Davorin Trstenjak
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Davorin Trstenjak (November 8, 1817 - February 3, 1890), was a Slovene writer, historian and Roman Catholic priest.
He was born in the village of Sveti Jurij ob Ščavnici, in what was then the Austrian Duchy of Styria (now in Slovenia). He frequented the elementary school in his home village and later in Bad Radkersburg (Slovene: Radgona) where he met the philologist Peter Dajnko, with whom he established a close friendship. He studied at the lyceum in Maribor and later in Graz, where he became a supporter of the Illyrian movement, a Romantic nationalist cultural movement that spread from the neighbouring Croatia, and which advocated a cultural and linguistic unification of the South Slavic peoples.
After graduating from theology, he served as a parish priest in the Lower Styrian village of Hajdina and later in the town of Ptuj. He collaborated closely with the Slovene-Croatian poet and ethnologist Stanko Vraz. Influences by the theories of Jan Kollar and Pavel Jozef Šafařik, two influential Czech philologists who advocated Pan-Slavic ideals, Trstenjak wrote several historical books, in which he claimed that the Slavs were the most ancient people in Europe.
During the Spring of Nations in 1848, Trstenjak became an enthusiast supporter of the United Slovenia program. As a close collaborator of Matija Majar, the author of the program, Trstenjak helped in raising signatures for the establishment of a unified political entity comprising all Slovene Lands. After 1849, he established contacts with Janez Bleiweis and Lovro Toman who launched the Slovene National Revival in the 1850s and early 1860s. He was also a collaborator of the bishop Anton Martin Slomšek.
He was also a writer and poet. He wrote in a typically Romantic manner, following the example of France Prešeren and Josipina Turnograjska. He rejected the literary realism of the younger generations of Slovene authors who entered the scene in the mid 1860s: he strongly polemicised against Fran Levstik and rejected the poetry of Simon Gregorčič and Josip Stritar, as well as the circle around the literary journal Ljubljanski zvon. In 1878, he was elected as the first president of the Association of Slovene Writers.
In 1863, he was among the co-founders of the prestigious publishing house and scientific society Slovenska matica.
He died in Slovenj Gradec in 1890.
[edit] Sources
- "Trstenjak, Davorin" in Slovenski biografski leksikon, edited by Izidor Cankar (Ljubljana: Zadružna gospodarska banka, 1925).
- Bogo Grafenauer, Struktura in tehnika zgodovinske vede (Ljubljana: Univerza v Ljubljani, 1980).
