Suicide as a Slovenian Metaphor: on the Intellectual History of Suicide as a Metaphor in Socialist Slovenia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51663/pnz.64.2.10Keywords:
suicide, metaphor, political thoughtAbstract
Between the 1960s and 1980s, suicide was frequently discussed as a major social issue in the Slovenian public sphere, leading to the establishment of the idea of Slovenians as a "suicide nation." In her book "Illness as Metaphor," Susan Sontag examines how society uses illness as a metaphor for moral, psychological, and political conditions, often resulting in the stigmatization of patients. This perspective is valuable for understanding the representations of suicide in socialist Slovenia. This paper analyses the influence of the metaphor of the "nation of suicides" on political thought and discourse in socialist Slovenia. It explores how intellectuals used or rejected this idea in their debates and how they adapted expert discussions and statistics to their political agendas. The concept of suicide as a "Slovenian problem" emerged in the late 1960s, supported by statistics and high-profile cases of suicide among young people from prominent cultural and political families.
References
»Črno na belem - 25 let Nove revije, dokumentarna oddaja.« RTV 365, accessed June 23, 2024, https://365.rtvslo.si/arhiv/dokumentarni-filmi-in-oddaje-izobrazevalni-program/4708640.
»Obravnava in zavrnitev nesprejemljivih stališč.« Delo, March 5, 1987, 7-9.
Bor, Matej. »Šola noči.« Sodobnost 19, no. 12 (1971), 1169-1196, http://www.dlib.si/?URN=URN:NBN:SI:doc-W7W2Y1TE.
Breuilly, John. Nation and the State. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1993.
Brubaker, Rogers. Ethnicity without Groups. Harvard: Harvard University press, 2004.
Čar, Aleš; Čander, Mitja. »Jaz sem kritik iz Beckettove in Rodetove kante.« dnevnik.si, November 4, 2006, https://www.dnevnik.si/210090.
Debenjak, Božidar. »Nacionalnost in represija.« Anthropos 1, no. 1-2 (1969), 115-118.
Dolgan, Marjan. »Ljubljana kot socialni in literarni prostor slovenskih književnikov.« Primerjalna književnost 35, no. 3 (december 2012), 345.
Dornik Šubelj, Ljuba. »Aleš Kermavner, sin Dušana Kermavnerja v dokumentih Arhiva Republike Slovenije.« In: Življenje in delo dr. Dušana Kermavnerja 1903 – 1975, Med politiko in zgodovino, edited by Jurij Perovšek and Aleksander Žižek, 81–87. Ljubljana, ZZDS: 2005.
Fornezzi, Tone. »Klub samomorilcev, da ali ne.« Tedenska Tribuna, June 19, 1968, 3.
Gabrič, Aleš. “Zaostrenost mednacionalnih odnosov.“ In: Slovenska novejša zgodovina 1848– 1992, 1165–1174, edited by Jasna Fischer et al. Ljubljana: Inštitut za novejšo zgodovino, 2005).
Gabrič, Aleš. »Greh in kazen.« In: Vitomil Zupan, Važno je priti na grič: življenje in delo Vitomila Zupana 1914–1987, 260–276, edited by Nela Malečkar et al. Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, 2014.
Gabrič, Aleš. V senci politike, Opozicija komunistični oblasti v Sloveniji po letu 1945. Ljubljana: Cankarjeva založba, 2019.
Govekar, Fran. »Nad prepadom.« Slovan 3, no. 2 (1905):44–50.
Grafenauer, Niko. »Oblike slovenskega samomora.« Nova revija 6, no. 57 (1987): 229-232.
Inkret, Andrej. »Ahac«. In: Ahac, knjiga o Dušanu Pirjevcu, 233–283, edited by Andrej Koritnik Ljubljana: Beletrina, 2021.
Inkret, Andrej. »Jože Brejc - Franček alias Jože Javoršek ali spregledano poglavje iz Kocbekove biografije.« Sodobnost 75, no. 12 (2011): 1596–1605.
Javoršek, Jože. Kako je mogoče. Maribor: Založba Obzorja, 1978, 1969.
Javoršek, Jože. Nevarna razmerja. Maribor: Založba Obzorja,1978.
Juvan, Marko. »Slovenski kulturni sindrom v nacionalni in primerjalni literarni vedi.« Slavistična revija 56, no. 1 (2008), 1-17.
Kardelj, Edvard. Razvoj slovenskega narodnega vprašanja. Ljubljana: DZS, 1957.
Kermauner, Taras. »Marsikako je mogoče,« Naši razgledi, September 5, 1969, 504–505; September 19, 1969, 536–537.
Kermavner, Taras. Med prijatelji, med sovražniki. Murska sobota: Pomurska založba, 1986.
Kmecl, Matjaž. Slovenska postna premišljevanja. Ljubljana: Cankarjeva založba, 1987.
Kosovel, Srečko. Izbrane pesmi, edited by Matevž Kos. Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, 1997.
Maher, Neva. »Povezanost med značilnostmi samomorilnih oseb in družbeno-ekonomskimi karakteristikami.« in: Samomor in Slovenci, 259-276, edited by Lev Milčinski. Ljubljana: SAZU, Univerzitetna psihiatrična klinika v Ljubljani, 1983.
Makarovič, Marija. »Prispevek etnologije k razpravi o samomorilnosti v Sloveniji.« In: Samomor in Slovenci, 218-224, edited by Lev Milčinski. Ljubljana: SAZU, Univerzitetna psihiatrična klinika v Ljubljani, 1983.
Martelanc, Vladimir. Članki in pisma, eited by Ravel Kodrič in Amelia Kraigher. Ljubljana, Založba *cf: 2023.
Milčinski, Lev. Samomor in Slovenci. Ljubljana: Cankarjeva založba, 1985.
Miller, Nick. The Nonconfomists, Culture, Politics and Nationalism in a Serbian Intellectual Circle, 1944-199. Budapest, New York: CEU Press, 2007.
Novak, Boris A. »Govorilne ure pri profesorju Pirjevcu.« In: Ahac, knjiga o Dušanu Pirjevcu, 354–439, edited by Andrej Koritnik. Ljubljana: Beletrina, 2021.
Omerza, Igor. Edvard Kocbek, Osebni dosje št. 584. Ljubljana: Karantanija, 2010.
Omerza, Igor. Veliki in dolgi pohod Nove revije. Celovec: Mohorjeva, 2015.
Puhar, Alenka. »Kako se je tovarišija spremenila v črno sluzasto mavrico.« Pogledi, October 15, 2014, https://pogledi.delo.si/mnenja/kako-se-je-tovarisija-spremenila-v-crno-sluzasto-mavrico.
Puhar, Alenka. »Kriminalna kariera Vitomila Zupana.« In: Vitomil Zupan, Važno je priti na grič: življenje in delo Vitomila Zupana 1914–1987, 235–257, edited by Nela Malečkar et al. Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, 2014.
Ramšak, Jure. (Samo)upravljanje intelekta, Družbena kritika v poznosocialistični Sloveniji. Ljubljana: Modrijan, 2019.
Remec, Meta. »Epidemija samomorov? Odmevi na naraščanje stopnje samomorilnosti na Slovenskem v 19. in 20. stoletju,« Prispevki za novejšo zgodovino 63, no. 1 (2023): 8–41, DOI: https://doi.org/10.51663/pnz.63.1.01.
Remec, Meta. »Traitors, cowards, martyrs, heroes : youth suicide as a socio-historical phenomenon in the 1960s Slovenia.« Studia Historica Slovenica 23, no. 1 (2023), 203–238.
Rožanc, Marjan. »Umreti lepo.« In: Slovenski narod in kultura, 78-87, edited by Tone Partljič. Ljubljana: Društvo slovenskih pisateljev, 1985.
Rožanc, Marjan. Svoboda in narod, dnevniški zapiski. Maribor: Založba obzorja, 1986.
Sontag, Susan. AIDS and Its Metaphors. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1989.
Sontag, Susan. Illness as Metaphor. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1978.
Trencsényi, Balázs et al. A history of modern political thought in East Central Europe. Vol. 2, Negotiating modernity in the short twentieth century and beyond. Pt. 1, 1918-1968. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018.
Trencsényi, Balázs et al. A history of modern political thought in East Central Europe. Vol. 2, Negotiating modernity in the short twentieth century and beyond. Pt. 2, 1918-1968. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018.
Trstenjak, Anton. »Okvirne dilema v etiologiji samomora.« In: Samomor in Slovenci, 251–258, edited by Lev Milčinski. Ljubljana: SAZU, Univerzitetna psihiatrična klinika v Ljubljani, 1983.
Vidmar, Josip. »Kritika - Edvard Kocbek: Strah in pogum,« Novi svet 7. no. 1 (1952): 78–85.
Vodopivec, Peter. »Profesorjev dosje.« In: Ahac, knjiga o Dušanu Pirjevcu, 322–353, edited by Andrej Koritnik Ljubljana: Beletrina, 2021.
Zajc, Marko »Samoumeščanje slovenskih intelektualcev v simbolno geografijo Evrope v osemdesetih letih,« Annales. Series historia et sociologia 27, no. 4 (2017), 769-776.
Žerdin, Feri. »Rentabilnost našega samomora.« Tedenska Tribuna, May 29, 1968, 3.
Žerdin, Feri. »Samomorilci so med nami.« Tedenska Tribuna, February 8, 1967, 4.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Marko Zajc
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
