From Encyclopedia of Slovenia about the work of Jože Snoj

 

            As a poet Snoj came out of the so-called intimism (The Mill of Hundred Eyes) and drew from the tradition of Slovene Moderna and expressionism. However, the collection of poems The Cavalry of Slovene Hoplites and all his poetry in the second half of sixties and seventies shows a typical transition to modernism. The most significant themes of his poetry are erotic, existential distress and metaphysical protest and rebellion against conventions. Snoj supplements modern principles of poetry writing (the absence of lyrical subject, leaving out the punctuation marks, free verse, varying types of strophe) with mythical allusions.  At the beginning of the seventies his poetical world became darker, more ballad-like (Ballads for Voice and Rattles) by attachment to the tradition of Slovene national poetry, while his collection of poems Lilac Aquarelles demonstrates the hermetic summit of his modernistic phase. In the eighties and nineties, we can perceive a shift from the strict modernistic poesy. The characteristics of this period are always stronger wish or tendency towards the resacralisation of poesy and the mystical worshiping of the poetical expression and also the contiguous addressing of transcendence (Elegies for Father and Fatherland, Home-Sickness, Spiritual Poems). This might be the most outstanding characteristic of his lyrics in comparison to the main Slovene modernistic poets (Dane Zajc, Gregor Strnisa, Veno Taufer, and Niko Grafenauer).

            As narrator, he first published modernistic short stories (Lady with Menthol) with actual social critical and intimate existential themes. In the novels Corridor and The Negative of Gojko Mrc he carried on the tradition of existentialist literature in addressing the ethical problems of the intellectual and his situation in the contemporary Slovene society; as for narrative technique and the language style he took the model of the modern novel. At the end of the seventies, in the novel Joseph or the early Revelation of the heart Cancer, the machistic erotica prevails; at the same time biblical motives are introduced to show and emphasize the intimate being and morally ethical as well as actual social critical themes. In the novels of eighties, he dealt with traumatic contradictions of the last Slovene history and so he tried to elucidate the tragic captivity of individuals in the civil war from a different ethical perspective: in Gallows Hill above all from a child's point of view and in the novel Fugue in the Cross from a schizophrenic's. The author here shows the interwar destiny of Slovenes through a parable motive of the twin brothers, fighting on the opposite ideological sides. In both novels the extensions of existentialism are interwoven with the elements of modernism, the style is bold, heterogeneous and very special. In the novel Noah's Cottage there are still echoes of the war themes but again Snoj is in the present time and in more private events of the critical period in the process of independence of Slovenia.

            Snoj wrote also numerous books for children: the poems are various in sound, rhythms, and based on puns (Hurdy-gurdy, Poems for little Girls and Boys, Through the Garden and Across the Plain); the prose subjects are mostly in the manner of a fairy-tale (Blackguard-blackbird and Blackbirds, Auto Motor Ants, Aurora from Evening-red, The Fairy-tale of Water Drop, The Dawn of the World). The elements of fairy-tales sometimes change into grotesque, parable, allegory or poetical paraphrasing of biblical themes (Homer Homeless and Lass Nameless, Baby Starling-little Ninny, Divining about God).

            As critic, Snoj was systematically writing about books being published, as journalist for nearly thirty years he was occupied with actual contemporary questions in connection with literary and cultural political themes (Printing Chronicle, numerous magazine publications); among the themes in the eighties prevails striving for Slovene independence. Similar items dominate also in his essays (Symbolism of Josip Murn, The Killing of Soil, Handke's Paradox, In between Word and God). In polemically written The Killing of Soil the author's ethical standpoint comes from his absolute recognition of the sacredness of life, while in his nineties' essays religious thinking and self-questioning are typical.

Back