The directory «Plots»

Kocbek Edward
(1904—1991)

Edvard Kocbek, a writer, editor and politician, was born on 27 September 1904 at Sveti Jurij ob Ščavnici. After finishing grammar school, he studied theology in Maribor, but stopped his studies before the end of the second year and went to Ljubljana, where he graduated from Ljubljana University with a degree in Romance languages and worked as professor of French at Ljubljana grammar school before WWII. After the foundation of the Liberation Front (an anti-Nazi coalition) in 1941, Kocbek joined the organisation as a representative of the Christian group. He helped editing the newspapers "Osvobodilna Fronta" (The Liberation Front) and "Slovenski poročevalec" (The Slovene Reporter), and preparing the programme for the illegal radio transmitter "Kričač" (The Shouter) in occupied Ljubljana. In spring 1942, Kocbek joined the partisans and participated as a delegate at the 2nd AVNOJ (Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation of Yugoslavia) assembly. After the war, he was a high-ranking official until 1952 when he was condemned to be a dissident and constrained to spend the rest of his life in cruel isolation. He started publishing his poems in 1924. His very first collection of poems Earth established him as a modern poet, originally combining expressionist and symbolistic elements. After his withdrawal from politics, Kocbek found himself isolated from cultural life until the 1960s. He spent time translating texts from French and German. In 1963 Kocbek published his collection of poems Horrors, while his other three collections, among them Pentagram, were published only in 1977 in his Collected Poems. His four short stories, entitled Fear and Courage are his only prose works. They were the first to publicly expose the true story of the National Liberation Fight during WWII.

Slovenia, 2004, Edvard Kocbek

Slovenia, 2004.01.22, Sveti Jurij ob Ščavnici. Edvard Kocbek