Aleš Debeljak

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Aleš Debeljak (born 1961), is a Slovenian poet, editor, and professor of cultural studies at the University of Ljubljana. Debeljak holds a PhD in Social Thought from Syracuse University, New York. Besides cultural criticism and poetry, Debeljak also was a significant columnist in his country's largest newspaper.

His poetry is noted for its melancholy as well as the way in which things like family and God are important again. An opponent to the everything-goes schools of modern thought, such as Post-Modernism, Debeljak's work is informed by an "Enlightenment" ideal of right and wrong, good and bad. According to his translator, Debeljak goes a long time without writing poetry and then turns out an excellent book in just a few months.

1 Comments on his work
2 Honors
3 Partial list of works in English
4 Complete Works
5 Sources
6 Links

[edit] Comments on his work

This article or section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please help improve this article or replace this tag with a more specific message. This article has been tagged since December 2005. (help, talk)

Translator Christopher Merrill wrote, "Debeljak's poems are marked by his razor-sharp intelligence, haunting juxtapositions, and imagery which is at once slightly surreal and rooted in Slovenias life and folklore." Poet Charles Simic, "he incorporates seemingly incongruous verbal elements." Himself, "Art and Literature has the right ... to blend sacred and secular" & "Life, the world, does not begin with us and will very likely not end with us" & "[art's main point is] communion between reader and text"

[edit] Honors

Fellow, Collegium Budapest-Institute for Advanced Study
Senior Fulbright Fellow, University of California, Berkeley
Slovenian National Book Award (Preseren Prize)
Hayden Carruth Poetry Prize
Miriam Lindberg Israel Poetry for Peace Prize

Visiting scholar at the Center for International and Comparative Studies at Northwestern University for the 2006-2007 year.

[edit] Partial list of works in English

Anxious Moments (Prose poetry)
The City and the Child (Poetry)
Reluctant Modernity: The Institution of Art ands its Historical Forms (Criticism)
Twilight of the Idols: Recollections of a Lost Yugoslavia (Non-fiction)
The Hidden Handshake: National Identity and Europe in the Post-Communist World (Cultural criticism)

[edit] Complete Works

Poetry (Slovenian):

2004: Pod gladino (Under the Waterline), Mladinska knjiga, Ljubljana
2000: Nedokončane hvalnice (Unending Praise), Mladinska knjiga, Ljubljana: 2000
1996: Mesto in otrok (The City and the Child), Mladinska knjiga, Ljubljana, Slovenia: 1996
1990: Minute strahu (Anxious Moments), Mladinska knjiga, Ljubljana, Slovenia: 1990
1987: Slovar tišine (Dictionary of Silence), Aleph Press, Ljubljana, Slovenia
1985: Imena smrti (Names of Death), Mladinska knjiga, Ljubljana, Slovenia
1982: Zamenjave, zamenjave (Exchanges, Exchanges), PAM, Mladinska knjiga, Ljubljana

Poetry (Internatonal):

2006: Pod gladinom (Under the Waterline), Translated by Edo Fičor, HDP, Zagreb, Croatia
2004: Izabrani Pesni (Selected Poems), Translated by Igor Isakovski, Yelizabeta Bakovska, Ana Dimiskovska Trajanovska; Blesok, Skopje, Macedonia
2002: Kaupunki ja lapsi (The City and the Child), Translated by Kari Klemela, Nihil Interit, Helsinki, Finland
2001: Netobula žoždio aistra (Imperfect Passion of the Word: Selected Poems), Translated by Eugenius Ališanka, Lietuvos Raštoju Sajungos Leidykla, Vilnius, Lithuania
2001: Skice za povratak: izabrane pesme (Sketches for a Return: Selected Poems). Edited and co-translated by Bojana Stojanović-Pantović, Zadužbina Petar Kočić, Banja Luka-Beograd
2001: Minutes de la peur, (Anxious Moments), Translated by Andreé Lück-Gaye, Domens, Pézenas, France
2000: Miasto i dziecko (The City and the Child), Translated by Katarina Šalamun-Biedrzycka, Wydawnictwo Zielona Sowa, Krakow, Poland
1999: The City and the Child, Translated by Christopher Merrill and the author, White Pine Press, Buffalo, New York, USA
1999: The Dictionary of Silence, Translated by Sonja Kravanja, Lumen Press, Santa Fe, NM
1999: Mesto a dite (The City and the Child), Translated by Frantisek Benhart, Mlada Fronta Press, Prague, Czech Republic
1998: Grad i djete (The City and the Child), Translated by Branko Čegec, Meandar: Zagreb, Croatia
1997: Shisyuu fuan na jikoku (Anxious Moments), Translated by Takeshi Ishihara, Kashinsya, Tokyo, Japan
1996: Katalog prachu (selected poems), Translated by František Benhart, Votobia, Olomouc, Czech Republic
1996: A csend szotara (selected poems), Translated by Orsollya Gallos & Gabor Csordas, Jelenkor Kiado; Pecs-Budapest, Hungary
1994: Anxious Moments, Translated by Christopher Merrill and the author, White Pine Press, Fredonia, NY, USA
1993: Momenti d'Angoscia, (Anxious Moments) Translated by Tea Stoka, Flavio Pagano Editore, Napoli, Italy
1992: Slownik Ciszy (selected poems), Translated by Katarina Šalamun-Biedrzycka, Wizdavatelstvo Cassiopeia, Krakow, Poland
1989: The Chronicle of Melancholy, Translated by Michael Biggins, Poetry Miscellany, Chattanooga, TN, USA
1989: Rječnik tišine (Dictionary of Silence), Translated by Branko Čegec, Quorum Press, Zagreb, Croatia (reprint Quorum, Zagreb. 2002)

Cultural criticism (Slovenian):

2005: Na dnu predala: Drobni spisi. (The Bottom of the Drawer). V.B.Z., Ljubljana
2004: Evropa brez Evropejcev (Europe without Europeans), Založba Sophia, Ljubljana
2002: Lanski sneg: eseji o kulturi in tranziciji (Last Year's Snow: Essays on Culture and Transition), Aristej, Maribor
1999: Na ruševinah modernosti: Institucija umetnosti in njene zgodovinske oblike (On the Ruins of Modernity: The Institution of Art and its Historical Forms) ZPS, Ljubljana
1998: Atlantski most: Eseji o ameriški književnosti (The Atlantic Bridge: Essays on American Literature), Aleph Press, Ljubljana
1998: Individualizem in literarne metafore naroda, (Individualism and Literary Metaphors of the Nation), Založba Obzorja, Maribor
1995: Oblike religiozne imaginacije (Forms of Religious Imagination), ZPS Press, Ljubljana
1994: Zaton idolov (Twilight of the Idols), Wieser, Ljubljana-Klagenfurt
1992: Pisma iz tujine (Letters from Abroad), Mihelac Press, Ljubljana
1991: Temno nebo Amerike (The Dark Skies of America), Obzorja, Maribor (reprint Wieser Verlag, Ljubljana-Klagenfurt 1994)
1989: Postmoderna sfinga (The Postmodern Sphinx), Wieser, Ljubljana
1988: Melanholične figure: eseji o književnosti in idejah (Melancholy Figures: Essays on Books and Ideas), KRT Press, Ljubljana

Cultural criticism (International):

2006: Európa európaiak nélkül. (Europe without Europeans) Napkút Kidaó. Budapest
2004: The Hidden Handshake: National Identity and Europe in Postcommunist World, Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham-New York-London
2004: Auf der Suche nach dem verlorenen Paradies (In Search of a Lost Paradise), Wieser Verlag, Klagenfurt-Wien, Austria
2004: Izabrani Esei (Selected Essays), translated by Igor Isakovski, Yelizabeta Bakovska, Ana Dimiskovska Trajanovska, Blesok, Skopje, Macedonia
2003: Suvremeni fundamentalizam i sveti rat (Contemporary Fundamentalism and Holly War), translated by Jagna Pogačnik and Boris Beck, Jesenski-Truk, Zagreb, Croatia
2003: În căutarea nefericirii (The Pursuit of Unhappiness: Selected Essays), translated by Ioana Alupoaie, Polirom, Idee Contemporane Serioes, Iaşi-Bucharest, Romania
2000: Temne nebe Ameriky (The Dark Skies of America), Translated by Martina & Pavel Šaradin, Host, Brno, Czech Republic
1999: El crepusculo de los idolos: Muerte del siglo veinte en los Balcanes, Translated by Barbara Pregelj & Antonio Preciado, Tercera Prensa-Hirugarren Prentsa, Donostia, Spain
1999: Temne nebo Ameriky (The Dark Skies of America), Translated by Karol Chmel, F.R&G-Fragment Press, Bratislava, Slovakia
1999: Sveraci kazajka anonymity (Individualism and Literary Metaphors of the Nation), Translated by František Benhart and Jana Špirudova), Volvox Globator, Prague
1998: Kozmopoliticka metafora: Individualismus a narodna tradicia, (Individualism and Literary Metaphors of the Nation), Translated by Karol Chmel, Kalligram, Bratislava
1998: Reluctant Modernity: The Institution of Art and its Historical Forms, Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham & New York & London
1998: Otthon Es Kulfold (selected cultural essays), Translated by Barbaszy Eszter et al., Jelenkor Kiado & JAK, Pecs, Hungary
1996: Soumrak idolu (Twilight of the Idols), Translated by František Benhart, Votobia Press, Olomouc, Czech Republic
1995: Sumrak idola (Twilight of the Idols), Translated by Branko Čegec, Meandar Press, Zagreb, Croatia (reprint, 2002)
1994: Twilight of the Idols: Recollections of a Lost Yugoslavia, Translated by Michael Biggins, White Pine Press, Fredonia, NY
1994: Untergang der Idole (Twilight of the Idols), Translated by Franci Zwiter, jr., Wieser, Klagenfurt, Austria

ESSAYS IN ANTHOLOGIES (International):

2006: “Evropa senza europei / Evropa brez Evropejcev” in: Fare gli europei - Ustvariti Evropejce. Miran Košuta (ed.) Istituto/Inštitut Antonio Gramsci, Trieste – Trst.
2005: “Ist Terror der letzte Ausweg für die Vertrieben und Untredrücken?”. in: Der Vielfalt verpflichtet; Europa im Gespräch, Lojze Wieser in Bernhard Rinner (eds.), Wieser Verlag, Klagenfurt
2004: “Cerchi concentrici d’identita”. in: TransEuropaExpress: Scrittori della nuova Europa, ur. Fortunato, Mario & Maria Ida Gaeta (eds.); Biblioteca Universale Rizzoli, Rome
2004: “Dreaming of Friends, Living with Foes”. in: Snel, Guido (ed.), Alter Ego: Twenty Confronting Views on the European Experince, Salomé-Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam
2004: “Concentric Circles of Identity”. in: Keller, Ursula, Rakusa, Ilma (eds.) Writing Europe: What is European about the Literatures of Europe?, Central European University Press, Budapest-New York
2004: “My Hometown In Transition”. in: In Our Own Words, Marlow Peerse Weaver (ed.), MW Enterprises, Cary, New Carolina
2003: “Konzentrische Kreise der Identität”. in: Europa Schreibt – Was ist das Europaische an den Literaturen Europas? (Ursulla Keller & Ilma Rakusa, eds.), Körber Stiftung, Hamburg
2003: “The Future Relation Among Regional, National and European Identities”, in: Europe's Torn Identity, AEGEE, Ljubljana
2003: “Auf der suche nach einem Archetyp: Meine Heimatstadt im Übergang”. in: Dževad Karahasan & Markus Jaroschka (eds.), Poetik der Grenze: Über die Grenzen sprechen – Literarische Brücken für Europa, Steierische Verlagsgesellschaft, Graz
2002: “Laudatio”, in: Worte. Ränder. Übergänge. Zu Gustav Januš (Fabjan Hafner, ed). Ritter Literatur. Klagenfurt - Wien
2000: “The Lonesome Heart and the Failed Community”, v: The Slovenian Essay of the Nineties, (Matevž Kos, ed.), Litterae Slovenicae-Slovenian Writers Association, Ljubljana
1999: “Slovenia: A Brief Literary History”, in: Andrew Zawacki (ed.): Afterwards: Slovenian Writing 1945-1995, White Pine Press, Buffalo, New York
1997: “Vargjet qe lexohen ne kembe, siper germadhave te evropes”, in: Krimi dhe indiferenca (Blerim Shala, ed.), Zeri, Pristina, Kosovo

POEMS IN ANTHOLOGIES (International):

2006: Poesía Eslovena Contemporánea: Antología. Gog y Magog, Buenos Aires.
2006: U jantaru vremena: antologija slovenske poezije (Anthology of Slovenian poetry) (Josip Osti ed.) Turga, Sarajevo
2005: Neue Blätter aus der Slowenische Lyrik, Wieser Verlag, Klagenfurt - Wien
2003: Collection of Linked Quatrains (Kijima Haijime, Ishihara Takeshi, Niinobeken, eds.), Doyo Bijutshusha Shuppan Hanbai, Tokyo
2002: Moderna slovenska lirika (Modern Slovenian Poetry) (Radoslav Dabo & Janko Kos, eds.), Konzor Press, Zagreb
2001: Terra, mar e lume (Ursula Heinze de Lorenzo, ed.), Xunta de Galicia, Pontevedra (Galicia, Spain)
2000: The Best of the Prose Poem (Peter Johnson, ed.), White Pine Press, Buffalo, NY & Providence College, Providence, RI
2000: Afterwards: Slovenian Writing 1945-1995 (Andrew Zawacki, ed.), White Pine Press, Buffalo, New York
1999: Ohne grenzen/ Senza confini/Brez meja, (Lojze Wieser, ed.) Wieser Verlag, Klagenfurt
1999: Poezijo pavasaris (Spring of Poetry), (Eugenius Ališanka, ed.), Vaga, Vilnius
1998: Misto v prostoru: antologie nove slovinske poezije (A place in a Space: Anthology of New Slovenian Poetry) (František Benhart, ed.), Host-Weles, Prague, Czech Republic
1998: Im Schatten der Worte (Hartinger, L., ed.), Edition Tanhäuser, Ottensheim/ Donau
1998: Nuova poesia Slovena (Michele Obit, ed.), ZTT, Trieste, Italy
1995: The Best of Verse(Zawacki, A. & Henry, B., eds.) Verse Press, Williamsburg, VA
1995: Sedam slovenskih pjesnika (Josip Osti, ed.), Egzil-abc, Ljubljana-Sarajevo
1995: Lyrik, (Wallman, Herman & Schulte. Susanne, eds.), Lyriktreffen Munster, Munster
1995: Srebro i mech, (Katarina Šalamun-Biedrzycka, ed.), Fundacja Pogranicze, Sejny
1995: Das Buch der Rander-Lyrik, (Karl-Markus Gauss & Ludwig Hartinger, eds.), Wieser, Salzburg-Klagenfurt
1994: Poesie Contemporaine Slovene, Editions Autres Temps, Marseille, France
1994: Sedm slovinskych basniku (Seven Slovenian Poets), (Frantisek Benhart, ed.) Trost Press, Prague
1993: Double Vision: Four Slovenian Poets (ed. Richard Jackson), Aleph Press & The Poetry Miscellany Books, Chattanooga, TN
1993: Shifting Borders: East European Poetry in the Eighties, (Walter Cummings, ed.), Farleigh Dickinson University Press
1992: This Same Sky: Poems from Around the World, (Naomi Shihab Nye, ed.), McMillan Publishing Company: New York
1992: Writers in Exile, North Atlantic Review, Stony Brook, NY
1992: Les Soleils d’Illyrie: Poesie Serbe, Croate, Bosniaque Slovene, Macedonienne d’aujourd’hui (Vladimir Claude Fischera, ed.), BF Editions, Strasbourg, France
1991: Slovenska poezija (ed. Ciril Zlobec), GZH Press, Zagreb, Croatia
1990: Child of Europe: A New Anthology of East European Poetry (Michael March, ed.), Penguin: New York & Harmondsworth
1990: Strast i Mir (Passion and Peace): (Jani Virk & Josip Radlovic, ed.), Književna zajednica: Novi Sad, Serbia, Yugoslavia
1988: Il Grande Blu il Grande Nero: sedici qiovani poeti del Mediteraneo (Silvano Ceccarim, Nicola Muschiatello, Roberto Rovensi, eds.), Transeuropa, Bologna, Italy

BOOKS TRANSLATIONS INTO SLOVENIAN:

1995: Selected Poems of John Ashbery (edited, translated and introduced), Mladinska knjiga, Ljubljana: Slovenia
1988: Peter Berger & Thomas Luckmann: The Social Construction of Reality, (New York: 1965), Cankarjeva založba, Ljubljana, Slovenia

EDITOR:

2004: Ex-Yugoslav Poets and the War (special issue, guest-edited with Brane Mozetič), Ariel; Tidskrift för litteratur (Sweden), No. 4-5, Vol. 86
2003: The Studies in the Social History of Destruction: The Case of Yugoslavia (special issue, guest-edited with Srdja Pavlović), International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, Vol. 17, No. 1, Fall 2003
1997: The Imagination of Terra Incognita: Slovenian Writing 1945-1995, White Pine Press, Fredonia, New York
1995: Selected Poems of Edvard Kocbek. Litterae Slovenicae, DSP Press, Ljubljana
1994: Prisoners of Freedom: Contemporary Slovenian Poetry. Pedernal, Santa Fe, NM
1993: Serbian, Croatian, Slovenian Poetry in: Shifting Borders: East European Poetries in the Eighties, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press & Associated Universites Press, New York & London
1988: Ameriška metafikcija (American Metafiction: Barth, Barthelme, Coover, Pynchon); Mladinska knjiga, Ljubljana, Slovenia

[edit] Sources

The City and the Child--Ales Debeljak
Anxious Moments--Ales Debeljak
Lecture Ales Debeljak Oct 29 2004 Brigham Young University English Department Reading Series Harold B. Lee Library