Charles Bertin

Charles Bertin (* 5. October 1919 in Mons , Hainaut , † 21st October 2002 in Sint-Genesius-Rode , Flemish Brabant ) was a Belgian lawyer , trade union functionary and writer , who is literary in its interaction with many facets of creativity as Poetry , drama , journalism and literary criticism and repeatedly dealt with the topic of loneliness in different life situations.

Life

Studies and professional activities

Bertin, a nephew of the politician and writer Charles Plisnier , studied law and political science at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) after school and wrote articles for the magazine La Faluche , the organ of the group of Walloon students , during his studies in 1939 at the ULB, of which he was a member. After he graduated in 1941 as a doctor of law had been completed, he was from 1942 to 1947 as a lawyer active in Mons.

He then worked as Deputy Head of Cabinet of the Minister for Labor and Social Affairs between 1947 and 1949 , before becoming legal advisor to the Fédération générale du travail de Belgique (FGTB), the umbrella organization of the Belgian trade unions . From 1952 until his retirement in 1984 he was general secretary of the metalworkers' union.

At the beginning of the 1950s he settled in Sint-Genesius-Rode, a town in Flemish Brabant, which plays a special role in the Flemish-Walloon conflict , as it is the only one of the six municipalities with facilities in the area of Brussels that has both Brussels-Capital Region and the Walloon Region borders. There he stood up especially for the cultural rights of the Francophone residents.

In June 1976 Bertin was among the signatories of an open letter to King Baudouin with 141 other personalities such as Fernand Dehousse , Francis Delpérée , Joseph Hanse , Maurice Leroy , Jean Rey and Marcel Thiry . In it, the signatories called for a true, lively federalism based on the recognition of human rights and the equality of citizens and the political equality of the municipalities and regions.

Writing

In literary terms he appeared while he was working as a lawyer and published Trois poèmes, his first volume of poetry , in 1946 , which was followed by a second volume in 1947, Psaumes sans la grâce . For the stage work Don Juan (1947) he was also awarded the Prix ​​Triennal d'Art dramatique in 1947 .

In 1949 he published a third volume of poetry with Chant noir , which was followed in 1952 by Christophe Colomb , which was recorded as a radio play by the Théâtre National de Belgique in 1954 and was awarded the Prix ​​Italia in 1961 , and in which Bertin based the main character Christopher Columbus on the loneliness of power and Represents adventure.

In the novel Journal d'un crime (1961), which appeared in a German translation by Gerhard Vorkamp in 1965 under the title Diary of a Crime , he described the loneliness of a not voluntary but frightening inner responsibility. In 1963 he wrote the play L'oiseau vert, an adaptation of Carlo Gozzi's philosophical fairy tale L'augellin belverde from 1765.

The novel Le bel âge (1964), which was honored with the Prix ​​Victor Rossel (1964) and the Prix ​​triennal du roman (1966), deals with the hostility of the inhabitants of a provincial town towards the main character. In the play Le Roi Bonheur (1966) he mocked the adult world through the main character, a kind of ridiculous caligula .

In Je reviendrai à Badenburg (1970) he dealt with the loneliness of death and depicts a man who fails in his search for himself and continues to lead the life of a libertine woman . The metaphorical representation of civilization was the theme in Les jardins du désert (1981), in which the action takes place on a desert island in the 21st century, the inhabitants of which are the survivors of a catastrophe, led by an enlightened despot .

Other later novels were Les jardins du désert (1981), Voyage d'hiver (1989) and La petite dame en son jardin de Bruges (1995), which, however, could not build on the earlier successes. Recently he published with Jadis, si je me souviens bien in 2000 his last novel.

Bertin, who was a member of the Standing Commission of Radio-télévision belge de la Communauté française (RTBF) and President of the Belgian Committee of the Writers' Society, had been a member of the Académie royale de langue et de littérature françaises de Belgique since 1967 .

Publications

• Don Juan , 1947
• Journal d'un crime , 1961; German: Diary of a crime , Munich 1965
• Le bel âge , 1964
• Christophe Colomb , 1966
• Le Roi Bonheur , 1966
• Je reviendrai à Badenburg , 1970
• Les jardins du désert , 1981
• Le voyage d'hiver , 1989
• La petite dame en son jardin de Bruges , 1996
• Charles Plisnier , 1996
• Marcel Thiry , 1997
• Jadis, si je me souviens bien , 2000

Web links

• Publications in Open Library
• Biography in Cent Wallons du siècle , Institut Jules Destrée, Charleroi, 1995