Albert Cohen

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Memorial plaque for Albert Cohen at the synagogue in Corfu

Albert Cohen (born August 16, 1895 in Corfu ; died October 17, 1981 in Geneva ) was a Swiss French-language writer .

Life

Cohen's family - Coen - was of Romaniotic Jewish origin and lived in Corfu, Greece . The mother was Louise Judith, b. Ferro, daughter of the old Apulian Jewish community in the island; the father was Marco Coen, an industrialist.

The family moved to Marseille in 1900 , where he grew up and became friends with Marcel Pagnol . From 1915 to 1919 he studied law in Geneva. In 1919 he received Swiss citizenship. From 1926 to 1932 he worked in the diplomatic department of the International Labor Organization in Geneva, and in 1939 as legal advisor to the Intergovernmental Council for Refugees. After a stay in Paris , he was a representative of the Jewish Agency in London from 1940 to 1946 . Back in Geneva, from 1947 to 1954 he was Director of the Service for the Legal and Diplomatic Protection of Refugees at the UN . He turned down other political offices in favor of writing.

Cohen's work partly includes personally colored writings such as the autobiographical trilogy Le Livre de ma mère (1954), O vous, frères humains (1972) and Carnets (1978). This also includes the play Ezéchiel (performed at the Comédie-Française in 1933). On the other hand, wrote Cohen novels in a heroic-comic style as the Solal - tetralogy ( Solal, 1930; Mangeclous, 1938; Belle du Seigneur, and in 1968 Les Valeureux, 1969) which is considered by some to be his masterpiece. In a satirical way he describes a society that is in a state of dissolution. The lustful ironization of passion, considered a myth, goes hand in hand with a lyrical adoration of women. Judaism plays an important role in all of Cohen's works .

Albert Cohen was married three times.

Honors

Works (selection)

Solal tetralogy

Others

  • Le livre de ma mère. 1954.
  • Écrits d'Angleterre. Textes redigés par Cohen en Angleterre entre 1940 et 1949. Préface de Daniel Jacoby. Les Belles Lettres, Paris 2002,

literature

  • Jean Blot: Albert Cohen. 2nd expanded edition. Balland, Paris 1995, ISBN 2-7158-1079-2
  • ders .: Albert Cohen or "Solal" dans le siècle (= Présences du Judaïsme. 16) Albin Michel, Paris 1995, ISBN 2-226-07910-6
  • Bella Cohen: Albert Cohen. Myth et réalité. Gallimard, Paris 1991, ISBN 2-07-072324-0
  • Ursula M. Egyptien: The homeless search for a homeless person. The conflict of Jews in the Diaspora, examined using the example of Albert Cohen (= Cologne Romance Works NF. 78). Droz, Geneva 2000, ISBN 2-600-00424-6
  • Roger Francillon: De Albert Cohen. In: De la Seconde Guerre aux années 1970 (= Histoire de la littérature en Suisse Romande. Vol. 3). Payot, Lausanne 1998, ISBN 2-601-03184-0 , pp. 343-353
  • Denise R. Goitein-Galperin: Visage de mon peuple. Essai sur Albert Cohen. Nizet, Paris 1982, ISBN 2-7078-1013-4
  • Barbara Honigmann : Albert Cohen. A homage. In: "Finding the face again". About writing, writers and Judaism. Hanser, Munich 2006, ISBN 978-3-446-20681-6
  • Andreas Isenschmid: Solal. In: Dan Diner (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Jewish History and Culture (EJGK). Volume 5: Pr-Sy. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2014, ISBN 978-3-476-02505-0 , pp. 523-529.
  • Clara Lévy: Écritures de l'identité. Écrivains juifs après la shoah. PUF, Paris 1998, ISBN 2-13-049686-5 , pp. 202-22
  • Hubert Nyssen: Lecture d'Albert Cohen. 2nd Edition. Actes Sud, Arles 1986, ISBN 2-86869-123-4
  • Alain Schaffner: Le goût de l'absolu. L'enjeu sacré de la littérature dans l'œuvre d'Albert Cohen. Champion, Paris 1999, ISBN 2-7453-0014-8
  • Gérard Valbert: Albert Cohen, le seigneur. Grasset, Paris 1990 ISBN 2-246-41391-5

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Andreas Isenschmid : Novel "The Lord's Beauty": Long live France! In: The time . No. 20, May 8, 2013
personal data
SURNAME Cohen, Albert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss writer
DATE OF BIRTH August 16, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Corfu , Greece
DATE OF DEATH 17th October 1981
Place of death Geneva , Switzerland