The liberal category of self in the Slovene writer and politician Ivan Tavčar''s thinking

Timothy POGACAR Bowling Green State UniversityThe liberal category of self in the Slovene writer and politician Ivan Tavčar's thinking This presentation will explore the concept of self

Timothy POGACAR (Bowling Green State University)

The liberal category of self in the Slovene writer and politician Ivan Tavčar's

thinking

This presentation will explore the concept of self that the leading Slovene liberal politician Ivan Tav arč (1851–1923) sets forth in his literary works Assuming that any form of liberalism must take as its point of departure a view of the individual, and individualism is based on a definition of personal identity, this paper will describe Tav arč ’s imaginative descriptions of personhood Tav ar was č a staunch proponent of free

expression of Slovenhood (slovenstvo), but before answering the question of what it

means to be Slovene—in the nineteenth century or today—one must determine the meaning of personhood In this regard I adopt the views of Marya Schechtman on the importance of narrative to personhood and the tripartite definition of concept of self offered by Jerrold Seigel (2005)

Understandings of liberalism and nation and ethnicity in the Austro-Hungarian Empire (e.g., Janos 2000; Heiszler 2006), as well as characterizations of Tav ar č as a liberal politician (e.g., Bergant 2001; Perovšek 1996) will provide background for my consideration of select works by Tav ar This is appropriate historico-politicalč information, given the tension between (in this case Slovene) nationalism and empire in nineteenth-century Europe At the same time, of course, liberals in many lands were supporters of empire by virtue of the fact that it was the largest employer of educated people Slovene liberals like Tav arč conformed to this portrayal

However, Tav ar primarily č suggests a definition of personhood in works set not in the contemporary empire but during the Reformation and Counterreformation While his present political opponent and target—typical of liberals in many European lands—was

in the first place the Roman Catholic clergy, the relevant imagined context is a historically removed theocracy This is where he works out a concept of self, an important aspect of which is “free-thinking.” Protestantism is thus for Tav arč not simply

a historical period of interest because it marks, in standard accounts, the birth of the Slovene people by the recording of its language in Biblical translation Protestantism is a metaphor for modern liberalism with concommitant beliefs about personhood This parallel is surprisingly constant in Tav arč ’s historical works, from the long short story

“Vita vitae meae” (1883), which coincides with his early political activity, to his final

novel, Visoška kronika (1920) The parallel is reinforced by geographic constants in these

works, most of which have strong autobiographical links

Bergant, Zvonko “Politični portret Ivana Tavčara v letih 1894–1918.” Ed Vincenc Rajšp et al

Melikov zbornik: Slovenci v zgodovini in njihovi srednjeevropski sosedje Ljubljana:

ZRC, 2001.

Heiszler, Vilmos “The Identity Problems of the Austro-German Liberals.” Ed Iván Zoltán

Dénes Liberty and the Search for Identity: Liberal Nationalisms and the Legacy of Empires Budapest: Central European UP, 2006: 139–53.

Janos, Andrew C Chap 3, “Liberalism and the Nation State.” East Central Europe in the

Modern World: The Politics of the Borderlands from Pre- to Postcommunism Stanford:

Stanford UP, 2000: 54–124.

Perovšek, Jurij Liberalizem in vprašanje slovenstva: nacionalna politika liberalnega tabora

v letih 1918–1929 Ljubljana: Modrijan, 1996.

Schechtman, Marya The Constitution of Selves Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1996.

Seigel, Jerrold The Idea of the Self: Thought and Experience in Western Europe since the

Seventeenth Century Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2005.