Igor Škamperle (born 21 November 1962) is a

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

n sociologist,

cultural theorist Culture theory is the branch of comparative anthropology and semiotics (not to be confused with cultural sociology or cultural studies) that seeks to define the heuristic concept of culture in operationalism, operational and/or scientific metho ...

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

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 ...

mountaineer Mountaineering or alpinism, is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending tall mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas. Indoor climbing, sport climbing, an ...

and

translator Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...

. He was born in a Slovene-speaking family in

Trieste Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into provi ...

, Italy. He studied

comparative literature Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the study of literature and cultural expression across linguistic, national, geographic, and disciplinary boundaries. Comparative literature "performs a role similar to that of the study ...

and

cultural sociology The sociology of culture, and the related cultural sociology, concerns the systematic analysis of culture, usually understood as the ensemble of symbolic codes used by a member of a society, as it is manifested in the society. For Georg Simmel, ...

at 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 ...

, where he graduated in 1990. He continued his studies at the Universities of

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

and

Perugia Perugia (, , ; lat, Perusia) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber, and of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and part o ...

, where he studied cultural and social changes in the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

period and the cosmologic thought of

Giordano Bruno Giordano Bruno (; ; la, Iordanus Brunus Nolanus; born Filippo Bruno, January or February 1548 – 17 February 1600) was an Italian philosopher, mathematician, poet, cosmological theorist, and Hermetic occultist. He is known for his cosmologic ...

. Since 1999, he works as a professor of sociology at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Ljubljana. His field of interest is mostly the Renaissance culture and the theory of symbolic forms. In his writings and translations, Škamperle introduced the thought of the Italian historical school (with

Eugenio Garin Eugenio Garin (May 9, 1909 – December 29, 2004) was an Italian philosopher and Renaissance historian. He was recognised as an authority on the cultural history of the Renaissance. Born at Rieti, Garin studied philosophy at the University of Flore ...

and

Federico Chabod Federico Chabod or Frédéric Chabod ( - February 23, 1901 – July 14, 1960) was an Italian historian and politician. Biography Born in Aosta from notary Laurent from Valsavarenche and Giuseppina Baratino from Ivrea, he studied at the Unive ...

as its main representatives) into the Slovene

historiography Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians ha ...

. He wrote treatises about Renaissance thinkers such as

Pico della Mirandola Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (24 February 1463 – 17 November 1494) was an Italian Renaissance nobleman and philosopher. He is famed for the events of 1486, when, at the age of 23, he proposed to defend 900 theses on religion, philosophy, ...

and

Nicholas of Cusa Nicholas of Cusa (1401 – 11 August 1464), also referred to as Nicholas of Kues and Nicolaus Cusanus (), was a German Catholic cardinal, philosopher, theologian, jurist, mathematician, and astronomer. One of the first German proponents of Renai ...

. He was one of the first scholars of

hermetism Hermeticism, or Hermetism, is a philosophical system that is primarily based on the purported teachings of Hermes Trismegistus (a legendary Hellenistic combination of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth). These teachings are containe ...

in Slovenia, as well as one of the first Slovene interpreters of

Carl Gustav Jung Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, philo ...

. Škamperle's most important work is ''Magična renesansa'' ("The Magical Renaissance"), in which he analyzed the magical-mythological current in the European Renaissance and reflected on the reasons of its disappearance with the emergence of

Classicism Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for a classical period, classical antiquity in the Western tradition, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. In its purest form, classicism is an aestheti ...

. He studied and wrote about the political thought of Machiavelli, the historical epistemology of

Alexandre Koyré Alexandre Koyré (, ; born Alexandr Vladimirovich (or Volfovich) Koyra (russian: Александр Владимирович (Вольфович) Койра); 29 August 1892 – 28 April 1964), also anglicized as Alexander Koyre, was a Fren ...

and various religious manifestations such as

shamanism Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a Spirit world (Spiritualism), spirit world through Altered state of consciousness, altered states of consciousness, such as tranc ...

. He also published important studies on

Eleazar M. Meletinskii Eleazar Moiseevich Meletinskii (also ''Meletinsky'' or ''Meletinskij''; russian: Елеаза́р Моисе́евич Мелети́нский; 22 October 1918, Kharkiv – 17 December 2005, Moscow) was a Russian scholar famous for his seminal stud ...

and

Georges Dumézil Georges Edmond Raoul Dumézil (4 March 189811 October 1986) was a French philologist, linguist, and religious studies scholar who specialized in comparative linguistics and mythology. He was a professor at Istanbul University, École pratique d ...

. In his young years, Škamperle was a mountaineer. He wrote several books on mountaineering which has an important influence in the Slovene mountaineer

subculture A subculture is a group of people within a culture that differentiates itself from the parent culture to which it belongs, often maintaining some of its founding principles. Subcultures develop their own norms and values regarding cultural, poli ...

. His writing insert themselves in a long tradition of Slovene mountaineering essayistics, that goes from

Julius Kugy Julius Kugy (19 July 1858 – 5 February 1944) was a mountaineer, writer, botanist, humanist, lawyer and officer of Slovenian descent. He wrote mostly in German. He is renowned for his travelogues from opening up the Julian Alps, in which he refle ...

to Tone Svetina and

Dušan Jelinčič Dušan Jelinčič (born 1953) is a writer and a journalist from the community of Slovene minority in Italy from Trieste, Italy.Slovenian Television Broadcast. The two most important were the film ''Epifanija zemlje in duha'' ("

Epiphany Epiphany may refer to: * Epiphany (feeling), an experience of sudden and striking insight Religion * Epiphany (holiday), a Christian holiday celebrating the revelation of God the Son as a human being in Jesus Christ ** Epiphany season, or Epiph ...

of Earth and Spirit"), dedicated to the 80 years of the author

Alojz Rebula Alojz Rebula (June 21, 1924 – October 23, 2018) was a Slovene writer, playwright, essayist, and translator, and a prominent member of the Slovene minority in Italy. He lived and worked in Villa Opicina in the Province of Trieste, Italy. He was ...

, and a documentary on the Slovene philosopher Klement Jug. He regularly publishes essays reflecting on contemporary society in the journals ''

Sodobnost ''Sodobnost'' ( Slovene for ''Modernity'' or ''Contemporary Time'') 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 tr ...

'' and '' Nova revija''.

Major works

*''Sneg na zlati veji'' ("The Snow on the Golden Branch", novel, 1992) *''Hermetizem'' ("Hermetism", monograph, 1996) *''Kraljeva hči'' ("The King's Daughter", novel, 1997) *''Magična renesansa'' ("The Magical Renaissance, 1999) *''Šamanizem'' ("Shamanism", monograph, 2007)

Sources

Department of Sociology: Igor Škamperle

External links

Interview in the magazine Geo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Skamperle, Igor 1961 births Living people Writers from Trieste University of Ljubljana alumni University of Bologna alumni University of Perugia alumni Academic staff of the University of Ljubljana Slovenian sociologists Slovenian novelists Slovenian essayists Slovenian translators Italian–Slovene translators Slovenian mountain climbers Italian Slovenes