Josip Murn Aleksandrov
| Josip Murn | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
4 March 1879 Ljubljana, Duchy of Carniola, Austria-Hungary (now in Slovenia) |
| Died | 18 June 1901 (aged 22) Ljubljana |
| Occupation | Poet |
| Literary movement | Fin de siecle, Symbolism |
Josip Murn, also known under the pseudonym Aleksandrov (4 March 1879 – 18 June 1901) was a Slovene symbolist poet. Together with Ivan Cankar, Oton Župančič, and Dragotin Kette, he was regarded as one of the beginners of modernism in Slovene literature. After France Prešeren and Edvard Kocbek, Murn was probably the most influential Slovene poet of the last two centuries.
Murn was born in a condominium in the very center of Ljubljana as an illegitimate son to a poor woman. His mother moved to Trieste soon after his birth, leaving him in foster care to some relatives from the suburbs of Ljubljana.
As a teenager, he enrolled in the local high school, where he came in contact with other young Slovene literates, such as Ivan Cankar, Dragotin Kette, and Oton Župančič, who experimented new trends in European poetry. He was a gifted student, shy, but also very self-confident. He started writing poetry at a very young age and soon achieved a very high level of quality. His talent was spotted by a high-class society woman Franja Tavčar, the influential wife of the national-liberal politician and author Ivan Tavčar, who arranged for him a scholarship to study at the University of Vienna.
In 1898 he moved to Vienna, spending there a year mostly visiting literary cafés and art exhibitions. Strongly influenced by the Viennese Secession, he wrote a series of poems with the common title Fin de siècle, in which he delivered his impressions on the life in the metropolis.
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