Drago Jancar puts Slovenia on the literary map

Drago Jancar is one of the most important writers in his native Slovenia.

His work includes novels, short stories, plays, screenplays and essays. Until 1974 he had worked as a journalist, but lost his job when he smuggled a book into the country that described the murders of Slovenian soldiers by communists. For this he was sentenced to one year in prison. The German version of his most recent novel, "When the World Was Created" (original Slovenian Title: "Ob nastanku sveta"), was published by Hanser in 2023.

With Slovenia this year's Guest of Honor at the Frankfurt Book Fair  — the first country from south-east Europe  — Jancar will appear at the event alongside compatriot writers such as Ana Marwan, Maja Haderlap and Slavoj Zizek.

DW spoke to the author about his latest work, and his literary evolution in his homeland.

DW: Your latest novel, "When the World Was Created," is set in Maribor, eastern Slovenia, in 1959. World War II is over and Yugoslav communism has reigned for almost 15 years. The book looks at a time where many conflicting truths competed, despite the prevailing narrative around the victory of socialism. 

Drago Jancar: Of course, the winners claim truth for themselves. But you cannot silence everyone. There are also the small groups of people who were religious, and had difficulties because of that. There was a German minority who had lived in the city since before the Second World War. Yes, among them were traitors, collaborators. But they in turn condemned the communists as criminals who would have killed so many. They all have a truth, different truths. Nowadays people still argue about who was in the right and who was not. That is also a bit of Slovenian folklore. But I think that the young, the new generation is not interested in that anymore.

You recently said in an interview that your stories are less about the past and more about its relevance to the present.

Actually, all my novels, stories and plays have a meaning for the present. People don't change that much in the course of history. Our passions, betrayals, loves and hatreds are essentially the same. I think that my novel is not a historical one, but a contemporary one.

'Good and evil are in everyone'

"As a writer, the question of good and evil preoccupies me," you once said. But your novel is precisely about the fact that this distinction is not so simple.

I was also a child in Maribor in 1959. At school, they convinced us that there was only good and evil, and that whomever went to church was doing something unlawful.

The main protagonist of my novel, a boy named Danijel, realizes that good and evil are in everyone. Who seemed good until now does something evil in the next chapter. 

So good and evil fight within us and in the story. Nothing is clear: not in the story, not for a single person.

Is "When the World Was Created" autobiographical?

A lot is also invented. Then there are also stories that I heard at the time. As an author, I'm always stuck in my imagination. But it's true, when I was a boy of that age, I heard stories about the war all the time. Everybody was talking about the war, about the occupation, about bravery and about courage and betrayal and about partisans in the woods. People were full of these stories.

I didn't have much interest in them at the time, though. And for a long time it also seemed to me as a very distant time in history. 

But then came the war in Yugoslavia at the end of the 20th century. I suddenly realized that it was quite possible that we would have another war [in Europe], and we did. And now we have another one that shocked me again, because nobody expected this Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Europe coming together through literature

Three years ago, you received the Austrian State Prize for European Literature. Is there such a thing as European literature?

I do not know. But we read each other, we translate each other, we are getting closer and closer.

In the meantime, even in big nations, people are interested in literature from such a small country as Slovenia, with just two million inhabitants.

It will never be the case that everyone really understands everyone else. But if someone from the other part of Europe has more understanding through my books and the experiences I write about, then that is already a lot. We are suddenly closer to each other. 

When Slovenia became independent in 1991, you were offered the position of Minister of Culture of the new state. You declined. But that shows that you were perceived as a moral authority, as someone who could be a unifying force. Is that how you see yourself?

I said to myself, no, this is not for me. I am a writer. As a politician, I would have had to deal with completely different things.

I would have had to fight battles that I don't want to fight. So I stayed a writer, and I think that was the right decision. I would never have been able to write all my novels and stories if I had gone into politics. 

But you continue to write occasional essays on social and political issues?

I can't be silent when I see something going wrong. Maybe it is my experience with the former system, about which I was never happy. I know the difference between an authoritarian, totalitarian and undemocratic system, and democracy. I know both. And that is why I believe that I have a right to speak out about it.

This article was originally written in German.