Josip Murn Aleksandrov
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| Josip Murn Aleksandrov | |
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| Occupation | Poet |
| Literary movement | Fin de siecle, Symbolism |
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Josip Murn, also known under the pseudonym Aleksandrov (4 March 1879–18 June 1901) was a Slovenian symbolist poet, regarded, together with Ivan Cankar, Oton Župančič and Dragotin Kette, as one of the beginners of modernism in Slovenian literature.
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[edit] Life
He was born in a condominium in the very centre of Ljubljana as an illigitimate son to a poor woman. His mother emigrated to Trieste soon after Josip's birth, leaving him in fosterage to some relatives from the suburbs of Ljubljana.
As a teenager, he enrolled in the local high school, where he came in contact with other young Slovenian literates, such as Ivan Cankar, Dragotin Kette and Oton Župančič, who experimented new trends in European poetry. He was a gifted student, shy, but also very self-confident. He started writing poetry at a very young age and soon achieved a very high level of quality. His talent was spotted by a high-class society woman Franja Tavčar, the influentual wife of the national-liberal politician and author Ivan Tavčar, who arranged for him a scholarship to study at the University of Vienna.
In 1898 he moved to Vienna, spending a there a year mostly visiting literary cafés and art exhibitions. Strongly influenced by the Viennese Secession, he wrote a series of poems with the common title Fin de siècle, in which he delivered his impressions on the life in the metropolis.
In 1899, he moved back home and started travelling around the Slovene Lands. He spent several months in Upper Carniola, when he observed the pesant life style. He began to incorporate peasant motives in his symbolist poetry. He later went to the Austrian Littoral, lived shortly in Grado, visited his mother in Trieste, and settled in the Vipava Valley for some time. It was there that he decided to adopt the pseudonym Aleksandrov, reminiscent of Slavic peasant archaism, and moved to an even more simple and impressionist poetic expression.
He settled in Ljubljana in 1901, renting a small room in a slum building on the banks of the river Ljubljanica (a abandoned sugar factory, known as Cukrarna). He died there at the age of 22 from tuberculosis, on the same bed as his friend Dragotin Kette just two years before.
He is buried in the cemetery of Žale, next to the tombs of Dragotin Kette, Ivan Cankar and Oton Župančič, in what is known as the "monument of Slovenian modernism" (Spomenik slovenske moderne).
[edit] Reception
Murn remained mostly unacknowledged by contemporary critics. The doyen of 19th century Slovenian poetry, Anton Aškerc rejected him as a decadent. Even some of his closest colleagues, namely Cankar and Župančič, didn't look favourably to his poetic endeavour, regarding it as too symbolistic, abstract, "anemic" and "non-lively". He did gain some recognition during his Vienna period, when his poems were published in established literary magazines such as the Ljubljanski zvon, but the later developments in his poetry did not receive a positive response by the public.
His fame came soon after his death. The literary critic Ivan Prijatelj edited a volume of his collected poems in 1903, jointly with a brilliant essay which gained recognition both to Murn and to Prijatelj himself as a literary critic. Prijatelj's essay also influenced Oton Župančič to change his opinion on Murn's poetry; as an hommage to his late friend, Župančič wrote the poem Manom Josipa Murna Aleksandra ("To the Manes of Josip Murn Aleksandrov"). By the end of the decade, Murn was already firmly established in the Slovenian literary canon.
His poetry had a huge influence on successive generations of poets, partcularly Alojz Gradnik, Srečko Kosovel, Miran Jarc, France Balantič, Edvard Kocbek, Dane Zajc, and Jože Snoj. The latter dedicated intensive studies to Murn's poetry.
After France Prešeren, Murn was probably the most influentual Slovenian poet of the last two centuries, although probably not among the most popular ones.
[edit] See also
[edit] Sources
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This article or section includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. You can improve this article by introducing more precise citations. |
- Niko Grafenauer, Josip Murn-Aleksandrov (Ljubljana: Prosvetni servis, 1965).
- Vladimir Osolnik, Obrazi: Josip Murn-Aleksandrov (Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, 1980).
- Jože Snoj, Znameniti Slovenci: Josip Murn (Ljubljana: Založba Jaroslav Skrušny, 1978).
[edit] External links
- Page dedicated to Murn (Slovene)
- Murn's poetry collections online (Slovene)
