Page 135 - Vinkler, Jonatan, Ana Beguš and Marcello Potocco. Eds. 2019. Ideology in the 20th Century: Studies of literary and social discourses and practices. Koper: University of Primorska Press
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Women’s Poetic Discourse in the Context of Post-war Ideologies 135
en’s issue was solved by a simple elimination of all inequalities in a sup-
posedly egalitarian society, while the struggle for gender equality became
one of the most important topics of the new ideology in power.
Poetry published after the second world war and up to 1950 could be
interpreted as an extension of poetry of People’s Liberation (Paternu 10)
and as a collective vision of building a communal future. It was published
primarily in various literary journals—of which the most important was
Mladinska revija (Bajt 2016, 227)—and rarely in independent collections,
only a few collections being published each year (Pibernik 1978, 87). Such
poetry was the product of the dictatorship in cultural policy adopted
from the soviet Zhdanovism. Liberation and war against the occupation,
formation of a new social order, and agitprop pressures resulted in a sty-
listically poor poetry, using pompous rhetorical figures, and devoted en-
tirely to the collective subject of the proletarian figure, moving away from
individual values, and focusing primarily on the external and social as-
pects. In builders’poetry, called also the poetry of ‘mattock and shovel’
or ‘shovel poetry’, political and ideological pragmatism more or less dom-
inated over all other aesthetic norms. Various poets, mostly newcomers
but also those who wanted to remain poets in the new regime,3 wrote this
type of poetry. As several of them testified, the new era brought new di-
lemmas for the artists. Some poets, mostly established personalities, tem-
porarily ceased writing due to various reasons (e.g. Edvard Kocbek, Jože
Udovič, Cene Vipotnik), others had to overcome several difficulties be-
fore they managed to establish a new poetic and aesthetic norm (see Mi-
natti in Pibernik 1978, 80), still others wrote two types of poetry, one “for
personal use, the other for publication” (Škerl in Pibernik 1978, 91). The
new builders’ poetry did not reflect the real tensions between the reality
(which in many created a feeling of disillusion and anxiety) and highly set
social and personal ideals. It was more than obvious that Slovenian poet-
ry reached a dead end under the pressures of social realism. Nevertheless,
in the beginning of 1949 political circumstances, i.e. a conflict with the
Cominform, resulted in an ever-more pronounced critique of the Soviet
doctrine of social realism, some of which appeared even earlier (see Bajt
2016, 188–193). The final rejection of social realism was accepted after
Miroslav Krleža’s speech at the III. Congress of Yugoslav writers in 1952.
Conditions for a break away from objective poetry towards personal po-
etics were created. The new poetry prioritised the individual subject and
her/his experience of disillusion in the face of (post-)romantic duality be-
3 Such poetry was published by France Filipčič, Miha Remec, France Kosmač, Dušan
Ludvik, Ivan Minatti, Lojze Krakar, as well as Tone Pavček, Kajetan Kovič and others.
en’s issue was solved by a simple elimination of all inequalities in a sup-
posedly egalitarian society, while the struggle for gender equality became
one of the most important topics of the new ideology in power.
Poetry published after the second world war and up to 1950 could be
interpreted as an extension of poetry of People’s Liberation (Paternu 10)
and as a collective vision of building a communal future. It was published
primarily in various literary journals—of which the most important was
Mladinska revija (Bajt 2016, 227)—and rarely in independent collections,
only a few collections being published each year (Pibernik 1978, 87). Such
poetry was the product of the dictatorship in cultural policy adopted
from the soviet Zhdanovism. Liberation and war against the occupation,
formation of a new social order, and agitprop pressures resulted in a sty-
listically poor poetry, using pompous rhetorical figures, and devoted en-
tirely to the collective subject of the proletarian figure, moving away from
individual values, and focusing primarily on the external and social as-
pects. In builders’poetry, called also the poetry of ‘mattock and shovel’
or ‘shovel poetry’, political and ideological pragmatism more or less dom-
inated over all other aesthetic norms. Various poets, mostly newcomers
but also those who wanted to remain poets in the new regime,3 wrote this
type of poetry. As several of them testified, the new era brought new di-
lemmas for the artists. Some poets, mostly established personalities, tem-
porarily ceased writing due to various reasons (e.g. Edvard Kocbek, Jože
Udovič, Cene Vipotnik), others had to overcome several difficulties be-
fore they managed to establish a new poetic and aesthetic norm (see Mi-
natti in Pibernik 1978, 80), still others wrote two types of poetry, one “for
personal use, the other for publication” (Škerl in Pibernik 1978, 91). The
new builders’ poetry did not reflect the real tensions between the reality
(which in many created a feeling of disillusion and anxiety) and highly set
social and personal ideals. It was more than obvious that Slovenian poet-
ry reached a dead end under the pressures of social realism. Nevertheless,
in the beginning of 1949 political circumstances, i.e. a conflict with the
Cominform, resulted in an ever-more pronounced critique of the Soviet
doctrine of social realism, some of which appeared even earlier (see Bajt
2016, 188–193). The final rejection of social realism was accepted after
Miroslav Krleža’s speech at the III. Congress of Yugoslav writers in 1952.
Conditions for a break away from objective poetry towards personal po-
etics were created. The new poetry prioritised the individual subject and
her/his experience of disillusion in the face of (post-)romantic duality be-
3 Such poetry was published by France Filipčič, Miha Remec, France Kosmač, Dušan
Ludvik, Ivan Minatti, Lojze Krakar, as well as Tone Pavček, Kajetan Kovič and others.
