''Nova revija'' ( Slovene for ''New Review'' or ''New Journal'') is a Slovene language

literary magazine A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry, and essays, along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews and letter ...

published in

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 ...

History and profile

''Nova revija'' was founded by Cankarjeva Publishing House in 1982, when the

Titoist Titoism is a political philosophy most closely associated with Josip Broz Tito during the Cold War. It is characterized by a broad Yugoslav identity, workers' self-management, a political separation from the Soviet Union, and leadership in the ...

regime allowed a group of liberal and conservative critical intellectuals to publish an editorially entirely independent journal for the first time after the abolishment of the magazine '' Perspektive'' in 1964. The owner and publisher of the magazine is Nova revija Publishing House. Already in 1980, shortly after the death of the Yugoslav president

Josip Broz Tito Josip Broz ( sh-Cyrl, Јосип Броз, ; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980), commonly known as Tito (; sh-Cyrl, Тито, links=no, ), was a Yugoslav communist revolutionary and statesman, serving in various positions from 1943 until his deat ...

, six Slovenian authors and intellectuals (columnist

Dimitrij Rupel Dimitrij Rupel (born 7 April 1946) is a Slovenian politician. Early life and education Rupel was born in Ljubljana, in what was then the PR Slovenia, into a bourgeois family of former anti-fascist political emigrants from the Julian March (his ...

, philosopher

Tine Hribar Tine Hribar (born 28 January 1941 as Velentin 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 ...

, poets Niko Grafenauer,

Svetlana Makarovič Svetlana Makarovič (born 1 January 1939) is a Slovenian writer of prose, poetry, children's books, and picture books, and is also an actress, illustrator and chanteuse. She has been called "The First Lady of Slovenian poetry." She is also noted f ...

and

Boris A. Novak Boris A. Novak (born 3 December 1953) is a Slovene poet, dramaturge and editor. Novak was born in 1953 in Belgrade where he also spent his early childhood. He completed secondary schooling in Ljubljana and studied Comparative literature and ...

, and literary historian Andrej Inkret) submitted a petition to the authorities 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 ...

in which they demanded to be allowed to publish a new independent journal. The petition maintained that the alternative magazine '' Problemi'', which had served as the main critical publication in Slovenia since the mid-1960s, had been taken over by the

Ljubljana Lacanian school Ljubljana school of psychoanalysis ( sl, Ljubljanska psihoanalitska šola or ), also known as the Ljubljana Lacanian School ( sl, Ljubljanska lakanovska šola) is a popular name for a school of thought centred on the Society for Theoretical Psychoa ...

, and that a new journal was needed. The petition was signed by over 60 public figures from Slovenia, which published a support letter in the daily magazine ''

Delo ''Delo'' (russian: Дело) is a business oriented online media in Ukraine, belonging to ekonomika+ media holding. ''Delo'' was the first daily in Ukraine, publishing its real print circulation (13.000 - 15.000) and trying to introduce Western e ...

''. It took however two years before the journal was allowed to be published. The first issue appeared in 1982, under the simple name of ''Nova revija'', meaning ''New Journal'' or ''New Review''. The publishing board included intellectuals from different generations and different ideological positions. Their common feature was a critical stance towards the

Communist regime A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state that is administered and governed by a communist party guided by Marxism–Leninism. Marxism–Leninism was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, the Cominte ...

, from a western perspective: either

liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

Christian democratic Christian democracy (sometimes named Centrist democracy) is a political ideology that emerged in 19th-century Europe under the influence of Catholic social teaching and neo-Calvinism. It was conceived as a combination of modern democratic ...

, or

Social democratic Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote soci ...

. In the mid-1980s, ''Nova revija'' became one of the chief voices of dissent in Slovenia, together with the

left liberal Social liberalism (german: Sozialliberalismus, es, socioliberalismo, nl, Sociaalliberalisme), also known as new liberalism in the United Kingdom, modern liberalism, or simply liberalism in the contemporary United States, left-liberalism ...

popular magazine ''

Mladina ''Mladina'' (English: Youth) is a Slovenian weekly left-wing political and current affairs magazine. Since the 1920s, when it was first published, it has become a voice of protest against those in power. Today, ''Mladinas weekly issues are dis ...

''. In 1987, the 57th issue of ''Nova revija'' was published, which included the

Contributions to the Slovenian National Program Contributions to the Slovene National Program ( sl, Prispevki za slovenski nacionalni program), also known as Nova revija 57 or 57th edition of Nova revija ( sl, 57. številka Nove revije) was a special issue of the Slovene opposition intellectua ...

, a plea for a democratic and sovereign Slovenia. In 1989, the intellectual group around the journal established the

Slovenian Democratic Union The Slovenian Democratic Union ( sl, Slovenska demokratična zveza, acronym SDZ) was a Slovene liberal political party, active between 1989 and 1991, during the democratization and the secession of the Republic of Slovenia from Yugoslavia. His ...

, which soon emerged as one of the key political parties within the

DEMOS coalition Democratic Opposition of Slovenia, also known as the DEMOS (in Slovenian: ''Demokratična opozicija Slovenije'') was a coalition of centre-right political parties, created by an agreement between the Slovenian Democratic Union, the Social Democrat ...

, a broad coalition that won the first free elections to the

National Assembly of Slovenia The National Assembly ( sl, Državni zbor Republike Slovenije, or ), is the general representative body of Slovenia. According to the Constitution of Slovenia and the Constitutional Court of Slovenia, it is the major part of the distinctively ...

in April 1990. In the 1980s ''Nova revija'' had a circulation of 3,500 copies. Its circulation dropped to 1,500 copies in the 1990s. After the independence of Slovenia in 1991, the magazine expanded into one of the most important cultural institutions in Slovenia.

Contributors

Prominent authors, essayists, columnists, and thinkers have contributed to ''Nova revija'', among them sociologists

Jože Pučnik Jože Pučnik (9 March 1932 – 11 January 2003) 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 ...

, Igor Škamperle,

Gregor Tomc Gregor Tomc also known as Grega Tomc (born 3 February 1952) is a Slovenian sociologist, musician and activist. In the late 1970s and 1980s, he was the founder and member of the Slovenian punk rock band ''Pankrti''. Biography Tomc was born i ...

Aleš Debeljak Ale is a type of beer brewed using a warm fermentation method, resulting in a sweet, full-bodied and fruity taste. Historically, the term referred to a drink brewed without hops. As with most beers, ale typically has a bittering agent to bala ...

and

Frane Adam Frane Adam (born 23 November 1948) is a Slovenian sociologist, editor and former dissident political activist. During the early 1970s, he was one of the leaders of the student protest movement in the Socialist Republic of Slovenia. Adam was bo ...

; political analysts

Viktor Blažič Viktor Blažič (19 July 1928 – 25 June 2014) was a Slovenian journalist, essayist, translator and former anti-Communist dissident. He was born in the village of Smolenja Vas near Novo Mesto in south-eastern Slovenia, then part of the Kingdom ...

and

; essayists

Žarko Petan image:Žarko Petan (2007).jpg, Žarko Petan Žarko Petan (27 March 1929 – 2 May 2014) was a Slovenian writer, essayist, screenwriter, and theatre and film director. He is best known as a writer of aphorisms. Petan was born into a relatively wea ...

, Brane Senegačnik,

Alenka Puhar Alenka Puhar (born 4 February 1945) is a Slovenian journalist, author, translator, and historian. In 1982, she wrote a groundbreaking psychohistory-inspired book ''"The Primal Text of Life"'' (in Slovene: ''Prvotno besedilo življenja'') about t ...

Spomenka Hribar Spomenka Hribar (born 25 January 1941) is a Slovenian author, philosopher, sociologist, politician, columnist, and public intellectual. She was one of the most influential Slovenian intellectuals in the 1980s, and was frequently called "the Firs ...

, Andrej Capuder and Igor Senčar; poets

Veno Taufer Veno Taufer (born 19 February 1933) is a Slovenian poet, essayist, translator and playwright. Under the Communist regime, he was a driving force behind alternative cultural and intellectual projects in Socialist Slovenia, which challenged the ...

, Niko Grafenauer,

Aleš Šteger Aleš Šteger (born 31 May 1973) is a Slovene poet, writer, editor and literary critic. Aleš belongs to a generation of writers that started to publish right after the fall of Yugoslavia. His first poetry collection Šahovnice ur (1995) was so ...

Jože Snoj Jože Snoj (17 March 1934 – 7 October 2021) was a Slovenian poet, novelist, journalist and essayist. He was awarded the 2012 Prešeren Award for his lifetime work and rich literary opus. He was born in Maribor, then part of the Kingdom of ...

Josip Osti Josip Osti (19 March 1945 – 26 June 2021) was a Bosnians, Bosnian and Slovenes, Slovenian poet, prose writer and essayist, literary critic, anthologist and translator. Biography Osti was born in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He graduated fro ...

Dane Zajc Dane Zajc () (26 October 1929 – 20 October 2005) was a Slovenian poet and playwright. He served as president of the Slovene Writers' Association (1991–1995), and was awarded the prestigious Prešeren Award for lifetime achievement (1981). Toge ...

, and

Tomaž Šalamun Tomaž Šalamun (July 4, 1941 – December 27, 2014) was a Slovenian poet who was a leading figure of postwar neo-avant-garde poetry in Central EuropeColm Tóibín (2004The comet's trail Guardian and an internationally acclaimed absurdist. Martín ...

; philosophers

, Ivo Urbančič and

Dean Komel Dean Komel (born 7 June 1960) is a Slovenian philosopher. He was born in the small village of Bilje, Miren-Kostanjevica, Bilje in the Goriška region of Slovenia, then part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. After finishing the ...

; legal experts

France Bučar France Bučar (2 February 1923 – 21 October 2015) was a Slovenian politician, legal expert and author. Between 1990 and 1992, he served as the first speaker of the freely elected Slovenian Parliament. He was the one to formally declare the inde ...

and

Peter Jambrek Peter Jambrek (born 14 January 1940) is a Slovenian sociologist, jurist, politician and intellectual. He is considered among the fathers of the current Slovenian Constitution and among the most influential public intellectuals in Slovenia. Li ...

; writers

Rudi Šeligo Rudi Šeligo (14 May 1935 – 22 January 2004) was a Slovenian writer, playwright, essayist and politician. Together with Lojze Kovačič and Drago Jančar, he is considered one of the foremost Slovenian modernist writers of the post-World War ...

Lojze Kovačič Lojze Kovačič (9 November 1928 – 1 May 2004) was a Slovene writer. His novel ''The Newcomers'' ( sl, Prišleki) is often considered one of the most important Slovene novels of the 20th century and has been translated into German, French, Sp ...

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 ...

Drago Jančar Drago Jančar (born 13 April 1948) is a Slovenian writer, playwright and essayist. Jančar is one of the most well-known contemporary Slovene writers. In Slovenia, he is also famous for his political commentaries and civic engagement. Jančar's n ...

, and

Boris Pahor Boris Pahor, OMRI (; 26 August 1913 – 30 May 2022) was a Slovene novelist from Trieste, Italy, who was best known for his heartfelt descriptions of life as a member of the Slovenian minority in pre–Second World War increasingly fascist It ...

; literary critics

Taras Kermauner Taras Kermauner (13 April 1930 – 11 June 2008) was a Slovenian literary historian, critic, philosopher, essayist, playwright and translator. Life Taras Kermauner was born in Ljubljana as the son of the Slovene communist politician and inte ...

Janko Kos Janko Kos (born 9 March 1931) 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. His father was a liberal and freet ...

and

Simona Škrabec Simona Škrabec (Ljubljana, Slovenia, 1968) is a Slovene literary critic, essayist and translator who lives and works in Barcelona. She spent her childhood in the small town of Ribnica in the region of Lower Carniola. She has lived in Barcelona ...

; historians

Vasko Simoniti Vasko Simoniti (born 23 March 1951) is a Slovenian historian and politician. Between 2004 and 2008, he served as the Minister of Culture of Slovenia, being reappointed in 2020. He is an active member of the Slovenian Democratic Party. Early ...

, Peter Vodopivec, Peter Štih,

Igor Grdina Igor may refer to: People * Igor (given name), an East Slavic given name and a list of people with the name * Mighty Igor (1931–2002), former American professional wrestler * Igor Volkoff, a professional wrestler from NWA All-Star Wrestling ...

, and

Jože Pirjevec Jože Pirjevec (born 1 June 1940), registered at birth Giuseppe Pierazzi because of the Italianization#Istria, Julian March and Dalmatia, Italianization policy under the Fascist regime, is a Slovenes, Slovene–Italy, Italian historian and a promi ...

and many others. Many notable non-Slovene authors, especially dissidents from former Yugoslavia and the former

Communist bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...

, have contributed to the magazine, including

Adam Michnik Adam Michnik (; born 17 October 1946) is a Polish historian, essayist, former dissident, public intellectual, and editor-in-chief of the Polish newspaper, ''Gazeta Wyborcza''. Reared in a family of committed communists, Michnik became an opponen ...

Václav Havel Václav Havel (; 5 October 193618 December 2011) was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright, and former dissident. Havel served as the last president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1992 and then as ...

, György Konrád,

Dobrica Ćosić Dobrica Ćosić ( sr, Добрица Ћосић, ; 29 December 1921 – 18 May 2014) was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician, writer, and political theorist. Ćosić was twice awarded the prestigious NIN award for literature and Medal of Pushkin f ...

, and

Vlado Gotovac Vladimir "Vlado" Gotovac (18 September 1930 – 7 December 2000) was a Croatian poet and politician. Early activism In the late 1960s, Gotovac joined the Croatian movement demanding political and economic reform, which eventually led to the Cro ...

. Western authors and columnist who have contributed to the magazine include Jacques Rupnik,

Thomas Luckmann Thomas Luckmann (; October 14, 1927 – May 10, 2016) was an American-Austrian sociologist of German and Slovene origin who taught mainly in Germany. Born in Jesenice, Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Luckmann studied philosophy and linguistics at the Uni ...

Gianni Vattimo Gianteresio Vattimo (born 4 January 1936) is an Italian people, Italian philosopher and politician. Biography Gianteresio Vattimo was born in Turin, Piedmont. He studied philosophy under the existentialism, existentialist Luigi Pareyson at the Un ...

, and

Fernando Savater Fernando Fernández-Savater Martín (born 21 June 1947 at Basque city of San Sebastián) is a Spanish philosopher, essayist and author. Early years and career Born in San Sebastián, he was an Ethics professor at the University of the Basque ...

. The journal has published translations of foreign literates such as

Naguib Mahfouz Naguib Mahfouz Abdelaziz Ibrahim Ahmed Al-Basha ( arz, نجيب محفوظ عبد العزيز ابراهيم احمد الباشا, ; 11 December 1911 – 30 August 2006) was an Egyptian writer who won the 1988 Nobel Prize in Literature. ...

Zbigniew Herbert Zbigniew Herbert (; 29 October 1924 – 28 July 1998) was a Polish poet, essayist, drama writer and moralist. He is one of the best known and the most translated post-war Polish writers. While he was first published in the 1950s (a volume title ...

Wisława Szymborska Maria Wisława Anna SzymborskaVioletta Szosta gazeta.pl, 9 February 2012. ostęp 2012-02-11 (; 2 July 1923 – 1 February 2012) was a Polish poet, essayist, translator, and recipient of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in Prowent ( ...

Peter Handke Peter Handke (; born 6 December 1942) is an Austrian novelist, playwright, translator, poet, film director, and screenwriter. He was awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Literature "for an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored t ...

Diego Marani Diego Marani (born 1959) is an Italian novelist and European civil servant. Biography Born in Tresigallo, Marani attended the Liceo Ginnasio Ariosto in Ferrara till 1978 and graduated in interpretation and translation from the ''Scuola superior ...

, and Czeslaw Milosz, as well as theorists like

Jan Patočka Jan Patočka (; 1 June 1907 – 13 March 1977) was a Czech philosopher. Having studied in Prague, Paris, Berlin, and Freiburg, he was one of the last pupils of Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger. In Freiburg he also developed a lifelong philos ...

Hannah Arendt Hannah Arendt (, , ; 14 October 1906 – 4 December 1975) was a political philosopher, author, and Holocaust survivor. She is widely considered to be one of the most influential political theorists of the 20th century. Arendt was born ...

, Charles Taylor,

Jacques Derrida Jacques Derrida (; ; born Jackie Élie Derrida; See also . 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was an Algerian-born French philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in numerous texts, and which was developed t ...

François Furet François Furet (; 27 March 1927 – 12 July 1997) was a French historian and president of the Saint-Simon Foundation, best known for his books on the French Revolution. From 1985 to 1997, Furet was a professor of French history at the University ...

Francis Fukuyama Francis Yoshihiro Fukuyama (; born October 27, 1952) is an American political scientist, political economist, international relations scholar and writer. Fukuyama is known for his book ''The End of History and the Last Man'' (1992), which argue ...

Jürgen Habermas Jürgen Habermas (, ; ; born 18 June 1929) is a German social theorist in the tradition of critical theory and pragmatism. His work addresses communicative rationality and the public sphere. Associated with the Frankfurt School, Habermas's wor ...

Niklas Luhmann Niklas Luhmann (; ; December 8, 1927 – November 6, 1998) was a German sociologist, philosopher of social science, and a prominent thinker in systems theory. Biography Luhmann was born in Lüneburg, Free State of Prussia, where his father's fa ...

, and

Peter Szondi Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nova Revija 1982 establishments in Yugoslavia Contemporary history of Slovenia Literary magazines Magazines established in 1982 Mass media in Ljubljana Slovene-language magazines Slovenian literature Magazines published in Slovenia Magazines published in Yugoslavia