France Balantič

Infobox Writer
name = France Balantič


caption =
birthdate = birth date|1921|11|29|mf=y
birthplace = Kamnik, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (now in Slovenia)
deathdate = death date and age|1943|24|11|1921|29|11|mf=y
deathplace = Grahovo near Cerknica, Province of Ljubljana
occupation = Poet
genre =
movement = Symbolism, Expressionism
notableworks =
influences = France Prešeren, Josip Murn, Alojz Gradnik, Srečko Kosovel
influenced = Dane Zajc, Taras Kermauner, Gregor Strniša, Jože Snoj, France Pibernik
website =
footnotes =

France Balantič, (29 November 1921 - 24 November 1943), was a Slovene poet. His works were banished from schools and libraries during the Titoist regime in Slovenia, but since the late 1980s, he has been re-considered as one of the foremost Slovene poets of the 20th century.

Life

Balantič was born in Kamnik, in the Slovenian region of Upper Carniola in what was then the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Before World War Two he studied Slavic literature at the University of Ljubljana. In 1942 he was interned in Gonars concentration camp by the Fascist authorities of the Italian-occupied Province of Ljubljana. After his release he joined the voluntary anti-communist militia sponsored by the Italians and later the Slovenian Home Guard which collaborated with the Nazi German occupying forces. He was stationed as an officer at the Home Guard supply post in the village of Grahovo near Cerknica in 1943 when the post was attacked, sieged and burnt down by the Partisan resistance.

Work

Balantič was an intimist and lyricist poet who wrote mystic and passionate poems. He was influenced by the work of Josip Murn, Srečko Kosovel and Alojz Gradnik. He was a master of classical poetic forms, especially sonnets.

Legacy

After World War Two all his poetry was removed from public libraries in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and his name was omitted in public education. When the literary historian Anton Slodnjak mentioned Balantič in his "Review of Slovene Literature" in the 1950s, he was fired from his post at the University of Ljubljana because of it. In 1966 a selection of Balantič's poems were printed under the title "Muževna steblika", but after intervention by the Communist Party it was decided that the book should be withdrawn and the entire run was sent to be destroyed and recycled. His poems were published among the Slovene diaspora, especially in Argentina, where the literary historians Tine Debeljak and France Papež edited ans published most of his works. In the late 1980s, Balantič was rediscovered in Slovenia, too, and he is now considered to be one of the foremost Slovene language poets of the 20th century, along with Edvard Kocbek and Srečko Kosovel.

Poetry collections

*"V ognju groze plapolam" ("I Flutter in the Fire of Horror". Ljubljana, 1944)
*"Muževna steblika" ("The Sappy Stem". Published posthumous in Buenos Aires, 1966) COBISS|ID=14412545
*"Zbrano delo", ("Collected Work". Buenos Aires, 1976) COBISS|ID=522295
*"Zbrane pesmi", ("Collected Poems". Ljubljana, 1991) COBISS|ID=23614976
*"Tihi glas piščali", ("The Silent Voice of the Flute". Ljubljana, 1991) COBISS|ID=28163840

See also

*Slovenian literature