Jacques Chessex

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Jacques Chessex

Jacques Chessex (born March 1, 1934 in Payerne , Canton of Vaud ; † October 9, 2009 in Yverdon-les-Bains , Canton of Vaud) was a French-speaking writer from Switzerland .

Life

His father Pierre Chessex was the director of a Progymnasium . Jacques Chessex attended schools in Payerne, Lausanne and Friborg , studied humanities in Lausanne and then worked as a French teacher at the Gymnase de la Cité there. For the novel L'Ogre , the title of which refers to the Kindlifresserbrunnen in Bern , he was the first non-French (and so far only Swiss) to receive the Prix ​​Goncourt . Since the 1970s he lived in the Vaudois village of Ropraz , which is why he was also known as the «Hermit of Ropraz». He was also a passionate painter; A friendship with the Spanish painter Antonio Saura resulted in an exhibition of his works under the title "Minotaur" in Cuenca, Spain in 2002 .

Chessex died unexpectedly during a discussion event in the city library of Yverdon-les-Bains on the occasion of a current theater adaptation of his 1967 novel Confession du pasteur Burg and his sympathies for Roman Polanski . His estate is in the Swiss Literary Archives in Bern .

Shortly before, Chessex's last work, the novel Un juif pour l'exemple , published in 2009, had caused a sensation, especially in Switzerland . In it, the author tells the historically guaranteed story of the Jewish Bernese cattle dealer Arthur Blochs , who was murdered by frontists on April 16, 1942 in Payerne . Jacob Berger filmed Un Juif pour l'exemple with Bruno Ganz as Arthur Bloch in 2016 .

Works (selection)

Jacques Chessex, photo by Erling Mandelmann
  • Jour proche , collection of poems, 1954
  • La tete ouverte , 1962
  • La Confession du pasteur castle , 1967
  • Portrait des Vaudois , 1969 (German by Marcel Schwander : Living and dying in Waadtland )
  • Les saintes écritures , 1972
  • L'Ogre , 1973 (German by Marcel Schwander: Der Kinderfresser . New edition Lenos-Verlag, Basel 2010, ISBN 978-3-85787-736-0 ).
  • L'ardent royaume , 1975 (German by Marcel Schwander: Mona . New edition Lenos-Verlag, Basel 2005, ISBN 3-85787-689-1 )
  • Les Yeux jaunes , 1979 (German by Marcel Schwander: Amber eyes . New edition Lenos-Verlag, Basel 2012, ISBN 978-3-85787-750-6 ).
  • Judas le transparent , 1982.
  • Des cinq sens , with illustrations by Étienne Delessert . Roth and Sauter, Denges-Lausanne 1983.
    • German by Marcel Schwander: The five senses , Roth and Sauter, Denges-Lausanne 1983.
  • Jonas , 1987 (German by Marcel Schwander: Der Verworfene . New edition under the title Jonas , Lenos, Basel 2012, ISBN 978-3-85787-754-4 ).
  • Morgane Madrigal , 1992.
  • La Trinité , 1993 (German by Ursula Dubois: Dreigestirn )
  • Le Rêve de Voltaire , 1995 (German by Ursula Dubois: Voltaire's dream )
  • L'Imitation , 1997
  • Incarnata , 1999
  • Portrait d'une ombre , 1999
  • Sosie d'un Saint , 2000
  • Monsieur , 2001
  • Le Désir de la neige , 2002
  • Le Fort , 2002
  • L'Economie du ciel , 2003
  • Le Vampire de Ropraz , 2007 (German by Elisabeth Edl : Der Vampir von Ropraz , Nagel & Kimche, Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-312-00416-4 ).
  • Un Juif pour l'exemple , 2009 (German by Grete Osterwald: Ein Jude als Exempel , Nagel & Kimche, Zurich 2010, ISBN 978-3-312-00440-9 )
  • Le dernier crâne de M. de Sade , 2010 (German by Stefan Zweifel : The skull of the Marquis de Sade , Nagel & Kimche, Zurich 2011, ISBN 978-3-312-00469-0 ).

Poems in German in:

  • Philippe Jaccottet : The poetry of French-speaking Switzerland. A bilingual anthology. German by Elisabeth Edl and Wolfgang Matz . Nagel & Kimche, Zurich 2008

Awards

  • Prix ​​Schiller 1963
  • Prix ​​Alpes-Jura 1971
  • Prix ​​Goncourt 1973
  • Diplôme d'honneur Hans-Christian Andersen 1982
  • Grand Prix du rayonnement Académie française 1983
  • Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres 1984
  • Prix ​​Mallarmé 1994
  • Grand Prix de la Langue française 1999
  • Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur 2002
  • Grand Prix Jean Giono 2007

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Writer Jacques Chessex from western Switzerland has died , NZZ Online, accessed on October 10, 2009
  2. ^ French writer Jacques Chessex has died. NZZ , accessed on November 17, 2019 .
  3. ↑ On the death of Jacques Chessex: The doctor and death. FAZ , accessed on November 17, 2019 .
  4. ^ Neue Zürcher Zeitung April 25, 2009: Payerne, April 16, 1942
  5. ↑ Jacques Chessex becomes a Knight of the Legion of Honor
personal data
SURNAME Chessex, Jacques
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French-speaking Swiss writer
DATE OF BIRTH March 1, 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH Payerne
DATE OF DEATH October 9, 2009
Place of death Yverdon-les-Bains