JOŽE ŽOHAR, A MIGRANT POET FROM AUSTRALIA AND HIS NEW COLLECTION OF VERSE OBIRANJE LIMON (2004)

• Main Author: Maver, Igor
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: ZRC SAZU, Založba ZRC 2006
• Subjects: Slovene emigrant literature; Slovene poetry; Australian Slovenes; diaspora; slovenska izseljenska književnost; slovenska poezija; avstralski Slovenci; Eros; aurora australis
• Online Access: https://ojs.zrc-sazu.si/twohomelands/article/view/11653/10805; https://ojs.zrc-sazu.si/twohomelands/article/view/11653

Jože Žohar migrated »down under« to Australia in 1968 and struggles to pacify inside him the two homelands, Slovenia and Australia. In his three published collections of verse in the Slovene language (1990, 1995, 2004) the poet remains torn between the two countries, between Eros and Thanatos, between a unique erotic experiencing of the homeland and the wish for physical and spiritual ending and closeness of death, which brings deliverance. The article contextualizes his recently published book of verse Obiranje limon (2004) within recent theories of diasporic writing. Jože Žohar je emigriral v Avstralijo leta 1968 in je doslej v Sloveniji objavil tri samostojne pesniške zbirke, Aurora australis (1990), Veku bukev (1995) in Obiranje limon (2004). Članek opredeljuje pesnikovo značilno jezikovno eksperimentiranje, tematiko njegovih pesmi in ugotavlja, da je v vseh treh zbirkah najti močno prisotno specifično geografsko okolje, tako Prekmurja kot tudi avstralske pokrajine. Posebej v zadnji zbirki, ki je podrobneje obravnavana, se že kaže avtorjeva razpetost na dvoje »domov«, a ta obenem tudi ostaja brez prave pripetosti na katerega od njiju, kar je nasploh značilno za sodobno diasporično književnost.