Alojz Rebula

Infobox Writer
name = Alojz Rebula


caption =
birth_date = birth date and age|1924|6|21|mf=y
birth_place = San Pelagio, Italy
death_date =
death_place =
occupation = Writer, Playwright, Essayist
nationality = Slovene Italian
spouse = Zora Tavčar (writer)
children = Alenka Rebula Tuta (poet)
genre =
movement =
notableworks = nowrap|"The Roman Empress' Vineyard",
nowrap|"Nocturne for Primorska",
nowrap|"Matins for Slovenia",
nowrap|"Maranathà or the Year 999",
nowrap|"The Snake Flower",
nowrap|"Tomorrow across the Jordan",
nowrap|"In the Wind of Sybil"
nowrap|"The Shadow Dance"
nowrap|"Jacques Maritain: The Bearer of Sense"
awards = awd|Prešeren Award|1995|for his literary workawd|Acerbi Prize|1997|Nel vento della Sibillaawd|Kresnik Award|2005|A Nocturne for Primorska
influences = Edvard Kocbek, Boris Pahor, Milan Komar, Jacques Maritain, France Prešeren, Ivan Cankar, Oton Župančič, Dragotin Kette, Josip Murn, Nietzsche, Dante, Catul, Vergil
influenced = Vinko Ošlak, Igor Škamperle
website =
footnotes =

Alojz Rebula (born June 21 1924) is an eminent Slovene writer, playwright, essayist and translator, who lives and works in the Province of Trieste, Italy. cite web |url=http://www.ned.univie.ac.at/lic/autor.asp?paras=/lg;4/lt;26/aut_id;16548 |title=Alojz Rebula |accessdate=2008-04-06 |work=Literature in Context]

Life

Rebula was born in the Slovene-inhabited village of San Pelagio ( _sl. Šempolaj) near Duino, in what was then the Kingdom of Italy. Because of anti-Slav Italianization policies of the Fascist regime, Rebula could not have an education in his native language. He attended Italian language schools, where he became acquainted with Italian culture and literature. He went to the prestigious gymnasium of Gorizia and later the lyceum in Udine, which he finished in 1944. After the end of World War Two, he moved to Yugoslavia. He studied classical philology at the University in Ljubljana, from where he graduated in 1949. In 1951, he moved back to Italy because of the pressures of the Communist regime. In 1956, he was banned from entering Yugoslavia because of his political opposition to the Communist system. In 1960 Rebula obtained his PhD from the University of Rome with the thesis "Dante's Divine Comedy in Slovene Translations"Helga Glušič, "Sto Slovenskih Pripovednikov" (Ljubljana: Prešernova družba, 1996)] . The same year the authorities prohibited him from entering Yugoslavia for a second time, because he had publicly protested in Trieste newspapers against the suppression of the publication of the novel "Listina" ("The Document") by Edvard Kocbek in Slovenia.

In the 1960s Rebula settled in Trieste, where he worked as a teacher of Latin and Ancient Greek at secondary schools with Slovene as teaching language. He also engaged in cultural work with the local Slovene community. Together with Boris Pahor, he edited the journal "Zaliv" ("The Bay"), founded to promote political and cultural pluralism and the values of western democracy. He was also co-editor of the literary journals "Sidro" ("Anchor"), "Tokovi" ("Currents") and "Most" ("Bridge").

During this period, Rebula re-embraced Catholicism, after having turned to vitalist agnosticism in his teenage years, due partially to the influence of Friedrich Nietzsche and Slovene modernist authors such as Oton Župančič.

In 1975, Pahor and Rebula published a book-interview entitled "Edvard Kocbek: Pričevalec našega časa" ("Edvard Kocbek: the Witness of Our Time"), in which Rebula condemned the summary killings of 12,000 members of Slovene anti-communist militia in May and June 1945, perpetrated by the Communist authorities. The book created a scandal in Yugoslavia and both Pahor and Rebula were banned from entering Yugoslavia for several years. [Boris Pahor, "Ta ocean strašnó odprt" (Ljubljana: Slovenska matica, 1989)]

Since the democratization and independence of Slovenia in 1990-1991, Rebula has been working as a columnist in several Catholic journals and magazines in Slovenia.

He lives and works in his native village in the Italian part of the Kras region.

Work

Rebula has published numerous collections of essays, diaries, novels, plays, short prose, and other works that have been translated in to a number of foreign languages. The prominent Slovene author and intellectual Andrej Capuder stated that Rebula’s work “is the best we Slovenes can show to the world today.” The terms that best define Rebula are antiquity, Christianity and Slovenehood, or as he stated himself: “Ancestral Kras ordered two tyrannical loves: on an ancient raft you shall cleave the Slovene sea!”

His source of inspirations mostly comes from the historical, cultural and natural world of the Slovenian Littoral, although he also wrote a famous novel on the life of missionary Frederick Baraga. He reflects on the fate of a small nation and on the more general issues of the human condition. His prose is lyrical and reflexive. He is renowned for his diaries and essays. Alongside the philosopher Milan Komar (whose works were prohibited in Slovenia until the late 1980s), Rebula was one of the first Slovene authors who wrote extensively about the philosophy of Jacques Maritain, whom Rebula sees as one of his most important "spiritual fathers". [Alojz Rebula, "Jacques Maritain: človek in mislec" (Ljubljana: Naše tromostovje, 1981)]

He has also translated Aeschylus' Seven Against Thebes [Ajshil: "Sedmerica proti Tebam", translated by Alojz Rebula, Založba Litera, ISBN 961-6422-83-9] and Plautus' Miles Gloriosus [Titus Maccius Plautus: "Bahavi vojščak", Maribor, Založba Obzorja, 1994.] into Slovene as well as Slovene authors such as Kocbek [Edvard Kocbek: "La Compagnia", Jaca Book, Milano, 1975.] and Levstik into Italian.

Rebula has been awarded several prizes for his writing.cite web |url=http://www.ukom.gov.si/eng/slovenia/publications/slovenia-news/2216/2229/ |title=Kresnik for Best Novel Goes to Rebula |author=Republic of Slovenia: Government Communication Office |accessdate=2008-04-06] In 1969 he received the Prešeren Fund Award, the so-called “small” Prešeren award, for the novel "V Sibilnem vetru" ("In Sybil’s Wind"). In 1995 he received the Prešeren Award, the highest Slovenian prize for cultural achievements, for artistic achievement for his life’s work. In 1997 he was awarded the "Acerbi Prize" for his novel "In Sybil’s Wind" in the Italian translation, and in 2005 the Kresnik Award for "A Nocturne for Primorska", which was declared by the jury as the best Slovene novel of the year.

List of works

Prose
* "Devinski sholar", novel, (The Duino Scholar, 1954)
* "Vinograd rimske cesarice ", short stories, (Vineyard of the Roman Empress, 1956)
* "Klic v Sredozemlje", novel, (A Call to the Mediterranean, 1957)
* "Senčni ples" novel, (Shadow Dance, (1960)
* "V Sibilinem vetru" novel, (In Sybil’s Wind, 1968)
* "Divji golob " novel, (Wild Dove, 1972)
* "Zeleno izgnanstvo" novel, (Green Exile, 1981)
* "Jutri čez Jordan" novel, (Tomorrow over the River Jordan, 1988)
* "Kačja roža" novel, (Snake Flower, 1994)
* "Maranathà ali Leto 999" novel, (Maranathà or the Year 999, 1996)
* "Cesta s cipreso in zvezdo" novel, (The Road with the Cypress and the Star, 1998)
* "Jutranjice za Slovenijo" novel, (Matins for Slovenia, 2000)
* "Nokturno za Primorsko" novel, (Nocturne for Primorska, 2004)

Plays
* "Savlov demon", six plays with a religious theme, (Saul's Demon, 1985)
* "Operacija Timava", two acts, (The Timava Operation, 1993)

Notes

References

*Janko Kos et al., "Slovenska književnost" (Cankarjeva založba: Ljubljana, 1982). COBISS|ID=13444353
*Lojzka Bratuž, "Rebulov zbornik: ob pisateljevi osemdesetletnici" (Trieste: Mladika; Gorizia: Goriška Mohorjeva družba; Udine: Slavistično društvo, 2005). ISBN 8873420745 COBISS|ID=2303468
*Helga Glušič, "Sto Slovenskih Pripovednikov" (Ljubljana: Prešernova družba, 1996) ISBN 961-6186-21-3
*cite web |url=http://www.ned.univie.ac.at/lic/autor.asp?paras=/lg;4/lt;26/aut_id;16548 |title=Literature in Context: Alojz Rebula |author=Aleksander Bjelčevič et al. |accessdate=2008-04-06
*cite web |url=http://vodnik.kras-carso.com/pdf/the_karst.pdf |title=The Karst: Between Štanjel and Duino/Devin |author=Jasna Fakin et al. |accessdate=2008-04-06 |month=August |year=2004 |publisher=The Municipality of Komen

External links

* [http://www.mladina.si/tednik/200308/clanek/int-rebula/ Katoliški intelektualec: pisatelj Alojz Rebula] . Interviewed by Bernard Nežmah. Mladina. Published on 2004-02-24. Retrieved on 2008-04-05. sl icon
* [http://revija.ognjisce.si/leto2004/jul2004/pdf/gost.pdf Gost meseca: Alojz Rebula] (interview with Alojz Rebula). Ognjišče, July 2004. Retrieved on 2008-04-05. sl icon