Astrid Roemer

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Astrid Roemer (2016)

Astrid Heligonda Roemer (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈɑstrɪt ɦeːliˈɣɔndaː ˈrumər], born April 24, 1947 in Paramaribo ) is an author and teacher from Surinam who lives in the Netherlands . She writes in Dutch and has published novels, plays and poetry. In 2016 she received the PC Hooft Prijs , a literature award from the Netherlands and Belgium.

life and work

Roemer was born in Paramaribo, the capital of Suriname, in 1947. She attended Kweekschool, a college of teaching. There she appeared as a poet in 1965. In the following year she traveled to the Netherlands and lived alternately in Suriname and the Netherlands until the 1970s. B. in The Hague. In 1970 she published her first volume of poetry, Sasa mijn actuele zijn, under the pseudonym "Zamani" . Her first novel Neem mij terug Suriname (Take Me Back Suriname, 1974) was a success in Suriname and was re-edited as Nergens ergens ("Nirgends, Irgends", 1983). In 1975 she moved to the Netherlands for good after losing her teaching position. She refused to celebrate Sinterklaas, in which the dark-skinned Zwarte Piet plays a role.

From the 1970s she published numerous novels, dramas and poems; in the Netherlands she had her breakthrough with the fragment of the novel Over de gekte van een vrouw (“On the madness of a woman”), a work that deals with the identity and oppression of women. The novel established her reputation as a feminist author and as a role model for lesbian women. In 1989 she sat for some time for the GroenLinks party on the city council of The Hague, but soon gave up her seat after internal party disputes. Between 1996 and 1998 she published her now best-known works, a trilogy (some of which are only available in antiquarian versions): Gewaagd leven (1996), Lijken op lende (1997) and Was getekend (1998). The novels were published as Roemers drieling ("Roemers Triplets" 2001). The German translation of Lijken op lende (“Could love be”) received the 1999 LiBeraturpreis . In the novel, a Surinamese housekeeper sets out into the world to clarify for herself what she has really experienced in her marriage and in her country over the last few decades and what she may have closed her eyes to. Your observations are inextricably linked with Surinam's colonial history.

From 2006 to 2009 Roemer lived again in Suriname. Her autobiography Zolang ik leef ben ik niet dood ("As long as I live, I am not dead") was published in 2004, and a collection of love poems was published in 2012 under the name Afnemend ("Waning") in only 125 copies. Roemer disappeared from the public eye and traveled the world for 15 years with "rugzak, laptop en Perzische kat" ("with backpack, laptop and Persian cat").

In 2016 Roemer surprisingly received the PC Hooft Prijs. She is the first person from the Caribbean to win the award. The jury's reasoning stated that Roemer's novels were a literary evocation of the history of Surinam, a story of which only slavery and the December murders are known in the Netherlands , but which are "inextricably linked to the history of our country ... and thus, by means of Roemer's unique work, with our literature ”. The judges added: "Politiek engagement en literair experiment gaan bij Roemer hand in hand" ("Political engagement and literary experimentation go hand in hand with Roemer").

In 2015 De wereld was released heeft gezicht (“The world has lost its face”), a biographical film documentary by Cindy Kerseborn about Astrid Roemer.

Works

Astrid Roemer's works according to her profile on the Digital Library for Dutch Literature : [1]

  • 1970: Sasa mijn actuele zijn (Sasa to be my presence)
  • 1974: Neem mij terug, Suriname (Take me back Suriname)
  • 1975: De wereld heeft gezicht lost (The world has lost its face)
  • 1982: Over de gekte van een vrouw (On the madness of a woman)
  • 1983: Nergens ergens (nowhere somewhere)
  • 1985: En wat dan nog ?! (And what else?!)
  • 1985: Noordzee Blues (North Sea Blues )
  • 1987: Levenslang poem (lifelong poem)
  • 1987: Waarom zou je huilen mijn lieve, lieve ... (Why should you cry, my love, love ...)
  • 1987: Wat heet anders (What is different)
  • 1988: De Achtentwintigste dag (The twenty-eighth day)
  • 1988: De orde van de dag (The order of the day)
  • 1988: Het spoor van de jakhals (The Jackal's Trail)
  • 1989: Alles wat gelukkig maakt (Everything that makes you happy)
  • 1989: Oost West Holland Best (East West Holland Best)
  • 1990: Een naam voor de Lösde (A name for love)
  • 1991: Poet bij mij schreeuw ik (closer to me I scream)
  • 1993: Niets wat pijn doet (Nothing that hurts)
  • 1996: Gewaagd leven (Daring Life)
  • 1997: Lijken op liefde (Could be love: translation by Christiane Kuby, Berlin Verlag 1998, ISBN 3-8270-0288-5 )
  • 1997: Suriname (Suriname)
  • 1998: What getekend (drawn)
  • 2001: 'Miauw' ("Miau")
  • 2004: Zolang ik leef ben ik niet dood (As long as I'm alive, I'm not dead)
  • 2006: Over de gekte van een vrouw (On the madness of a woman)
  • 2012: Afnemend; 21 poems. (Decreasing; 21 love poems) Buku Bibliotheca Surinamica, Amsterdam 2012.
  • 2016: Liefde in tijden van gebrek: memoires van een thuisloze . (Love in Times of Need: Memoirs of a Homeless Person)
  • 2017: Olga en hair driekwartsmaten . (Olga in three-quarter time) Prometheus , Amsterdam. ISBN 9789044631692
  • 2018: Broken Wit . (Off White) Prometheus , Amsterdam. ISBN 9789044640182

Web links

Commons : Astrid Roemer  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

credentials

  1. ^ [1] Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Letteren, in Dutch; accessed on May 21, 2019
  2. ^ [2] Dutch News, Dutch newspaper, in English; accessed on May 21, 2019
  3. ↑ [3] Peter Jordans in Repeating Islands, in English; accessed on May 21, 2019
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g [4] De Volkskrant , in Dutch; accessed on May 21, 2019
  5. ↑ a b c d [5] NRC Handelsblad , in Dutch; accessed on May 21, 2019
  6. ↑ [6] Bel, Jacqueline; Vaessens, Thomas (2010), in English; accessed on May 21, 2019
  7. ^ [7] PC Hooft Prijs, in Dutch; accessed on May 21, 2019
  8. ↑ [8] , in Dutch; Retrieved on May 21, 2019 from the archived page of Stichting Democratie en Media. December 7, 2015
  9. ↑ Astrid H. Roemer: De Wereld Heeft Gezicht Verloren , imdb.com, accessed on May 26, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Roemer, Astrid
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Roemer, Astrid H.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Surinamese author
DATE OF BIRTH April 24, 1947
PLACE OF BIRTH Paramaribo