Ivan Cankar

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Ivan Cankar

Ivan Cankar (born May 10, 1876 in Vrhnika / Oberlaibach, Slovenia ; † December 11, 1918 in Ljubljana / Laibach) was a Slovenian writer and poet .

Life

Cankar was born into a large family of an impoverished village tailor. Because of his talent, the support of the community made it possible for him to attend grammar school in Ljubljana / Laibach, 20 kilometers northeast (language of instruction is German).

After graduating from high school , Cankar went to Vienna in 1896 to begin studying at the Technical University , but soon switched to Romance and Slavonic Studies . In the spring of 1897 he broke off his studies and went back to Slovenia. After the death of his mother, he moved to Ljubljana. In 1898 Cankar lived briefly in Pula in Istria and then went to Vienna in autumn, where he lived in poor conditions in the Ottakring district , Lindauergasse 26 (memorial plaque), with a seamstress. Their daughter Steffi Löffler became his lover. He stayed for eleven years until 1909. Cankar lived in Vienna from writing various feature articles and from acquaintances who supported him. Cankar is considered to be the first Slovenian professional author. He wrote features for the Slovenian-language daily newspapers Slovenec and Slovenski narod , as well as for the German-language newspapers Die Information and Der Süd . During his time in Vienna he wrote a large part of his complete works.

In 1899 his first book was published, the volume of poetry Erotika . The Bishop of Ljubljana, Anton Bonaventura Jeglič, had all available specimens bought and burned. Since then, Cankar has struggled with criticism in his home country, although his artistic quality was recognized. As far as is known, Cankar had no contact with German-speaking artists in Vienna, but he did have contact with artists from other parts of the monarchy. Cankar was politically active and in 1907 ran as a representative of the Social Democratic Party of the South Slavs for the Imperial Council in the constituency of Litija-Zagorje, but to no avail. He took part in public life and wrote polemics and political commentaries in German on the location of the Crown Land of Carniola .

In 1910, Cankar avoided marrying the daughter of his room mistress and, on the mediation of his brother Karel, first went to Sarajevo , where he was able to live for a while in the Archbishop's Palace. From 1910 to 1917 he lived on the Rožnik in Ljubljana with a woman to whom he was bound for sexual and financial reasons. Here, in his time in Oberrosenbach, Cankar turned to other questions than before, ethical questions and autobiographical topics.

The common grave of Cankar, Murn and chain in the cemetery Žale

Cankar advocated the unification of the South Slav peoples. In 1913, he strongly criticized the "stupidity" of Austrian politics, which is why he had to serve a week in prison in 1913 on suspicion of high treason and in 1914 in an inn for six weeks in custody in Ljubljana for allegedly pro-Serbs. In 1915 Cankar was drafted into the military in Judenburg , but after a short time released for health reasons. After leaving his lover in 1917, he lived for some time partly in Bled / Veldes, partly with relatives in Lower Carniola. Cankar was seriously injured when he fell off the stairs while drunk. He fell ill with pneumonia and died on December 11, 1918 in Ljubljana. He is buried in the Žale cemetery in Ljubljana.

Works

Cankar is considered the most important Slovenian modern author. His oeuvre comprises 30 volumes, mainly prose , but also dramas and poems . He began to write during his high school years - at that time still committed to classical Slovene literature. Soon his eye sharpened for the social and national problems of his time, which he got to know well enough, especially in Vienna. Cankar wrote primarily as a naturalist who described the misery both in Vienna and in the rural areas of his homeland. But he also used symbolist and impressionist stylistic devices of his time. Cankar is, of course, first of all a Slovenian author who presents the specific problems of his people. But already during his time in Vienna, his work expanded into the generally applicable, which also made it important for world literature at the beginning of the 20th century. Of local interest are the portrayals of social misery in Vienna, which differ markedly from the portrayal of aristocratic and bourgeois Vienna approaching its decline, as most German-speaking authors of the fin de siècle offer. Cankar was attacked by numerous small minds for his description of the misery , but also because he undertook to deal with non-Slovenian topics and genres. After his death he was captured by all Slovenian camps and claimed for himself.

The most famous book of Cankar was his short story Der Knecht Jernej und seine Recht , which was translated into almost all European languages ​​and into Chinese and Hindi .

Since 1994, the Drava Verlag in Klagenfurt has been publishing Cankar's works in new German translations by Erwin Köstler . Cankar's earlier book translations into German were done by Gusti Jirku (1929, 1930), Herta Kralj , Josef Friedrich Perkonig (1947, 1953) and Manfred Jähnichen (1965, 1984).

literature

  • Cankar Ivan. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 1, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1957, p. 135.
  • Francek Bohanec, Gojko Zupan: Cankars Vrhnika . Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, State Administration for the Preservation of Monuments, Ljubljana 1998, ISBN 961-6037-25-0 .
  • France Bernik: Ivan Cankar . Slavica-Verlag Kovac, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-927077-08-9 .
  • Antun Barac: History of the Yugoslavian literatures from the beginnings to the present , from d. Serbo Croat. transferred, edit. u. ed. by Rolf-Dieter Kluge , Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1977, p. 276 ISBN 3-447-01874-7 . First in 1954.
  • Andreas Leben : Aestheticism and commitment: the short prose of Czech and Slovenian modernism , Vienna: WUV-Univ.-Verl., 1997. ISBN 3-85114-271-3 Diss. University of Vienna 1995.

Afterlife

In his birthplace Vrhnika (Oberlaibach, 20 kilometers from Ljubljana ) there is a Cankar Museum. The Cankarjev dom cultural and congress center, which opened in Ljubljana in 1981 , was also named after him. In Ljubljana there is a bronze bust of the author and a memorial room in the city museum. The portrait of Cankar adorned the 10,000 tolar banknote until 2006, and special postage stamps with his likeness were issued by the Yugoslav and Slovenian post offices. Cankar's collected works were published by the Državna založba Slovenije publishing house in Ljubljana. In Vienna-Ottakring there is a memorial plaque on the former home of Cankars at Lindauergasse 26. Cankarstraße in Vienna- Donaustadt (22nd district) and the u. Ivana Cankara in Sarajevo were also named in honor of the writer.

See also

Web links

Commons : Ivan Cankar  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Ivan Cankar  - Sources and full texts (Slovenian)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karl Markus Gauß : In the forest of metropolises , Paul Zsolnay Verlag, Vienna 2010, ISBN 978-3-552-05505-6 , p. 79.
  2. ^ Karl Markus Gauß: In the forest of the metropolises , Paul Zsolnay Verlag, Vienna 2010, ISBN 978-3-552-05505-6 , p. 66.
  3. Curriculum Vitae of Ivan Cankar ( Memento of the original from August 8, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at http://vsebine.svarog.org ( Memento of the original from April 10, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Slovenian) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / vsebine.svarog.org @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / vsebine.svarog.org