Bojan Štih (18 February 1923 – 14 October 1986), was a Slovene

literary critic Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...

stage director A theatre director or stage director is a professional in the theatre field who oversees and orchestrates the mounting of a theatre production such as a play, opera, dance, drama, musical theatre performance, etc. by unifying various endeavors a ...

, and

essayist An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...

. He was one of the most influential figures in modern Slovene theatre after 1945. Štih was born in

Ljubljana Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center. During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the ar ...

, where he attended Bežigrad High School. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, he collaborated with the

Liberation Front of the Slovenian People The Liberation Front of the Slovene Nation ( sl, Osvobodilna fronta slovenskega naroda), or simply Liberation Front (''Osvobodilna fronta'', OF), originally called the Anti-Imperialist Front (''Protiimperialistična fronta'', PIF), was a Slovene ...

. In 1942 he was arrested by the Italian Fascist authorities and sent to the

Gonars concentration camp The Gonars concentration camp was one of the several Italian concentration camps and it was established on February 23, 1942, near Gonars, Italy. Many internees were transferred to this camp from the other Italian concentration camp, Rab concentr ...

. In late August 1942 he escaped from the camp along with a group of Slovene Communist activists, among whom was also the

Partisan Partisan may refer to: Military * Partisan (weapon), a pole weapon * Partisan (military), paramilitary forces engaged behind the front line Films * ''Partisan'' (film), a 2015 Australian film * ''Hell River'', a 1974 Yugoslavian film also know ...

leader Franc Ravbar and

Boris Kraigher Boris Kraigher (February 14, 1914 – January 4, 1967) was a Slovenian communist politician. Kraigher served as the president of the Executive Council of the Socialist Republic of Slovenia from December 15, 1953 to June 25, 1962. He was a member ...

, who later who became prime minister of the

Socialist Republic of Slovenia The Socialist Republic of Slovenia ( sl, Socialistična republika Slovenija, sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Socijalistička Republika Slovenija, Социјалистичка Република Словенија), commonly referred to as Sociali ...

. Štih actively participated in the Slovene Partisan resistance in the

Julian March Venezia Giulia, traditionally called Julian March (Serbo-Croatian, Slovene: ''Julijska krajina'') or Julian Venetia ( it, Venezia Giulia; vec, Venesia Julia; fur, Vignesie Julie; german: Julisch Venetien) is an area of southeastern Europe wh ...

. After the end of the war in 1945, he worked as a journalist and editor. In 1957, he received a bachelor's degree in

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

from the

University of Ljubljana The University of Ljubljana ( sl, Univerza v Ljubljani, , la, Universitas Labacensis), often referred to as UL, is the oldest and largest university in Slovenia. It has approximately 39,000 enrolled students. History Beginnings Although certain ...

. The same year, he started working as a director at the Drama Theatre in Ljubljana, where he worked together with the playwright and author

Jože Javoršek Jože Javoršek was the pen name of Jože Brejc (October 20, 1920 – September 2, 1990), a Slovenian playwright, writer, poet, translator and essayist.Žale Žale Central Cemetery ( sl, Centralno pokopališče Žale), often simply Žale, is the largest and the central cemetery in Ljubljana and Slovenia. It is located in the Bežigrad District and operated by the Žale Public Company. History The ce ...

Cemetery. Štih Hall () in

Cankar Hall The Cankar Centre or Cankar Hall ( sl, Cankarjev dom) is the largest Slovenian convention, congress and culture center. The building was designed by the architect Edvard Ravnikar and was built at the southern edge of Republic Square in Ljubljana b ...

, the largest cultural and congress centre in Slovenia, was named after him, as was Štih Street () in the Bežigrad district of Ljubljana. He was the uncle of

Barbara Brezigar Barbara Brezigar (born 1 December 1953) is a Slovenian lawyer and politician. She currently serves as Secretary General at the Ministry of the Interior of Slovenia. She was born in a middle-class family in Ljubljana as Barbara Gregorin. Her uncl ...

, Slovene jurist and politician and current Chief

Public Prosecutor A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the case in a criminal trial ...

of the Republic of Slovenia.

Sources

Jože Pogačnik Jože Pogačnik (22 April 1932 – 16 February 2016) was a Slovenian film director and screenwriter. After studying film directing, Pogačnik first worked as a film critic, before becoming a prominent author of documentary films in the 1960s, ...

, "Bojan Štih" in ''Slovenska misel: eseji o slovenstvu'' (Ljubljana: Cankarjeva založba, 1987), 470-71. {{DEFAULTSORT:Stih, Bojan Slovenian essayists Yugoslav Partisans members Journalists from Ljubljana 1923 births 1986 deaths University of Ljubljana alumni Slovenian editors 20th-century essayists Yugoslav journalists