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 ...
literary theorist
Literary theory is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for literary analysis. Culler 1997, p.1 Since the 19th century, literary scholarship includes literary theory and considerations of intellectual history, mora ...
,
translator
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...
and
political activist
A political movement is a collective attempt by a group of people to change government policy or social values. Political movements are usually in opposition to an element of the status quo, and are often associated with a certain ideology. Some ...
. Together with Slavoj Žižek and Mladen Dolar, he is considered one of the co-founders of the Ljubljana school of psychoanalysis.Jadžić, Miloš & Miljković, Dušan & Veselinović, Ana (eds.). (2012). ''Kriza, odgovori, levica: Prilozi za jedan kritički diskurs'',
Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung
The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation (german: Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung), named in recognition of Rosa Luxemburg, occasionally referred to as ''Rosa-Lux'', is a transnational alternative policy lobby group and educational institution, centered in Germa ...
He was born as Josip Rastko Močnik in a middle-class family 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 are ...
. He studied sociology and history of literature 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 ...
, graduating in 1968 under the supervision of
Dušan Pirjevec
Dušan Pirjevec, known by his nom de guerre Ahac (20 March 1921 – 4 August 1977), was a Slovenian Partisan, literary historian and philosopher. He was one of the most influential public intellectuals in post–World War II Slovenia.
Earl ...
. During his student years, he was active in several avant-garde literary movements. In 1964, he became the last co-editor (together with the poet
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 ...
) of the alternative journal '' Perspektive'', before it was closed down by the Yugoslav government. Between 1968 and 1970 he worked as a journalist at the journal ''
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 ...
''. He later studied at the
École des hautes études en sciences sociales
The School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (french: École des hautes études en sciences sociales; EHESS) is a graduate ''grande école'' and '' grand établissement'' in Paris focused on academic research in the social sciences. The ...
in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
, where he obtained a PhD in philosophy under the supervision of
Algirdas Julien Greimas
Algirdas Julien Greimas (; born ''Algirdas Julius Greimas''; 9 March 1917 – 27 February 1992) was a Lithuanian literary scientist who wrote most of his body of work in French while living in France. Greimas is known among other things for th ...
.
Work life and politics
After returning to Ljubljana, he became the editor of the alternative journal '' Problemi''. During this period, he started a close collaboration with Marxist philosophers Slavoj Žižek and Mladen Dolar. Since 1984, Močnik is professor of sociology at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Ljubljana.
Močnik was among the first Slovene theorists who introduced structuralism and the theories of Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser in Slovenian academia. He has written on several subjects including theory of ideology, theoretical
psychoanalysis
PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might b ...
,
semiotics
Semiotics (also called semiotic studies) is the systematic study of sign processes ( semiosis) and meaning making. Semiosis is any activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, where a sign is defined as anything that communicates something ...
, linguistics and
epistemology
Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics.
Epis ...
of
humanities
Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...
and
social sciences
Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of so ...
Émile Durkheim
David Émile Durkheim ( or ; 15 April 1858 – 15 November 1917) was a French sociologist. Durkheim formally established the academic discipline of sociology and is commonly cited as one of the principal architects of modern social science, al ...
and
Marcel Mauss
Marcel Mauss (; 10 May 1872 – 10 February 1950) was a French sociologist and anthropologist known as the "father of French ethnology". The nephew of Émile Durkheim, Mauss, in his academic work, crossed the boundaries between sociology and ...
into Slovene.
Močnik has also been active in several civil and political movements in Slovenia. In the early 1980s, he was one of the most outspoken opponents of a high school education reform, carried out by the League of Communists of Slovenia, in which the classical grammar schools (the so-called gymnasium) were abolished as a supposed remainder of old bourgeois elitism. In 1982, he also wrote a petition against such reform, together with editor
Braco Rotar
Braco may refer to:
Places
* Braco, Perth and Kinross, a village in Scotland
* Braco Airfield, an airstrip in Jamaica
People
* Braco (faith healer) (born 1967), self-styled healer from Croatia
* Baron Braco, a title in the Peerage of Irel ...
Matevž Krivic
Matevž (puréed beans with cracklings) is a Slovene national dish. The dish is typical of central Slovenia, especially of the Kočevje region. It is made of beans and potatoes. Its origins come from the 19th century. Originally, the lower soc ...
. The petition was signed by over 600 intellectuals, and was one of the first wide and openly critical
civil society
Civil society can be understood as the "third sector" of society, distinct from government and business, and including the family and the private sphere.Socialist Slovenia. Between 1988 and 1990, he served on the board of the
Committee for the Defence of Human Rights
The Committee for the Defence of Human Rights ( sl, Odbor za varstvo človekovih pravic) was a civil society organization in Slovenia, which functioned during the so-called Slovenian Spring between 1988 and 1990.
It was founded in Ljubljana on 31 ...
, the main civil society organization in Slovenia during the process of democratization. In the early 1990s, he opposed the dissolution of
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 ...
and Slovenian independence.
In 1990, Močnik was elected president of a small extra-parliamentary party, called Social Democratic Union (''Socialdemokratska unija'', SDU), which was linked to
Ante Marković
Ante Marković (; 25 November 1924 – 28 November 2011) was a Croatian and Yugoslav politician, businessman and engineer. Marković is most notable for having served as the last prime minister of SFR Yugoslavia.
Early life
Marković, was a Bosn ...
's
Union of Reform Forces
The Union of Reform Forces of Yugoslavia ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, Савез реформских снага Југославије, Savez reformskih snaga Jugoslavije; abbr. СРСЈ or SRSJ) was a centre-left political party in the SFR Yugoslavia led b ...
. The party failed to win any significant popular support, and remained outside of the Slovenian Parliament. After its dissolution in the early 1990s, Močnik left party politics, but continued to participate in the public debate. He was one of the few Slovenian public intellectuals who opposed the unilateral declaration of Slovenian independence. In the late 1990s, he opposed the Slovenian entry in
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
. He has also been highly critical of the Bologna process.
Močnik also writes weekly columns in the Slovene leftist journal ''
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 ...
'' and is a member of the advisory board of the regional left-wing magazine '' Novi Plamen''.
In 2017, Močnik has signed the
Declaration on the Common Language
The Declaration on the Common Language ( sh, Deklaracija o zajedničkom jeziku / ) was issued in 2017 by a group of intellectuals and NGOs from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia who were working under the banner of a projec ...
of the
Croats
The Croats (; hr, Hrvati ) are a South Slavic ethnic group who share a common Croatian ancestry, culture, history and language. They are also a recognized minority in a number of neighboring countries, namely Austria, the Czech Republic, ...
,
Serbs
The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are the most numerous South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans in Southeastern Europe, who share a common Serbian ancestry, culture, history and language.
The majority of Serbs live in their na ...
Montenegrins
Montenegrins ( cnr, Црногорци, Crnogorci, or ; lit. "Black Mountain People") are a South Slavic ethnic group that share a common Montenegrin culture, history, and language, identified with the country of Montenegro.
Genetics
Accordi ...
.
Controversies
Močnik's ambiguous positions in the years 1989–1991, when he was critical of Slovenia's independence from Yugoslavia, was criticized by many at the time, and has remained one of the frequent political reproaches against him, including from the conservative ex Prime Minister
Janez Janša
Ivan Janša (; born 17 September 1958), baptized and best known as Janez Janša (), is a Slovenian politician who served three times as a prime minister of Slovenia, a position he had held from 2004 to 2008, from 2012 to 2013, and from 2020 to 2 ...
.
In 2008, his article "Slovene historians on the Destruction of Yugoslav Federation" published in a special issue of the review '' Borec'' under the name ''Oddogodenje zgodovine – primer Jugoslavije ("The Uneventment of History - The Case of Yugoslavia") together with contributions by the "new generation" of Slovenian historians and young foreign researchers such as Ozren Pupovac, Alberto Toscano and Geoffroy Geraud-Legros, became highly polemical as he criticized some trends on historical revisionism in contemporary Slovenian historiography. In the article, Močnik accused three of the most prominent contemporary Slovene historians, Peter Vodopivec, Jože Pirjevec and
Božo Repe Božo ( sr, Божо) is a South Slavic masculine given name. Notable people with the name include:
*Božo Bakota (1950–2015), Croatian footballer
*Božo Biškupić (born 1938), Croatian politician and lawyer
* Božo Broketa (1922–1985), Yugosl ...
nationalist
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...