Prežihov Voranc
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Prežihov Voranc (10 August 1893 – 18 February 1950) was the pen name of Lovro Kuhar, a Slovene writer and communist political activist. Voranc's literary reputation was established during the 1930s with a series of Slovene novels and short stories in the
social realist Social realism is the term used for work produced by painters, printmakers, photographers, writers and filmmakers that aims to draw attention to the real socio-political conditions of the working class as a means to critique the power structure ...
style, notable for their depictions of poverty in rural and industrial areas of
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 ...
. His most important novels are ''Požganica'' (1939) and ''Doberdob'' (1940).Prežihov Voranc, Two short stories, "The Self-Sown" and "Passion above the Precipice," translation and introduction by Irma Marija Ožbalt, Slovene Writers association (1994)


Biography


Formative years

Prežihov Voranc was born ''Laurentius Kuhar'' in Podgora near
Kotlje Kotlje () is a village in the hills south of Ravne na Koroškem in the Carinthia region in northern Slovenia. Kotlje is described in some of the works by the writer Prežihov Voranc. Church The parish church in the village is dedicated to Sain ...
, a Slovene-speaking village in Carinthia, then part of
Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
. He was the son of tenant farmers who later acquired their own land. His younger brother,
Alojzij Kuhar Alojzij Kuhar (18 June 1895 – 28 October 1958) was a Slovenian and Yugoslav politician, diplomat, historian and journalist. Together with Izidor Cankar and Franc Snoj, he was an important exponent of the liberal conservative fraction of the ...
, became a renowned
liberal conservative Liberal conservatism is a political ideology combining conservative policies with liberal stances, especially on economic issues but also on social and ethical matters, representing a brand of political conservatism strongly influenced by li ...
politician and historian. His pen name is a typical folk formulation derived from the
oeconym An oeconym, also econym, or oikonym (from el, οἶκος, , 'house, dwelling' and , , 'name') is a specific type of toponym that designates a proper name of a house or any other residential building, and in the broader sense, the term also refer ...
of the farm the family lived on (the Prežih farm) plus the Carninthian dialect form of the name ''Lovrenc'' (or ''Lovro''); thus, ''Prežihov Voranc'' literally means 'Lovro from the Prežih farm'. The steep mountain slopes of his homeland were hard to farm, and Voranc consistently returned to his childhood of drudgery and fortitude. He received little formal education beyond primary (elementary) school and later a course in co-operative management. He was, however, a man who wished to educate himself and for much of his life he self studied and read voraciously. In 1909, Voranc's first published work appeared in the Slovene magazine ''Domači Prijatelj'', edited by the writer
Zofka Kveder Zofka Kveder (22 April 1878 – 21 November 1926) was a writer, playwright, translator and journalist who wrote in Slovene and later in life also in Croatian. She is considered one of the first Slovene women writers and feminists. Kveder was b ...
. It was the first of many short stories for the magazine usually depicting the lives of farm labourers and rural characters from his Carinthian homeland. Between 1911 and 1912, Voranc spent time 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 prov ...
where he became more political aware writing of the travails of social misfits and unemployed drifters for the
Social-Democrat 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 soc ...
newspaper ''Zarja''.


Service in World War I

At the outbreak of
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, he was immediately drafted into the
Austro-Hungarian Army The Austro-Hungarian Army (, literally "Ground Forces of the Austro-Hungarians"; , literally "Imperial and Royal Army") was the ground force of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy from 1867 to 1918. It was composed of three parts: the joint arm ...
. He saw action and was captured in 1916 spending the remainder of the war in POW camps in Italy. As a soldier he continued writing often about the psychology of soldiers in warfare drawing on his surroundings and depicting the lives of the soldiers that he knew and with whom he had fought.


Political activism

Voranc was released in 1919 and returned to a Carinthia that was in political and cultural ferment. He took a job in the offices of a workers' co-operative at the steelworks in Guštajn. He became increasingly radicalized and a supporter of Carinthian political integration into the newly formed Yugoslav state. He continued to write, and in 1925 he published his first short story ''Povesti''. It was not especially well received by the intelligentsia 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 ...
; one review dismissed the work as by "talented proletarian, a self-taught writer." Nevertheless, it contains "elements that were later to develop into his highly acclaimed style."Irma Marija Ana Ožbalt, Slovene Writers Association, Slovene P.E.N., Ljubljana (1994) In 1930 his political activism and Communist sympathies resulted in a threat of arrest and Voranc absented himself from Carinthia and moved to
Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...
and from there,
Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...
in 1931 and hence to
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
in 1932. What appears to have been a period of instability in his life was also a period of active collaboration with other socialists in Europe and during the early thirties he also visited Romania,
Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...
, Greece, Norway, and France. He edited the magazine ''Delo'' in Vienna from 1932 to 1934 but fell foul of the Austrian authorities, who imprisoned him in 1937. In the years immediately before the
Second World War 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 opposi ...
Voranc was working in Paris as a librarian mixing with other political emigres.


Sodobnost

In 1933, a new left-wing literary review was founded 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 ...
, called ''
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 ...
'', propagating socialist views. Voranc' themes of social realism quickly found favor with the new review's editors,
Josip Vidmar Josip Vidmar (October 14, 1895 – April 11, 1992) was a notable Slovenian literary critic, essayist, and politician. From 1944 to 1946 he was speaker of the Slovenian People's Liberation Council (Slovenian Parliament). From 1952 to 1976 was pr ...
,
Fran Albreht Fran Albreht (17 November 1889 – 11 February 1963) was a Slovenian poet, editor, politician and partisan. He also published under the pseudonym Rusmir. He was born as Franc Albrecht in the Upper Carniolan town of Kamnik in what was then the Aus ...
and
Ferdo Kozak Ferdo Kozak (28 October 1894 – 8 December 1957) was a Slovenian author, playwright, editor and politician. He was born as Ferdinand Kozak in an upper middle class family in Ljubljana, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His older brothe ...
. The changing socio-economic conditions of the 1930s necessitated writers who could convey social realism, who could argue and inform and represent the lives of working-class people . Voranc' contributions to Sodobnost established his literary reputation when he was already in his forties. His first story ''Boj na požiralniku'', (in 1982 made into a film of the same title) , Review by Eleanor Mannikka exhibits Voranc's unique style: realistic events of Slovenian life are described within the context of an impressionistic landscape. The characters are as large as the landscape in which they live and their language in vernacular and realistic. The story focuses on a downtrodden family who are in part despised by their better off neighbors, one of whom describes then as ‘polecats’. The family exists on the margins of Slovenian society, toiling the land in an endless fight for survival which some of them fail to achieve. Voranc depicts death and children fighting to survive into adulthood. ''Boj na požiralniku'' caused a literary sensation and five more stories followed in the years 1935 to 39 which were later collected together as ''Samorastniki''. All deal with peasants lives in the Carinthian mountains, a region that had rarely featured in Slovene literature. The characters speak in the vernacular of the region, they are possessed of a resilient fortitude against the strife of their lives and whilst they are often overly superstitious, egotistical and obdurate Voranc also records them as: faithful, brave, honest and possessing of a religious faith that is true and sincere. In 1939, ''Sodobnost'' published a collection of Prežihov Voranc's works under the title ''Samorastniki''. It included ''Ljubezen na odoru'' (Passion Above the Precipice) and ''Vodnjak'' (The Self-Sown), available in English translations. Voranc left Paris and returned swiftly to Slovenia upon the outbreak of war living in Ljubljana and then in Mokronog. Upon his return he worked on an unfinished novel ''Požganica'' that had been started whilst he was in prison in Vienna.The novel set against the background of the end of the Great War is one of his most politically dogmatic and according to one critic 'marred by some overly naturalistic scenes, by over simplification of some characters and by political preaching' .


Later novels

His novel ''Doberdob'', which was published in 1941, had already had a checkered past, with the first two manuscripts seized or stolen.The title of the book referred to ''Doberdob, slovenskih fantov grob'' ("Doberdò, the grave of Slovene lads"), a lament to the Slovene dead of the
Battle of Doberdò The Battle of Doberdò took place in August 1916, fought by the Kingdom of Italy and Austria-Hungary. The Austro-Hungarian army was primarily made up of regiments filled with Hungarians and Slovenians. The battle was a part of the Sixth Battle ...
near the village of
Doberdò del Lago Doberdò del Lago ( sl, Doberdob; Bisiacco: ; fur, Dobardò) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Italian region Friuli-Venezia Giulia, located about northwest of Trieste and about southwest of Gorizia, and borders the following municipalit ...
during the First World War, In fact Voranc subtitles the novel as "The War Novel of the Slovenian People".
The third version is mostly a string of anecdotes and meditations on the lives of the Slovenes. It is a fiercely nationalistic novel surrounding the
Battle of Doberdò The Battle of Doberdò took place in August 1916, fought by the Kingdom of Italy and Austria-Hungary. The Austro-Hungarian army was primarily made up of regiments filled with Hungarians and Slovenians. The battle was a part of the Sixth Battle ...
. Doberdò has become the central symbolic place of the Slovene victims of World War I in part because of Voranc's novel. His third novel, ''Jamnica'', is set in a rural Carinthian village between the two wars at a period when the values of rural society are being challenged by increasing industrialization. It remained unpublished until 1946.


Axis annexation and the "cultural silence"

In April 1941, following the invasion of Yugoslavia, Nazi Germany annexed northern Slovenia, while Ljubljana and Mokronog were annexed by the Italian troops (and then occupied in 1943 by the Germans). Voranc feared for his life and left Slovenia once again for the Croatian capital
Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital and largest city of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb stands near the international border between Croatia and Slov ...
and then into the Bosnian countryside. However he seems to have had a change of heart and decided to return to Ljubljana for the duration of the war. He did not join the resistance movement but on 11 September he met clandestinely with other writers to proclaim the self-imposed "cultural silence," which prohibited publication, exhibitions and performances by Slovene artists for the duration of the war. As a suspected communist sympathizer Voranc was arrested in January 1943 and transported to the
Sachsenhausen Sachsenhausen () or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year. It mainly held political prisoners ...
and
Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp Mauthausen was a Nazi concentration camp on a hill above the market town of Mauthausen (roughly east of Linz), Upper Austria. It was the main camp of a group with nearly 100 further subcamps located throughout Austria and southern Germa ...
s. He returned to Ljubljana at the end of the war sick and depressed and unable to communicate with his family and comrades. He returned to his native village in Carinthia where he ceased political activity and removed himself from the political actualities of the newly formed communist Yugoslavia. He worked on ''Solzice'', a historical novel that remained unfinished at the time of his death in Maribor in 1950.


Themes in Voranc's writings

As a child and youth, Voranc experienced first hand the back-breaking drudgery of farming steep mountain slopes, and the theme of the farmer fighting the unyielding soil is recurrent in much of his writing. The mountains of Carinthia and the working-class people within them remained at the heart of Voranc's philosophical work. The beauty of the scenery is conveyed against the backdrop of shared toil and camaraderie. Voranc was drawn to the unfortunate and unjustly treated people he witnessed. His experiences during World War I undeniably left a deep impression on his psyche. The reality of war on the mind is especially explored in his novel ''Doberdob''. Voranc wished to convey to his reader the realism of the situation in which his characters lived and there is little that is sentimental about his depictions. Voranc preferred to write about the impoverished peasant and industrial working class against the impressionistic backdrop of a land that sometimes colludes against the peasant. His socialist leanings are key to understanding his later work. During the 1930s, while living away from his homeland, he became more aware of international socialism, although he adapted realism in his work to suit Slovene sensibilities.


Selected bibliography (Slovene)

* ''Boj na požiralniku'' (1935), * '' Požganica'' (1939) * ''Jamnica'' (1945) * ''Doberdob'' (1940) * ''Samorastniki'' (1940) consisting of a series of short stories that included: * ''Jirs in Bavh, Vodnjak'' * ''Ljubezen na odoru'' * ''Pot na klop'' * ''Prvi spopad, Odpustki in Samorastniki'' * ''Vodnjak''


Selected bibliography (English / German)

*Prežihov Voranc. 1983. ''The Self-Sown, Bilingual edition of a Slovene classic.'' New Orleans: Prometej. (English) *Prežihov Voranc. 1994. ''Two short stories, "The Self-Sown" and "Passion above the Precipice."'' Translation and introduction by Irma Marija Ana Ožbalt. Ljubljana: Slovene Writers Association. (English) *Prežihov Voranc. 2012. ''Winter in Klagenfurt. Drei Geschichten.'' Translated by Jozej Strutz. Klagenfurt: Kitab, . (German) * Vienna, Paris, Saualm. Stories and reports, from the Slovenian by Jozej Strutz, Drava-Verlag, Klagenfurt 2016, . (German)


References


Notes


External links


'Boj Na Poziralniku, review by Eleanor Mannikka
{{DEFAULTSORT:Voranc, Prezihov 1893 births 1950 deaths People from the Municipality of Ravne na Koroškem Slovenian male short story writers Slovenian short story writers Slovenian novelists Slovenian socialists Yugoslav communists People of Carinthian Slovene descent Sachsenhausen concentration camp survivors Levstik Award laureates 20th-century novelists 20th-century short story writers