Aya Zikken

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Aya Zikken (born September 21, 1919 in Epe , Gelderland province , † March 22, 2013 in Norg , Drenthe province ) was a Dutch writer .

Live and act

Aya Zikken was born in Epe, a village in the municipality of the same name . When she was six years old, her parents moved with her to the Dutch East Indies , the forerunner state of Indonesia, where she lived until she was 20. She spent her childhood mainly in Java and Sumatra . In Jakarta (at that time Batavia ) she attended a school class with the Dutch women Hella Haasse and Margaretha Ferguson (1920–1992), who later also worked as writers .

In 1939 Zikken's family returned to the Netherlands. Shortly afterwards, however, her parents and sisters went back to the Dutch East Indies, where they were later imprisoned in internment camps . Zicken stayed with a family in Zeist , but was unhappy with the situation. Before she devoted herself to traveling and writing, she studied art history . She later visited almost every country in Western Europe, Malaysia , India , Israel and Ethiopia .

Zikken made her debut as an author in 1953 with the publisher De Arbeiderspers with the novella Het godspaket onbegrepen , which she had written within a few days. In 1954 her novel Als wij groot zijn, dan misschien was published , which is about a married couple who have drifted apart. The novel Alleen polenta vandaag about a trip to Italy, published the following year, was her first major success and was reprinted three times.

For many of her works, Zikken chose the Dutch East Indies as the setting and took up her own childhood memories. She combined elements of the travelogue with those of a novel. Her most successful work was the 1958 novel De atlasvlinder ( The Atlas Butterfly ). Here, too, a 13-year-old girl is at the center of the plot, which takes place in a small community in the Dutch East Indies.

In the late 1950s, Zikken received a scholarship to visit Israel. She later attributed a great impact on her life to the trip. She experienced a feeling of freedom again, like in Indonesia before. Upon her return, she separated from her husband and moved into a small apartment in Amsterdam with her two children . The trip to Israel inspired her to write Hut 277 , which was published in 1962.

After 40 years, Zikken returned to Indonesia for the first time with the help of a travel grant. She visited the city of Lahat , where her novel De atlasvlinder is set. She described this journey in 1981 in Terug naar de atlasvlinder (translated: back to the atlas butterfly ). In 1992 she published the novel De Tanimbar-legende , a parable set on the Kei Islands and Tanimbar Islands after the Japanese occupation of the fate of her father after his release from the internment camp. With Landing op Kalabahi , she brought out a slightly fictionalized autobiography in 1997 in which she used diaries to reconstruct her experiences as young people between the ages of 11 and 20. In 1998, in the travel novel De tuinen van Tuan Allah , she described her trip to the Kai Islands, where she visited her father's former workplaces after the Second World War. In the novel Indian jars , she finally takes up the fate of her parents again, who found a new home in India. Her last work, the 2007 novel Bizarre wereld , was again an autobiography.

In 1997 Zikken was awarded the Anna Bijns Prijs for her complete work.

Aya Zikken died in Norg at the age of 93. In the same week Kees Ruys published the biography Alles is voor even about her .

Works

  • The gods present onbegrepen. De Arbeiderspers, Amsterdam 1953.
  • As wij groot zijn, dan misschien. De Arbeiderspers, Amsterdam 1954.
  • Avenues polenta vandaag. De Arbeiderspers, Amsterdam 1955.
  • De vrijwilliger. De Arbeiderspers, Amsterdam 1956.
  • De atlasvlinder. De Arbeiderspers, Amsterdam 1958.
    • The atlas butterfly. translated by Johannes Piron , Langen / Müller, Munich 1962.
  • Hut 277. De Arbeiderspers, Amsterdam 1962.
  • Dán misschien. De Arbeiderspers, Amsterdam 1963.
  • Geen wolf te zien. De Arbeiderspers, Amsterdam 1963.
  • Code voor Dander. De Arbeiderspers, Amsterdam 1965.
  • Wees inquisitive en leef long. De Arbeiderspers, Amsterdam 1966.
  • Raméh, failed van een Rande. De Arbeiderspers, Amsterdam 1968.
  • 's morning en' s avonds niet bark. De Arbeiderspers, Amsterdam 1969.
  • Het grote taboe. De Arbeiderspers, Amsterdam 1970, ISBN 9-029-55853-9 .
  • Gisteren gaat niet voorbij, Tempo doeloe. La Rivière & Voorhoeve, Zwolle 1973, ISBN 9-060-84293-6 .
  • Dwars door de mirror. Querido, Amsterdam 1975, ISBN 9-021-41399-X .
  • Terug naar de atlasvlinder. Leopold, The Hague 1981, ISBN 9-025-81927-3 .
  • Eilanden van vroeger. Leopold, The Hague 1982, ISBN 9-025-81928-1 .
  • Shirt with open neck. Nijgh & Van Ditmar, 's-Gravenhage 1983, ISBN 9-023-65564-8 .
  • Een tijger op je stoep. Nijgh & Van Ditmar, 's-Gravenhage 1985, ISBN 9-023-65641-5 .
  • A land as Maleisië. Nijgh & Van Ditmar, 's-Gravenhage 1986, ISBN 9-023-65637-7 .
  • A warm rain. Nijgh & Van Ditmar, 's-Gravenhage 1987, ISBN 9-023-65674-1 .
  • Sarung, sari en samfu. Nijgh & Van Ditmar, Amsterdam 1988, ISBN 9-023-65716-0 .
  • Op away naar Yadadore. Nijgh & Van Ditmar, Amsterdam 1990, ISBN 9-023-68382-X .
  • De Tanimbar legend. Nijgh & Van Ditmar, Amsterdam 1992, ISBN 9-038-89032-X .
  • De polong. Uitg. Atlas, Amsterdam 1994, ISBN 9-025-40565-7 .
  • Drieluik Sumatra. Nijgh & Van Ditmar, Amsterdam 1995, ISBN 9-038-88721-3 .
  • Landing op Kalabahi. Atlas, Amsterdam 1997, ISBN 9-025-42181-4 .
  • De Tuinen van Tuan Allah. Atlas, Amsterdam 1998, ISBN 9-025-42330-2 .
  • Voor het vandaag werd. Atlas, Amsterdam 2000, ISBN 9-045-00103-9 .
  • Indian jars. Atlas, Amsterdam 2001, ISBN 9-045-00454-2 .
  • Odjong's island. Atlas, Amsterdam 2004, ISBN 9-045-01098-4 .
  • Bizarre wereld. Atlas, Amsterdam 2007, ISBN 978-9-045-00014-5 .

literature

  • Kees Ruys: Everything is voor even: het bewogen schrijversleven van Aya Zikken. In de Knipscheer, Haarlem 2013, ISBN 978-9-062-65824-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Aya Zikken overleden literatuurplein.nl, accessed on April 8, 2013.
  2. ↑ a b Kester Freriks: Aya Zikken, l'éternelle voyageuse. Septentrion, Jaargang 27, Stichting Ons Erfdeel, Rekkem 1998, accessed April 8, 2013.
  3. ↑ All editions for "Alleen polenta vandaag; een reisverhaal." worldcat.org, accessed April 8, 2013.
  4. ^ GJ van Bork, PJ Verkruijsse: Zikken, Aya In: De Nederlandse en Vlaamse auteurs van middeleeuwen tot heden met including van de Friese auteurs. Weesp, De Haan 1985, dbnl.org, accessed April 8, 2013.
  5. ↑ Anna Bijns Prijs 1997 literatuurplein.nl, accessed on April 8, 2013.
  6. ↑ Pim van den Dool: Schrijfster Aya Zikken overleden. In: NRC Handelsblad March 23, accessed April 8, 2013.
personal data
SURNAME Zikken, Aya
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch writer
DATE OF BIRTH September 21, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Epe , Gelderland Province
DATE OF DEATH 22th of March 2013
Place of death Norg , Province of Drenthe