Breda Smolnikar

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Breda Smolnikar (born January 19, 1941 in Herceg Novi , Yugoslavia ) is a Slovenian writer and entrepreneur .

life and work

Breda Smolnikar, born to Slovenian parents in Montenegro, grew up in Depala vas near Domžale in Upper Carniola , where she still lives today. She is a trained textile engineer and owner of a dry cleaning company and a coffee roastery . Even during her studies she became known to a broader readership through books for young people that were published by the Mladinska knjiga publishing house. From 1980 she self-published under the ironic pseudonym Gospa (A Lady) stories about her place of origin Depala vas, with which she positioned herself outside the official literary scene. Praised by experts for her unadorned but poetically powerful stories and recommended for official prizes, the literary outsider soon offended the local authorities for not caring about ideological taboos. In 1985 she was sentenced to three months' conditional imprisonment at the Ljubljana District Court for allegedly denigrating the people 's liberation struggle. Until the break in 1991 and for a few years after that, she did not publish any further texts.

The publication of the story Ko se tam gori olistajo breze (self-published, 1998) resulted in an unforeseeable scandal because private, unknown to the author, claimants wanted to have recognized their own mother in the main character and, in particular, wanted to see their alleged parents' revealing sexual acts bumped. Acquitted in the first instance, the author was finally sentenced in 2003 to a horrendous fine for every book still in circulation; the judgment was upheld by the appellate court in 2005, and the plaintiffs were given access to the author's assets. After the judgment was overturned by the Slovenian Constitutional Court in 2007, the plaintiffs appealed to the Human Rights Court in Strasbourg, which finally dismissed the case in 2014 on the grounds that artistic freedom enjoyed the special protection of the Convention on Human Rights. The affair went through the Slovenian media for years and led to a broad public discussion about the restriction of artistic freedom by legal measures that threaten the existence of the country. In the meantime, however, the until then rather marginalized author, who to this day withdraws from the official literary scene and continues to self-publish, has received the recognition she deserves for her literary quality. In 2016, the National and University Library in Ljubljana organized an exhibition on the occasion of Breda Smolnikar's 75th birthday. In 2017, a 50-minute television portrait of the author was broadcast on Slovenia's public broadcaster. In 2016 she took part in the Rauris Literature Days together with her translator Erwin Köstler . Breda Smolnikar has published around thirty titles by 2017. Individual books and stories have been translated into German, English, French, Spanish and Slovak.

Publications (selection)

  • Otročki, življenje teče dalje . Mladinska knjiga 1963.
  • Mali mozaik imen. Mladinska knjiga 1967.
  • Popki . Mladinska knjiga, 1973.
  • Balada o divjem mleku. Self published in 1980.
  • Ko je umiral Stob. Self published in 1982.
  • Mrtvi Stob . Self-published in 1983.
  • Stobovske elegije. Self-published 1985.
  • Ko se tam gori olistajo breze . Self-published 1998; Založba Sanje 2007. German translation: When the birch trees blossom. Translated from the Slovenian by Erwin Köstler. Klagenfurt, Wieser 2015.
  • Véliki slovenski tekst. Self-published 2010.
  • Pripovedka o Abrnci . Self-published 2013.
  • Privovedka o Dursumi. Self-published 2013.
  • Pripovedka o Albini. Self-published 2014.
  • Pripovedka o metodi. Self-published 2015.
  • Pripovedka o Alojziji Lojzi Lujzi. Self-published 2015.
  • Si dekle ali si žena. Self-published 2016.

swell

  • Erwin Köstler: "Curious, stubborn, and enjoy working. Some remarks on Breda Smolnikar and her story When the birch trees are leafing", in: Breda Smolnikar: When the birch trees are leafing. Translated from the Slovenian by Erwin Köstler. Klagenfurt / Celovec: Wieser 2015, 111– [125].

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ For a detailed biography in German see: Erwin Köstler: Curious, stubborn, and with joy in work. A few remarks on Breda Smolnikar and her story When the Birch Trees Leaves, in: Breda Smolnikar: When the Birches Leaves. Translated from the Slovenian by Erwin Köstler. Klagenfurt / Celovec: Wieser 2015, 111– [125].
  2. ↑ Marko Juvan: "Stališče Slovenskega društva za primerjalno književnost do obsodbe pisateljice Brede Smolnikar. Whether" poslovilnem komemorativnem literarnem večeru "Brede Smolnikar, 1st decembra 2005, na ljublnjemanskem knot 2006 (on December 7th, 2006) 73.
  3. ↑ Breda Smolnikar: Breda Smolnikar. In: Rauriser Literaturtage. Retrieved April 9, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Smolnikar, Breda
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Slovenian writer and entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH January 19, 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH Herceg Novi , Yugoslavia