Slovene Author in Focus 2013: Florjan Lipuš

Florjan Lipuš was born in 1937 in Lobnik near Bad Eisenkappel in the Austrian State of Carinthia. He went to the Upper Secondary School for the Humanities at the Plešivec/Tanzenberg Diocesan Seminary, which he graduated from in 1958. Afterwards, he studied Theology in Klagenfurt and later graduated from teachers’ college. He taught at bilingual primary-and-lower-secondary schools in Remšenik, Lepena, and Šentlipš near Ženek, until retiring in 1998. Florjan Lipuš is one of the main Slovene writers of prose fiction who also writes essays and dramatic texts. He published and edited the Mladje literary journal for 20 years (1960-1981). He was appointed Correspondent Member of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences (SAZU) in 1985 and has also been a member of the Slovene Writers’ Association for a number of years. He lives with his family in Sele near Žitara vas.

The author writes exclusively in his native language of Slovene. The core content of his writing, particularly his works of prose, are, in fact, still the Carinthian-Slovene cross-border issues. He does not see these issues in traditional terms, and neither does he attempt to resolve them with texts that would emphasize ethnic preservation or prominent patriotism. Lipuš is almost more concerned with the minuteness of the Slovene nation in regard to politics, culture, and spirit, or even with its misery and cringing, than he is with the Germanisation. He regards the resistance against German-led de-ethnification and against the problematic aspects of the Carinthian Slovene reality as the basic prerequisites for the preservation of the nation and the individual. He was also instrumental in paving the way for modern literary movements in his home country through his distinctly modernist literary works.
foto: Marko Lipuš