Rudi Šeligo (14 May 1935 – 22 January 2004) was a Slovenian writer, playwright, essayist and politician. Together with

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 ...

and

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 ...

, he is considered one of the foremost Slovenian modernist writers of the post-

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 ...

period.

Life

Šeligo was born in a Slovene family in Sušak,

Kingdom of Yugoslavia The Kingdom of Yugoslavia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Kraljevina Jugoslavija, Краљевина Југославија; sl, Kraljevina Jugoslavija) was a state in Southeast Europe, Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 unt ...

, now part of the city of

Rijeka Rijeka ( , , ; also known as Fiume hu, Fiume, it, Fiume ; local Chakavian: ''Reka''; german: Sankt Veit am Flaum; sl, Reka) is the principal seaport and the third-largest city in Croatia (after Zagreb and Split). It is located in Primor ...

, Croatia. In 1939, he moved with his family to the industrial town of

Jesenice Jesenice (, german: Aßling''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru'', vol. 6: Kranjsko. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 144.) is a Slovenian town and the seat of the Municipality of Jesenice on the ...

in north-western Slovenia. After finishing high school, he worked as an industrial worker in the local

iron mill An ironworks or iron works is an industrial plant where iron is smelted and where heavy iron and steel products are made. The term is both singular and plural, i.e. the singular of ''ironworks'' is ''ironworks''. Ironworks succeeded bloomer ...

for few years. He then moved to the small town of

Tolmin Tolmin (; it, Tolmino,trilingual name ''Tolmein, Tolmino, Tolmin'' inGemeindelexikon, der im Reichsrate Vertretenen Königreiche und Länder. Bearbeit auf Grund der Ergebnisse der Volkszählung vom 31. Dezember 1900. Herausgegeben von der K.K. ...

, where he finished a teacher's academy. In 1956, he moved to

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 enrolled in 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 ...

, studying philosophy and sociology. In Ljubljana, Šeligo became involved with a group of young and intellectuals known as the Critical generation. He published several short stories in the alternative literary journal Revija 57. He became friends with the dissident intellectual

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 ...

, and witnessed his arrest in 1958. In 1962, he became a lecturer at the School for Sociology and Working Management in

Kranj Kranj (, german: Krainburg) is the third-largest city in Slovenia, with a population of 37,941 (2020). It is located approximately northwest of Ljubljana. The centre of the City Municipality of Kranj and of the traditional region of Upper Carniol ...

, and continued publishing his works, mostly in the alternative journal '' Perspektive''. When the journal was forced to close down by 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 ...

, Šeligo entered a "creative strike", refusing to publish any of his works for two years. In the late 1960s, he started collaborating the renowned literary theorists and philosopher Dušan Pirjevec Ahac. In the 1987, Šeligo was elected as president of the

Slovene Writers' Association The Slovene Writers' Association ( sl, Društvo slovenskih pisateljev) is a non-profit association of Slovene writers based in Ljubljana. The association was founded on 21 April 1872 in Ljubljana at the initiative of Davorin Trstenjak who also be ...

. In a period of social and political ferment, Šeligo used his position to transform the association in an open platform of public debate, promoting the values of pluralism and democracy. In 1989, he was among the founding members of 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 ...

. In the first free elections in Slovenia in 1990, he was elected to the

Slovenian Parliament The Slovenian Parliament ( sl, Slovenski parlament) is the informal designation of the general representative body of the Slovenian nation and the legislative body of the Republic of Slovenia. According to the Constitution of Slovenia, the gene ...

. Between 1990 and 1994, he also presided the Advisiory Board of the Slovenian Radio and Television Broadcast. In 1994, he joined the Slovenian Social Democratic Party. Between June and November 2000, he served as Minister for Culture in the short lived centre-right government of

Andrej Bajuk Andrej Bajuk, also known in Spanish as Andrés Bajuk (18 October 1943 – 16 August 2011) was a Slovene politician and economist. He served briefly as Prime Minister of Slovenia in the year 2000, and was Minister of Finance in the centre-right g ...

. During this short period, he compiled the so-called "National Program for Culture", an integrative document on the aims of cultural policy in Slovenia, which became the basis for the cultural policies of all later Slovenian governments. In 2001, he became a member of the

Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts The Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts ( sl, Slovenska akademija znanosti in umetnosti (SAZU)) is the national academy of Slovenia, which encompasses science and the arts and brings together the top Slovene researchers and artists as members o ...

. He died in Ljubljana and was buried in the

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.

Work

In the 1950s, Šeligo was among those who brought radical avantgardist innovations to the

Slovenian literature Slovene literature is the literature written in Slovene. It spans across all literary genres with historically the Slovene historical fiction as the most widespread Slovene fiction genre. The Romantic 19th-century epic poetry written by the lea ...

. His short novel "The Triptych of Agata Schwarzkobler" (''Triptih Agate Schwarzkobler''), published in 1968, is considered the first example of

reism Reism, reificationism, concretism or concretionism is a view that only concrete material things exist. It is a philosophical theory associated with Tadeusz Kotarbiński who proposed that it involves both the proper view about the kinds of objects ...

in Slovene literature. His early novels were under the influence of the French Nouveau roman, and were characterized by thick descriptions and anti-psychologic attitude.

References

News of Šeligo's deathEulogy in the journal MladinaBiographyLiterature in Context
{{DEFAULTSORT:Seligo, Rudi 1935 births Slovenian writers Slovenian dramatists and playwrights Slovenian essayists Slovenian Democratic Union politicians Slovenian Democratic Party politicians University of Ljubljana alumni Members of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts Prešeren Award laureates Kresnik Award laureates Writers from Rijeka People from Jesenice, Jesenice 2004 deaths Presidents of the Slovene Writers' Association 20th-century dramatists and playwrights 20th-century essayists Burials at Žale