Barbara Jurša
- Slovenia -
Barbara Jurša (1986, Slovenia) graduated in English Language and Comparative Literature and earned a PhD in Literary Studies with a research thesis on ecocriticism. She has published two collections of poetry, Leta v oklepaju (Years in Parentheses, 2014, ZavodDroplja) and Milje do Trsta (Thirst for Trieste, 2021, Hiša poezije). At different (and sometimes overlapping) stages of life, she has dabbled in literary journalism, writing literary reviews and literary translation (usually translating poems by Slovenian authors to English). Currently, she lives in Trieste, Italy, and works in Slovenia as a professor of English at the University of Primorska.
Barbara Jurša (1986, Slovenia) graduated in English Language and Comparative Literature and earned a PhD in Literary Studies with a research thesis on ecocriticism. She has published two collections of poetry: Leta v oklepaju (Years in Parentheses, 2014, Zavod Droplja) and Milje do Trsta (Thirst for Trieste, 2021, Hiša poezije). At different (and sometimes overlapping) stages of life, she has dabbled in literary journalism, writing literary reviews and literary translation (usually translating poems by Slovenian authors into English). Currently, she lives in Trieste, Italy, and works in Slovenia as a professor of English at the University of Primorska.
Barbara Jurša’s poetry is a unique combination of the intimate, even the self-revelatory and the political, advocating social justice and women’s rights. According to the Slovene critic Miša Gams, Jurša’s poetry discloses “a fusion of themes, ranging from the existential and lyrical to love poems, socially engaged writing and simple pantheism.” No matter how manifold the subject matter, in her early writing, gathered in her first poetry collection Years in Parentheses, one identifies a central theme, which can be summarized as the conflict between modern society and individuals trying to find their place in it, while seeking ways – in the words of the philosopher Martha Nussbaum – of not despising their inner worlds. As she writes in one of her poems in her debut collection (the majority of these poems are untitled): “Everything is inside because this outside room of mine is temporary.” In the foreword to the book, the critic Domen Slovinič observes: “Thematically, the essence of Barbara Jurša’s poetry is the view from a broader perspective – it is impossible to label her poetry as poetry merely expressing a social issue standpoint, as it primarily focuses on finding the inner balance in the hopelessness of today’s situations, comprehending transience and unveiling what can bring a sense of belonging, harmony and unity with the world.”
The thematic complexity of her work is continued in her second book of poetry, Thirst for Trieste, involving traditional and perennial subject matter. Jurša, whose poetic voice is compassionate and mild, is never a naïve poet; her poems are often infused with great erudition and converse with a historical body of literature, the world of art, and more. Jurša is a poet with roots in the eastern part of Slovenia, now living in Trieste, and it is extremely comfortable for her to venture beyond the edge of the familiar and into the world, inviting her readers to a variety of places (from the residential district of Trieste Borgo San Sergio to the English Falmouth and Annapurna) and bringing them closer to a range of intriguing personas (e.g., painter Vincent Van Gogh, and mountain climbers Lydia Bradey and Wanda Rutkiewicz). The Slovene writer Cvetka Bevc determines that “the poet’s world with its richnes of metaphors […] inundates the readers and sweeps them out as a wave to seek ‘other dimensions.’”
Similarly, the poet Peter Semolič proposes the importance of ambiguity in Jurša’s poetry, marking the feature seen already in the title of the collection. However, Semolič emphasizes another crucial characteristic of Jurša’s poems, stating they are often “deeply erotic” and that “eroticism represents the border of relationships.”
Undoubtedly, Barbara Jurša is a poet who moves beyond homogenizing views that stifle creative approaches, no matter what topic she is dealing with. This is evident even in her engagement with language. For her, language is of paramount importance for different kinds of transformation and can be used in different ways, making this poetry both as complex as necessary and as communicative as possible.
Poetry
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Messages on the Way / Sporočila na poti
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T a ci – tu rn ity / R e dk o - b es edn ost
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Permanence / Stalnost
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Eyes of the Butterfly / Oči metulja
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How on Earth to Fill the Days / Kaj sploh početi do konca življenja
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New Barefoot Experience / Nova bosa izkušnja
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Like a Face That Goes Through Water Five Times (water cupped in the hands) / Kot obraz, ki gre petkrat skoz vodo (ki se pretopi skoz vodo, zajeto v dlani)
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Opening into a Perennial / Odpiranje v trajnico
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Majenca (Dolina) / Majenca (Dolina)
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Majenca (Dolina) / Majenca (Dolina)
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Foreign / Tu je
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Omnia / Omnia
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Orpheuseurydice / Orfejevridika
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Lesson: eine Jüdin? / Učna ura: eine Jüdin?
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Stairs and Places (Kosovel Centre, Sežana) / Stopnice in kraji (Kosovelov dom, Sežana)
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Lydia Bradey (Everest, 1988) / Wanda Rutkiewicz (Annapurna, 1991) / Lydia Bradey (Everest, 1988) / Wanda Rutkiewicz (Anapurna, 1991)
