Janez Vrečko (born 1946) is a Slovene

literary historian The history of literature is the historical development of writings in prose or poetry that attempt to provide entertainment or education to the reader, as well as the development of the literary techniques used in the communication of these pie ...

and

theorist A theory is a systematic and rational form of abstract thinking about a phenomenon, or the conclusions derived from such thinking. It involves contemplative and logical reasoning, often supported by processes such as observation, experimentation, ...

Life and work

He is a professor of

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

at the University of Ljubljana's Faculty of Arts. He received his PhD in 1986 for his dissertation entitled ''Slovenian Historical

Avant-Garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

and

Zenitism Zenitism ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Zenitizam, Зенитизам) was an avant-garde art movement in Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Yugoslavia that lasted from 1921 until 1926, first appearing in Zagreb from 1921 to 1924 and from 1924 in Belgrade ...

''.''

Enciklopedija Slovenije The ''Encyclopedia of Slovenia'' () is a Slovene-language encyclopedia that contains topics related to Slovenia. It was published from 1987 to 2002 in 16 volumes by Mladinska knjiga in cooperation with the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts. ...

'', 2000. Vol. 14, pp. 375. In 1978 he received an MA for his thesis on mimetic and non-mimetic poetics. In 1974 he received a Student Prešeren Award for his graduate thesis. He has been employed in the Department of Comparative Literature and Literary Theory since 1978. He has spent more than two years researching or as a visiting lecturer at universities in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

Zagreb Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

, Belgrade,

Katowice Katowice (, ) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Katowice urban area. As of 2021, Katowice has an official population of 286,960, and a resident population estimate of around 315,000. K ...

, Salzburg,

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

, St. Petersburg and

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

. He has held visiting positions at the Universities of

Nova Gorica Nova Gorica () is a town in western Slovenia, on the border with Italy. It is the seat of the Municipality of Nova Gorica. Nova Gorica is a planned town, built according to the principles of modernist architecture after 1947, when the Treaty of pe ...

Koper Koper (; ) is the List of cities and towns in Slovenia, fifth-largest city in Slovenia. Located in the Slovenian Istria, Istrian region in the southwestern part of the country, Koper is the main urban center of the Slovene coast. Port of Koper i ...

and

Maribor Maribor ( , , ; also known by other #Name, historical names) is the List of cities and towns in Slovenia, second-largest city in Slovenia and the largest city of the traditional region of Styria (Slovenia), Lower Styria. It is the seat of the ...

. His fields of specialization in research and graduate teaching are European and Slovenian historical

. His extensive monograph on the Slovene avant-garde poet

Srečko Kosovel Srečko Kosovel () (18 March 1904 – 26 May 1926) was a Slovenian poet, now considered one of central Europe's major modernist poets.

(2011) brought new findings on the influence of Russian

Constructivism Constructivism may refer to: Art and architecture * Constructivism (art), an early 20th-century artistic movement that extols art as a practice for social purposes * Constructivist architecture, an architectural movement in the Soviet Union in t ...

on its wider European counterpart. His scholarship focuses on the history of the

epic Epic commonly refers to: * Epic poetry, a long narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation * Epic film, a genre of film defined by the spectacular presentation of human drama on a grandiose scale Epic(s) ...

tragedy A tragedy is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a tragic hero, main character or cast of characters. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy is to invoke an accompanying catharsi ...

and novel from

Classical Antiquity Classical antiquity, also known as the classical era, classical period, classical age, or simply antiquity, is the period of cultural History of Europe, European history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD comprising the inter ...

onwards and on the basic literary concepts such as

mimesis Mimesis (; , ''mīmēsis'') is a term used in literary criticism and philosophy that carries a wide range of meanings, including '' imitatio'', imitation, similarity, receptivity, representation, mimicry, the act of expression, the act of ...

catharsis Catharsis is from the Ancient Greek word , , meaning "purification" or "cleansing", commonly used to refer to the purification and purgation of thoughts and emotions by way of expressing them. The desired result is an emotional state of renewal an ...

and

inspiration Inspiration, inspire, INSPIRE, or inspired commonly refers to: * Artistic inspiration, sudden creativity in artistic production * Biblical inspiration, a Christian doctrine on the origin of the Bible * Inhalation, breathing in Inspiration and rel ...

. He is concerned with the theory and history of European

lyrics Lyrics are words that make up a song, usually consisting of verses and choruses. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist. The words to an extended musical composition such as an opera are, however, usually known as a "libretto" and their writer, ...

from

Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet, essayist, translator and art critic. His poems are described as exhibiting mastery of rhythm and rhyme, containing an exoticism inherited from the Romantics, an ...

onwards and with the European poetics from

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known as Bertolt Brecht and Bert Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a ...

and

Artaud Antoine Maria Joseph Paul Artaud (; ; 4September 18964March 1948), better known as Antonin Artaud, was a French artist who worked across a variety of media. He is best known for his writings, as well as his work in the theatre and cinema. Widely ...

. He is the recipient of the Gold Plaque from the University of Ljubljana, the Faculty of Arts Merit Award, the award of the Student Council of the Faculty of Arts for teaching work, the award of the Slovenian Research Agency for the best academic book of the years 2011 and 2014 and the State Zois Certificate of Recognition for scientific and research work in 2014.

Selected works

Monographs * ''Constructivism and Kosovel'', 2015. * ''Constructivism and Kosovel'', 2015. (E-book) * ''Konstruktivizm i Kosovel'' (Constructivism and Kosovel, in Russian), 2014. * ''Ep in tragedija'' (The Epic and Tragedy), 2012. E-book. * ''Srečko Kosovel'', 2011. * ''Med antiko in avantgardo'' (Between the Antiquity and the Avant-Garde), 2002. * ''Atiška tragedija'' (The Tragedy of Attica), 1997. * ''Ep in tragedija'' (The Epic and Tragedy), 1994. * ''Srečko Kosovel, slovenska zgodovinska avantgarda in zenitizem'' (Srečko Kosovel, Slovenian Historical Avant-Garde and Zenitism), 1986. Parts of monographs/articles
Yugoslavia and its republics. Slovenia. Handbook of International Futurism.
Ed. Günter Berghaus. Berlin/New York : Walter de Gruyter (forthcoming 2016). * From two-dimensionality into infinity by Kosovel, 2014. * Geometrizacija prostora in filozofija narave (Geometrization of Space and Philosophy of Nature), 2014. * Tragični jezik epskega heroja Ahila (The Tragic Language of the Epic Heroe Achilles), 2014. * Aristotelov posnetek kot posnetek v razliki (Aristotle's Mimesis as Mimesis of Difference), 2013. * ''Ut pictura poesis'' in konsi. Pesem kot slika, pesem kot prostor – nesporazumi. (''Ut pictura poesis'' and Conses. Poem as Picture, Poem as Space – misunderstandings), 2011. * Prostorskost konsov in Tržaški konstruktivistični ambient / The Spatiality of the ''Cons'' and the Trieste Constructivist Cabinet, 2011. *

Oedipus Oedipus (, ; "swollen foot") was a mythical Greek king of Thebes. A tragic hero in Greek mythology, Oedipus fulfilled a prophecy that he would end up killing his father and marrying his mother, thereby bringing disaster to his city and family. ...

and

Joseph K ''The Trial'' () is a novel written by Franz Kafka in 1914 and 1915 and published posthumously on 26 April 1925. One of his best-known works, it tells the story of Josef K., a man arrested and prosecuted by a remote, inaccessible authority, wi ...

, 2011. * Filozofija predmeta, geometrija in fizika – konstruktivizem (The Philosophy of the Object, Geometry and Physics – Constructivism), 2010. * Svetlobno-prostorska modulacija konsov in Moholy-Nagy (Light-space Modulation of ''Conses'' and Moholy-Nagy), 2010. * Agamemnon med nujnostjo in svobodo (

Agamemnon In Greek mythology, Agamemnon (; ''Agamémnōn'') was a king of Mycenae who commanded the Achaeans (Homer), Achaeans during the Trojan War. He was the son (or grandson) of King Atreus and Queen Aerope, the brother of Menelaus, the husband of C ...

between Necessity and Freedom), 2009. * Ojdip med sanjami in prerokbo (

between Dreams and Prophecy), 2008. * Evripid kot mojster rituala in gledališča / Euripide – maestro della ritualita'e del teatro (

Euripides Euripides () was a Greek tragedy, tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to ...

as Master of Ritual and Theatre), 2007. * Tibetanska in grška predtragična drama (

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

an and Greek Pre-tragic Drama), 2005. * Ojdipova kozmična in človeška bitka (Oedipus's Cosmic and Human Struggle), 2004. * Kafka kot Sofoklov predhodnik (

Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a novelist and writer from Prague who was Jewish, Austrian, and Czech and wrote in German. He is widely regarded as a major figure of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of real ...

as Progenitor of Sofocles), 2003. * Ignoranca preroštva v Kasandri (Disregarding the Prophecy in

Cassandra Cassandra or Kassandra (; , , sometimes referred to as Alexandra; ) in Greek mythology was a Trojan priestess dedicated to the god Apollo and fated by him to utter true prophecy, prophecies but never to be believed. In modern usage her name is e ...

), 2001. * Goethejevo in Aristotelovo pojmovanje posnemanja / Mimesis bei Aristoteles und Goethe (

Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...

's and

's Conception of

Mimesis Mimesis (; , ''mīmēsis'') is a term used in literary criticism and philosophy that carries a wide range of meanings, including '' imitatio'', imitation, similarity, receptivity, representation, mimicry, the act of expression, the act of ...

), 2000. * Sofoklov Filoktet kot tragični Job (

Sophocles Sophocles ( 497/496 – winter 406/405 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. was an ancient Greek tragedian known as one of three from whom at least two plays have survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or contemporary with, those ...

Philoctetes Philoctetes ( ''Philoktētēs''; , ), or Philocthetes, according to Greek mythology, was the son of Poeas, king of Meliboea (Magnesia), Meliboea in Thessaly, and Demonassa or Methone (Greek myth), Methone. He was a Greek hero, famed as an archer ...

as the Tragic Job), 1996.

References

Vrečko's publications in the Digital Library of Slovenia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vrecko, Janez 1946 births Slovenian literary historians University of Ljubljana alumni Academic staff of the University of Ljubljana Ethnic Slovene people Living people