Jože Javoršek Biography

Joze Javorsek was a Slovenian playwright, poet and essayist; he is regarded as one of the greatest Slovene authors of all time. During his lifetime, he was considered as much of a controversial author as an influential one because of his critical conduct towards his contemporaries. Born and raised in Slovenia, he went on to study comparative literature and eventually decided to pursue a career in writing. After serving in World War II , he returned to his homeland only to face imprisonment for several years and upon attaining his freedom again, he mostly worked as a playwright and essayist for the rest of his life. His early plays, centered on existential concerns, but were filled with irony, playfulness and artistic use of language, and largely contributed to the modernization of the Slovene theatre in the 1950s. He was among the first artists who introduced the surrealist elements on Slovenian and Yugoslav stages. But it was his essays and memoirs that garnered the maximum recognition and also gave rise to most of the controversies. His uncertain relationship with the society and his often extremely bitter attacks on the contemporary literary circles, both Slovene and French, gained him the nickname ‘The Lonely Rider’