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Niko Grafenauer against the background of contemporary European poetry and a translation of a selection of his poetry entitled Condition

University of British Columbia

Slavic literary trends usually lag behind those of Western Europe and normally transform them, lending them a specific national flavor. This is also true of most twentieth-century Slovene poetic movements, especially in the period of Socialist Realism when most of the poetic styles introduced and practiced in Western Europe were almost absent from Slovene poetry. During recent years, however, styles have emerged in Slovene poetry that not only keep abreast of those of Western Europe, but also assume a cosmopolitan character. The purpose of this thesis is to prove that Niko Grafenauer is a West-European poet in the fullest sense, as well as to introduce his poetry to the English-speaking reader. Through a discussion and a translation of his later poetry, an attempt is made to define his work in terms of his European contemporaries, to point to his innovations, and to suggest that his later poetry is close to what some writers call 'ideal,' 'pure,' or 'absolute poetry. ' The method of criticism is comparative. Throughout the monograph the aim is to describe and compare the authors and the works under discussion, and to arrive at synthesis by analyzing certain characteristic aspects and illustrating them by short quotations.

Text

2011-06-14

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/35403

Comparative Literature

University of British Columbia

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