# France Vodnik

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/France_Vodnik
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/France_Vodnik.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France_Vodnik
> Source revision: 1343162878
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

**France Vodnik** (1903–1986) was a [Slovenian](/source/Slovenia) [literary critic](/source/Literary_critic), [essayist](/source/Essayist), [translator](/source/Translation) and [poet](/source/Poet) from [Ljubljana](/source/Ljubljana).[1] He was mostly active in the [interwar period](/source/Interwar_period), when Slovenia was part of the [Kingdom of Yugoslavia](/source/Kingdom_of_Yugoslavia). He was the younger brother of the poet and critic [Anton Vodnik](/source/Anton_Vodnik).[1]

Vodnik completed philosophy studies at the [University of Ljubljana](/source/University_of_Ljubljana).[1] France Vodnik was one of the main exponent of Slovene [Christian left](/source/Christian_left) intellectuals who gathered around the journal *[Križ na gori](/source/Kri%C5%BE_na_gori)* (Cross on the Mountain). Together with the poet and thinker [Edvard Kocbek](/source/Edvard_Kocbek), Vodnik was one of the first Slovene [Roman Catholic](/source/Roman_Catholic) intellectuals to profess the [Personalist](/source/Personalist) philosophy.

Vodnik emerged in the 1920s as a literary critic and columnist in the [liberal conservative](/source/Liberal_conservative) journal *[Dom in svet](/source/Dom_in_svet)*. By the mid-1930s, he was considered one of the most influential Slovene critics, together with the [left liberal](/source/Left_liberal) [Josip Vidmar](/source/Josip_Vidmar) and the [Marxist](/source/Marxist) [Ivo Brnčić](/source/Ivo_Brn%C4%8Di%C4%87), with whom he frequently polemized. He was a strong supporter of Slovenian cultural and political autonomy within [Yugoslavia](/source/Yugoslavia).

He also published a collection of poetry, entitled "The Fighter with God" (*Borivec z Bogom*), mostly composed of religious and mystical poems.

After [World War II](/source/World_War_II), his influence was largely reduced. In the first [post-war](/source/Post-war) decades, he mostly worked as a translator, mostly from [Polish](/source/Polish_language). Among other, he translated works by [Sienkiewicz](/source/Sienkiewicz), [Stefan Żeromski](/source/Stefan_%C5%BBeromski), [Jerzy Andrzejewski](/source/Jerzy_Andrzejewski), [Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz](/source/Jaros%C5%82aw_Iwaszkiewicz), [Maria Dabrowska](/source/Maria_Dabrowska), [Jan Dobraczynski](/source/Jan_Dobraczynski), [Kazimierz Moczarski](/source/Kazimierz_Moczarski), and [Stanislaw Lem](/source/Stanislaw_Lem) into [Slovene](/source/Slovene_language). He also compiled a Slovene-Polish dictionary, published in 1977. In the 1960s and early 1970s, several collections of his essays were published.

He died in Ljubljana.

## Major works

- *Slovenska religiozna lirika* ('Slovene Religious Lyrical Poems', editor); 1928.
- *Prešernov svetovni nazor* ('[Prešeren](/source/Pre%C5%A1eren)'s World View'); 1929.
- *Borivec z Bogom* ('The Fighter with God'); 1932.
- *Ideja in kvaliteta : kritike in eseji* ('Idea and Quality: Critiques and Essays'); 1964.
- *Kritična dramaturgija* ('Critical Drama Theory'); 1968.
- *Prevrednotenja* ('Revaluations'); 1971.
- *Od obzorja do obzorja* ('From Horizon to Horizon'); 1972.
- *Dialektika in metafizika slovenstva* ('The Dialectics and Metaphysics of Slovene-ness'. Collections of essays from the 1920s and 1930s); 1983

## References

1. Stanko Janež (1971). *Jugoslovenski književni leksikon* [Yugoslav Literary Lexicon] (in sh). Živan Milisavac (ed.). [Novi Sad](/source/Novi_Sad) ([SAP Vojvodina](/source/Socialist_Autonomous_Province_of_Vojvodina), [SR Serbia](/source/Socialist_Republic_of_Serbia)): [Matica srpska](/source/Matica_srpska). p. 572.

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [France Vodnik](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France_Vodnik) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France_Vodnik?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.