked as an editor for the Slovenian Television
service, but soon resigned in the face of political pressures. Between 1962 and 1964, he worked as the director of the alternative theatre Oder 57, staging innovative and subversive plays by Slovenian and foreign modernist authors, among them Dominik Smole
, Primož Kozak
and Marjan Rožanc
. In the mid 1960s, he also collaborated on the alternative journal Perspektive, although he never joined its editorial board.
After the prohibition of the journal Perspektive in 1964, Taufer withdrew from public life, dedicating most of his time to translating. In 1966, he moved to London
, where he worked at the Yugoslav section of the BBC
. He returned to Slovenia in 1970, and was employed once again by the Slovenian television service, where he worked as an editor in the cultural programme section.
In the early 1980s, he was one of the founders of the new alternative journal Nova revija
. Throughout the 1980s, he was active in the process of gradual pluralization of public life in Slovenia. In 1987, he joined the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights
. He also participated in the so-called May Declaration of 1989, in which a group of Slovenian intellectuals and public activists openly demanded full democratization of the politics of the nation, the introduction of a market economy
, and the secession of Slovenia from Yugoslavia
. He was one of the co-founders of the Slovenian Democratic Union
, one of the first anti-Communist political parties established in 1989.
Between 1990 and 1995, he worked as an advisor at the Ministry of Culture of Slovenia. In 1996, he received the Prešeren Award
for life achievements.
In the 1990s, Taufer was supportive of various humanitarian activities during the Yugoslav Wars
. During the war in Bosnia, he personally visited the besieged city of Sarajevo
, together with Drago Jančar
, Niko Grafenauer
and Boris A. Novak, to take supplies collected by the Slovene Writers' Association to the civilian population.
He is the father of film director Lara Simona Taufer.
. During the period of 1958-72, he established himself as a poet. Other notable Slovenian poets of the time include, Gregor Strniša
, Dane Zajc
, Tomaž Šalamun
, and Jože Snoj
.
He published a collection titled Lead Stars (Svinčene zvezde) in 1958. His second collection of poems, published in 1963, dealt mostly with love themes. His third collection, titled Exercises and Tasks (Vaje in naloge) and published in 1969, is considered to be Taufer's most daring poetic achievement. Taufer uses extracts and collages in an accumulation of allusions to political reality, using parody in order to convey his message. In his later poetry in the 1970s, his literary experimentation went even further, marking the way to a complete transformation of poetic language, that would be then picked up by younger poets, especially by Tomaž Šalamun
and Niko Grafenauer
.
Taufer's poetry of the 70s and 80s has entered the canon of modern Slovenian literature
. His Songbook of Used Words (Pesmarica rabljenih besed), published 1975, was conceived as a collection of contemporary variations on Slovene folk songs (especially ballades), and was declared by the philosopher and critic Tine Hribar
as the first post-modern work in Slovenian literature. Taufer's next collection, The Management of Nails (Ravnanje žebljev), published 1979, was partly an exercise in linguistic experimentation.
The poems in the collection Water Marks (Vodenjaki), published 1986, record a story of chaos, and a decline of civilization, cultures, beliefs, ideas and values. The collection Crocks of Songs (Črepinje pesmi), published 1989, shows clear influences by Ezra Pound
. The poems contained in this collection use fragments from ancient Greek
myths, archaic images and visions of disasters, mobilized as an instrument of post-modern reality.
During the 1990s, his most important collection of poetry was Still Odes (Še ode), published 1996, which marks a return to classical poetic forms, mostly sonnets. The collection is opened by two poems containing a violent condemnation of the destruction of Vukovar
and Sarajevo
during the Yugoslav wars
.
Taufer has also written several plays. His most famous one is called Odysseus & Son or on the World and Home' ' (1990), in which he renews the story of Odysseus' and Telemach, including whole passages from Homer
's text, supplemented by fragments from diverse genres.
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...
, essayist, translator and playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
. Together with Dane Zajc
Dane Zajc
Dane Zajc was a Slovenian poet and playwright. He served as president of the Slovene Writers' Association , and was awarded the prestigious Prešeren Award for lifetime achievement...
and Gregor Strniša
Gregor Strniša
Gregor Strniša was a Slovenian poet, playwright, and songwriter. He is considered as one of the most important Slovene language poet of the second half of the 20th century...
, he is considered one of the foremost Slovenian modernist poets of the postwar era. Under the Communist regime, he was a driving force behind alternative cultural and intellectual projects in Socialist Slovenia
Socialist Republic of Slovenia
The Socialist Republic of Slovenia was a socialist state that was a constituent country of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1943 until 1990...
, which challenged the cultural policies of the Titoist system. During the Slovenian Spring (1988–1990), he actively participated in the efforts for the democratization
Democratization
Democratization is the transition to a more democratic political regime. It may be the transition from an authoritarian regime to a full democracy, a transition from an authoritarian political system to a semi-democracy or transition from a semi-authoritarian political system to a democratic...
and independence of Slovenia.
Biography
Taufer was born Venceslav Taufer in LjubljanaLjubljana
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...
, Slovenia, then part of the Kingdom of 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...
. His father was a left liberal activist, and prominent member of the Sokol
Sokol
The Sokol movement is a youth sport movement and gymnastics organization first founded in Czech region of Austria-Hungary, Prague, in 1862 by Miroslav Tyrš and Jindřich Fügner...
athletic movement. Due to his political activities, he was transferred by the Yugoslav conservative regime to the heavily industrial district of Zasavje
Zasavje
The Central Sava Valley is a region in central Slovenia. The region consists of five municipalities: Zagorje ob Savi, Trbovlje, Hrastnik, Litija, and Šmartno pri Litiji...
in central 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...
, where Veno spent his childhood. In 1943, during the German occupation 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 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...
, his father was killed by the Nazis as one of the leaders of the local partisan resistance.
In 1944, he moved to Ljubljana, where he attended high school. He 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 comparative literature
Comparative literature
Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the literature of two or more different linguistic, cultural or national groups...
. In the late 1950s, he became one of the initiators, together with Taras Kermauner
Taras Kermauner
Taras Kermauner was a Slovenian literary historian, critic, philosopher, essayist, playwright and translator.- Life :...
, of a circle of young Slovene artists and intellectuals who challenged the rigid cultural policies of the Yugoslav Communist regime. In 1957, he became one of the co-editors of the literary journal Revija 57, the first autonomous journal in Slovenia prior to the Communist takeover in 1945. Due to its open criticism of the Communist regime, the journal was soon censored by the authorities and several of its collaborators, like Jože Pučnik
Jože Pucnik
Jože Pučnik was a Slovenian public intellectual, sociologist and politician. During the Communist regime of Josip Broz Tito, Pučnik was one of the most outspoken Slovenian critics of dictatorship and lack of civil liberties in former Yugoslavia. He was imprisoned for a total of 7 years, and later...
and Taufer himself, were imprisoned.
In 1961, he briefly worked as an editor for the Slovenian Television
Radiotelevizija Slovenija
Radiotelevizija Slovenija – usually abbreviated to RTV Slovenija – is Slovenia's national public broadcasting organization. Based in the country's capital, Ljubljana, it has regional broadcasting centres in Koper and Maribor and correspondents around Slovenia, Europe and the world...
service, but soon resigned in the face of political pressures. Between 1962 and 1964, he worked as the director of the alternative theatre Oder 57, staging innovative and subversive plays by Slovenian and foreign modernist authors, among them 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...
, Primož Kozak
Primož Kozak
Primož Kozak was a Slovenian playwright and essayist. He was, together with Dominik Smole, Dane Zajc and Taras Kermauner, the most visible representative of the so-called Critical generation, a group of Slovenian authors and intellectuals that reflected on the paradoxes of the Communist regime,...
and 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...
. In the mid 1960s, he also collaborated on the alternative journal Perspektive, although he never joined its editorial board.
After the prohibition of the journal Perspektive in 1964, Taufer withdrew from public life, dedicating most of his time to translating. In 1966, he moved to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, where he worked at the Yugoslav section of the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
. He returned to Slovenia in 1970, and was employed once again by the Slovenian television service, where he worked as an editor in the cultural programme section.
In the early 1980s, he was one of the founders of the new 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 :...
. Throughout the 1980s, he was active in the process of gradual pluralization of public life in Slovenia. In 1987, he joined the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights
Committee for the Defence of Human Rights
The Committee for the Defence of Human Rights was a civil society organization in Slovenia, which functioned during the so-called Slovenian Spring between 1988 and 1990....
. He also participated in the so-called May Declaration of 1989, in which a group of Slovenian intellectuals and public activists openly demanded full democratization of the politics of the nation, the introduction of a market economy
Market economy
A market economy is an economy in which the prices of goods and services are determined in a free price system. This is often contrasted with a state-directed or planned economy. Market economies can range from hypothetically pure laissez-faire variants to an assortment of real-world mixed...
, and the secession of Slovenia from Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
. He was one of the co-founders of the Slovenian Democratic Union
Slovenian Democratic Union
The Slovenian Democratic Union was a Slovenian liberal political party, active between 1989 and 1991, during the democratization and the secession of the Republic of Slovenia from Yugoslavia....
, one of the first anti-Communist political parties established in 1989.
Between 1990 and 1995, he worked as an advisor at the Ministry of Culture of Slovenia. In 1996, he received the Prešeren Award
Prešeren Award
Prešeren Award is the highest decoration in the field of artistic and in the past also scientific creation in Slovenia awarded each year to one or two eminent Slovene artists...
for life achievements.
In the 1990s, Taufer was supportive of various humanitarian activities during the Yugoslav Wars
Yugoslav wars
The Yugoslav Wars were a series of wars, fought throughout the former Yugoslavia between 1991 and 1995. The wars were complex: characterized by bitter ethnic conflicts among the peoples of the former Yugoslavia, mostly between Serbs on the one side and Croats and Bosniaks on the other; but also...
. During the war in Bosnia, he personally visited the besieged city of Sarajevo
Siege of Sarajevo
The Siege of Sarajevo is the longest siege of a capital city in the history of modern warfare. Serb forces of the Republika Srpska and the Yugoslav People's Army besieged Sarajevo, the capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, from 5 April 1992 to 29 February 1996 during the Bosnian War.After Bosnia...
, together with Drago Jančar
Drago Jancar
Drago Jančar is a Slovenian writer, playwright and essayist. Jančar is one of the most known contemporary Slovene writers. In Slovenia, he is also famous for his political commentaries and civic engagement.-Life:...
, 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...
and Boris A. Novak, to take supplies collected by the Slovene Writers' Association to the civilian population.
He is the father of film director Lara Simona Taufer.
Work
Taufer began his public literary career in 1956 and 1957, when he published poems in the student journal TribunaTribuna
Tribuna is a weekly Russian newspaper that focuses largely on industry and the energy sector, published from 1969. Until 1990, the newspaper titled the Sotsialisticheskaya Industriya, then it was renamed into the Rabochaya Tribuna. Since April 1998 for newspaper fixed the current title.Since 2000s...
. During the period of 1958-72, he established himself as a poet. Other notable Slovenian poets of the time include, Gregor Strniša
Gregor Strniša
Gregor Strniša was a Slovenian poet, playwright, and songwriter. He is considered as one of the most important Slovene language poet of the second half of the 20th century...
, Dane Zajc
Dane Zajc
Dane Zajc was a Slovenian poet and playwright. He served as president of the Slovene Writers' Association , and was awarded the prestigious Prešeren Award for lifetime achievement...
, 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...
, and 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...
.
He published a collection titled Lead Stars (Svinčene zvezde) in 1958. His second collection of poems, published in 1963, dealt mostly with love themes. His third collection, titled Exercises and Tasks (Vaje in naloge) and published in 1969, is considered to be Taufer's most daring poetic achievement. Taufer uses extracts and collages in an accumulation of allusions to political reality, using parody in order to convey his message. In his later poetry in the 1970s, his literary experimentation went even further, marking the way to a complete transformation of poetic language, that would be then picked up by younger poets, especially by 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...
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...
.
Taufer's poetry of the 70s and 80s has entered the canon of modern Slovenian literature
Slovenian literature
Slovene literature, meaning the literature in the Slovene language, starts with Freising manuscripts around 1000. From first printed Slovene religious books in 1550 it is followed by these literary periods and notable authors:-Middle Ages:-Folk poetry:...
. His Songbook of Used Words (Pesmarica rabljenih besed), published 1975, was conceived as a collection of contemporary variations on Slovene folk songs (especially ballades), and was declared by the philosopher and critic 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...
as the first post-modern work in Slovenian literature. Taufer's next collection, The Management of Nails (Ravnanje žebljev), published 1979, was partly an exercise in linguistic experimentation.
The poems in the collection Water Marks (Vodenjaki), published 1986, record a story of chaos, and a decline of civilization, cultures, beliefs, ideas and values. The collection Crocks of Songs (Črepinje pesmi), published 1989, shows clear influences by Ezra Pound
Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound was an American expatriate poet and critic and a major figure in the early modernist movement in poetry...
. The poems contained in this collection use fragments from ancient Greek
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
myths, archaic images and visions of disasters, mobilized as an instrument of post-modern reality.
During the 1990s, his most important collection of poetry was Still Odes (Še ode), published 1996, which marks a return to classical poetic forms, mostly sonnets. The collection is opened by two poems containing a violent condemnation of the destruction of Vukovar
Battle of Vukovar
The Battle of Vukovar was an 87-day siege of Vukovar in eastern Croatia by the Yugoslav People's Army , supported by various paramilitary forces from Serbia, between August and November 1991. Before the Croatian War of Independence the Baroque town was a prosperous, mixed community of Croats,...
and Sarajevo
Siege of Sarajevo
The Siege of Sarajevo is the longest siege of a capital city in the history of modern warfare. Serb forces of the Republika Srpska and the Yugoslav People's Army besieged Sarajevo, the capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, from 5 April 1992 to 29 February 1996 during the Bosnian War.After Bosnia...
during the Yugoslav wars
Yugoslav wars
The Yugoslav Wars were a series of wars, fought throughout the former Yugoslavia between 1991 and 1995. The wars were complex: characterized by bitter ethnic conflicts among the peoples of the former Yugoslavia, mostly between Serbs on the one side and Croats and Bosniaks on the other; but also...
.
Taufer has also written several plays. His most famous one is called Odysseus & Son or on the World and Home' ' (1990), in which he renews the story of Odysseus' and Telemach, including whole passages from Homer
Homer
In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
's text, supplemented by fragments from diverse genres.