Maurice Chappaz

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Maurice Chappaz (1983)

Maurice Chappaz (born December 21, 1916 in Lausanne , † January 15, 2009 in Martigny ) was a French-speaking Swiss writer from the canton of Valais .

Life

Childhood and youth

Maurice Chappaz, born in Lausanne in 1916 as the son of Henry and Amélie Chappaz, spent his childhood in Martigny in Lower Valais and in the Abbaye in Le Châble in the Bagnes Valley, a branch of the famous Abbey of Saint-Maurice, belonging to his uncle Maurice Troillet . He attended the Collège der Abbaye von Saint-Maurice and graduated with a Matura (Latin / Greek).

Literary beginnings

From 1937 onwards, following the tradition of paternal and maternal families, he initially studied law at the University of Lausanne, but soon moved to the University of Geneva to study literature. In 1939 Charles Ferdinand Ramuz and Gustave Roud became aware of him in a novella competition. The text Un homme qui vivait couché sur un banc , submitted to the magazine Suisse Romande , did not receive an award, but was printed that same year under the author's pseudonym "Pierre". Chappaz came into conflict with the expectations placed on him and fell out with his father, who, as a lawyer in Martigny, was one of the city's dignitaries. Because he was called up for active military service , he had to interrupt his university studies in the same year, which he thus ended. Due to external circumstances, the decision was made against a traditional, bourgeois life: "The mobilization of 1939 solved all my problems." During this time, when he was stationed “in a forgotten section” on the Great St. Bernhard , he became aware of his calling as a writer.

Years of traveling and early work

In 1942 he met S. Corinna Bille , also a writer, whom he married in 1947 and with whom he had three children (Blaise * 1944, Achille * 1948, Marie-Noëlle * 1950). In 1944, Les grandes journées de printemps (“The high time of spring”) was published as a literary testimony to his carefree early wanderings. In the following years, however, Chappaz always had to struggle with existential worries. In order to survive financially, he worked in Fully from 1951 to 1953 as the administrator of his uncle's vineyards. However, this activity left him little time to work as a writer, and he began, as in the time of his active service, with long, often nightly hikes. In 1953 the Testament du Haut Rhône (“Testament of the Upper Rhone”) appears as a legacy of his hiking experiences. Chappaz: "I was given to go through the mountains that became my world interpretation."

Time of crisis

At the height of his existential crisis, he decided to live and work in the mountains: “A doctor advised me to use the couch. - I chose the Dixence . " From 1955 to 1957 he was an assistant geometer for the construction of the Grande-Dixence dam on the border of Val des Dix and Val d'Hérémence . From 1959 to 1971 he also worked as a journalist for the magazine Treize Etoiles . In 1965, after years of work, the poem Le chant de la Grande-Dixence ("The Song of Grande Dixence") was published.

Writer and pamphleteer

1983

A series of books followed in quick succession in the mid-1960s, including the Portrait des Valaisans en légende et en vérité ("The Walliser. Truth and Poetry"), Tendres Campagnes and Office des morts (both 1966) and Le match Valais-Judée (1968, German «Cattle, Children and Prophets»). Now Chappaz was also successful as a writer: «I became a popular author. Of course only on the island, French-speaking Switzerland . "

In addition to his work as a writer, Chappaz was also active in the 1960s and 1970s as a critic of environmental destruction, territorial claims by the Swiss army, transport and the tourism industry. With his 1976 book Les maqueraux des cimes blanches (“The pimps of eternal snow”), he published a pamphlet that turned a large part of the politically conservative Valais, who benefited economically from the “Mafia of the white peaks” against him and him as a whole Switzerland made famous.

In his book Haute Route (1974) he processed his passion for the mountain landscape of the Valais and set a literary monument to the high alpine crossing of the western Alps from Chamonix to Zermatt of the same name. 1975 followed with Loetschental secret ("Lötschental. The wild dignity of a lost valley") his swan song for the Valais Lötschental , a disappearing cultural landscape, its people and rites.

Travel, letters

Chappaz traveled to Lapland (1968), Paris (1968), Nepal and Tibet (1970), Athos (1972), Lebanon (1974), Russia (1974 and 1979), China (1981), Québec and New York (1990) . He reflected on his travel experiences in several books such as the La tentation de l'Orient published in 1970 .

Farewell and memory

In 1979, after the death of his wife S. Corinna Bille , Maurice Chappaz left Veyras , where he had lived since 1961, and moved to the Abbaye du Châble. The personal loss also resulted in a withdrawal from public debates and the turning from the outer journeys of the seventies into a new literary exploration of the inside. A series of poetic works appeared in the 1980s, Chappaz edited his wife's poems, and in 1986 published the Le Livre de C (“The Book of C., for Corinna Bille”) dedicated to her and the autobiographical work Le garçon qui croyait au paradis (1989).

The ripe years

Chappaz remained literarily productive in the following years as well, most recently in 2001 L'Evangile selon Judas (“The Gospel according to Judas”) and A-Dieu-vat! : entretiens avec Jêrome Meizoz (2003). Chappaz received a number of important literary prizes, in 1997 there were two: the Grand Prix Schiller and the Bourse Goncourt de la poésie . In 2001, the French ambassador in Bern awarded him the insignia of the Commandeur de l'Ordre des arts et des lettres for his work.

Chappaz married Michène Caussignac, the widow of the writer Lorenzo Pestelli, in 1992. Since then he has lived temporarily in the Abbaye du Châble, in Veyras and in Vallon de Réchy. Maurice Chappaz died on January 15, 2009 in Martigny Hospital. His estate is in the Swiss Literary Archives in Bern .

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The literary work

World view and issues

«It seems impossible to fix a picture of Chappaz», says Jérôme Meizoz. The range of his tones and topics is too broad, from deep meditation to crude humor. Indeed, in his work, Chappaz expresses the extremes of human existence and their often difficult to understand paths and abysses in many ways: «Since his first poems and stories, Chappaz has belonged to the group of those who understand the linguistic work of art as a path that To capture and hold on to the small without losing sight of the big. " ( Neue Zürcher Zeitung )

Chappaz is strongly influenced by the religious culture of the Catholic Suisse Romande, but also by the contrast between urban and rural culture. He is a witness of the victory of modern industrial society against the old agrarian world, with which he shows solidarity against "progress", but which neither he can save nor it can save him. He knows he is in a lost position: “Tyrants or merchants, they will tear the marrow out of your bones, your sex, your brain. The beginning and the end of time are paired in our existence. A sublime priest race is precipitated. Your sacrifice is therefore indispensable. Oh, who will give me bread now that I have announced these things? " (Testament of the Upper Rhone) The old world, held together by faith, is doomed, the new, busy and destructive as it is, is his opponent if it has to, but otherwise not worth mentioning, and the new The world that he dreams up and forges fluctuates between the shape of a literary utopia and the anticipation of a new religious age.

Spelling and style

It is a song-like, prophetic tone that characterizes Chappaz's early work. Chappaz sees himself more as a poet and singer than as a writer. He calls his works “Poeme”, “Poetry” and “Song”. He is looking for the truth, for the absolute. «I am looking for the hidden islands of salvation. At the foot of the mountains, bluer those still from the foehn, the unsteady ark of the basket has dropped anchor for days. In a few years I will have roamed this country, where I go to every church, to every house, and say: I believe in the immortality of all being. " He leaves the prose to others: "I think you have to start your life from scratch until someone here says: I am the truth!"

The Valais writer and friend Chappaz ' Pierre Imhasly translated his work congenially into German.

Works

Poetry and prose

  • Un homme qui vivait couché sur un banc. CRV, Lausanne 1939.
  • Les grandes journées de printemps. Portes de France, Porrentruy 1944.
  • Verdures de la nuit, poésie, avec Gérard de Palézieux. Mermod, Lausanne 1945.
  • Grand-Saint-Bernard. Marguerat, Lausanne 1953.
  • Testament du Haut-Rhône. Rencontre, Lausanne 1953. New edition: Fata Morgana, Saint-Clèment de Rivière 2003.
  • Chant des cépages romands. 1958. New edition: Empreintes, Lausanne 1992.
  • Le Valais au gosier de grive. Payot, Lausanne 1960.
  • Portrait of the Valaisans en légende et en vérité. CRV, Lausanne 1965. New edition: Slatkine, Geneva 1997.
  • Chant de la Grande-Dixence. Payot, Lausanne 1965.
  • Office des morts. CRV, Lausanne 1966. New edition: Fata Morgana, Saint-Clèment de Rivière 2003.
  • Tendres campagnes. CRV, Lausanne 1966.
  • Le match Valais-Judée. CRV, Lausanne 1968.
  • Les maquereaux des cimes blanches, précédé de La Haine du passé. Galland, Vevey 1976. New edition: Zoé, Geneva 1994.
  • Bienheureux les lacs. In: Lacs des alpes suisses. 1979. New edition Slatkine, Geneva 1998.
  • Poésie complète, I, II et III. Galland, Vevey 1980-1982.
  • A rire et à mourir, récits, paraboles et chansons du lointain pays. Galland, Vevey 1983.
  • L'aventure de Chandolin. With S. Corinne Bille and René-Pierre Bille, Galland, Vevey 1983.
  • Le Partage de minuit. With S. Corinne Bille, Ed. Fédérop, Lyon 1984.
  • Le livre de C, récits, précédé d'Octobre 79. Empreintes, Lausanne 1986. New edition La Différence, Paris 1995.
  • La veillée des Vikings. 24 heures, Lausanne 1990.
  • L'océan. Empreintes, Lausanne 1993.
  • La Mort s'est posée comme un oiseau. Empreintes, Lausanne 1993.
  • Pages choisies 2, et Journal 1983-1988. Age d'Homme, 1995.
  • Bohème de Carême (A rire et à mourir, tome 2). Empreintes, Lausanne 1996. New edition: Fata Morgana, Saint-Clèment de Rivière 2006.
  • Journal de l'année 1984: Ecriture et errance. Empreintes, Lausanne 1996.
  • Vocation des fleuves. La Joie de Lire, Geneva 1998. New edition: Fata Morgana, Saint-Clèment de Rivière 2003.
  • Partir à vingt ans. Foreword by Jean Starobinski. La Joie de Lire, Geneva 1999.
  • L'Evangile selon Judas. Gallimard, Paris, 2001.
  • A-Dieu-vat! Entretiens avec Jérôme Meizoz. Monographic, Sierre 2003. (Les grands entretiens)
  • DVD: Corinna Bille racontée by Maurice Chappaz. Association films Plans-fixes, 2005.

Studies and Essays

  • La haute route. Galland, Vevey 1974.
  • Loetschental secret. 24 Heures, Lausanne, 1975.
  • Goodbye to Gustave Roud. With Philippe Jaccottet and Jacques Chessex . Galland, Vevey 1977.
  • La Haute route du Jura de Bâle à Genève. 24 heures, Lausanne 1977.
  • Qu'est-ce que l'écriture, cinq textes. 1985.
  • La religion de la terre. Essai. L'Air, Lausanne 1990.
  • Renaissance du Valais: chronique 1790–1815. Monografic, Sierre 1997.
  • Valais-Tibet, icone des paysans de montagne. Le Catatrin, La Joie de lire, Genève 2000.

Translations

  • Théocrite: Les Idylles. With Eric Genevay. Rencontre, Lausanne 1951. Latest new edition: Théocrite: Toute l'idylle, La Différence, Paris 1991.
  • Virgile: Les Géorgiques. With Eric Genevay. Rencontre, Lausanne 1954. Last new edition: Gallimard, Paris 1987.

Autobiographical works

  • Correspondance: La tentation de l'Orient: Lettres near du monde. With Jean-Marc Lovay , Éditions Zoé, Geneva 1970. New edition: 2004.
  • Octobre 79, mémorial, tirage limité. Empreintes, Lausanne 1986.
  • Le garçon qui croyait au paradis. 24 heures, Lausanne 1989.
  • Correspondance: Le gagne-pain du songe, corresp. avec Maurice Troillet (1928–1961). Empreintes, Lausanne 1991.
  • Correspondance: Gustave Roud – Maurice Chappaz (1939–1976). Éditions Zoé, Geneva 1993.
  • Correspondance: L'oeil d'ombre: correspondance Maurice Chappaz– Marcel Raymond 1944–1987. Éditions Zoé, Geneva 1997.
  • Jours fastes. Correspondance 1942-1979. Corinna Bille and Maurice Chappaz. Éditions Zoé, Geneva 2016.

German-language editions of works

  • I will wander the land that you are . Exchange of letters with S. Corinna Bille, 1942–1979 ( Jours fastes ). German and edited by Lis Künzli. Edition Blau im Rotpunktverlag, Zurich 2019, ISBN 978-3-85869-830-8 .
  • The Valais. Poetry and truth. Kandelaber Verlag, Bern 1968. New edition: Edition Moderne, Zurich 1982.
  • The pimps of the eternal snow. A pamphlet. Orte Verlag, Oberegg 1976.
  • Lötschental. The wild dignity of a lost valley community. Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1979, new edition 1990.
  • Haute route. 1984.
  • The high time of spring, testament of the Upper Rhone, song of the Grande Dixence. Limmat Verlag, Zurich 1986. Paperback edition: Ullstein Verlag, Berlin 1998.
  • Cattle, children and prophets. Waldgut Verlag, Frauenfeld 1990.
  • The book of C., for Corinna Bille. Waldgut Verlag, Frauenfeld 1994.
  • The heart on the cheeks, poems. Waldgut Verlag, Frauenfeld 2003.
  • Gospel according to Jude. Waldgut Verlag, Frauenfeld 2006.
  • "In truth we are experiencing the end of the world". A reading book (translated by Hilde and Rolf Fieguth , edited by Charles Linsmayer) Verlag Huber, Frauenfeld 2012.
  • The tobacco pipe prays and smokes . Rotten Verlag, Visp 2013 (translated by Hilde and Rolf Fieguth )

Awards

  • Grand Prix Académie Rhodanienne 1948.
  • Prix ​​Rambert 1953.
  • Prix ​​de la Ville de Martigny 1966.
  • Prix ​​de l'Etat du Valais 1985.
  • Great Schiller Prize 1997.
  • Bourse Goncourt de la Poésie 1997.
  • Grand Prix du Salon du livre de Montagne, Passy France 2000.

literature

Biographies
  • Christophe Carraud: Maurice Chappaz. Seghers, Paris 2005, ISBN 2-232-12252-2 .
  • Mürra Zabel: Biographical portrait of the Valais Maurice Chappaz. In: The high time of spring, Testament of the Upper Rhone, Song of the Grande Dixence. Limmat Verlag, 1986. New edition: Ullstein Verlag, 1998.
  • Charles Linsmayer : "Reader, this he, that's me!" Life and work of the Swiss writer Maurice Chappaz (1916–2009). In: Maurice Chappaz, “In truth we are experiencing the end of the world”. A reader . Huber, Frauenfeld 2012, ISBN 978-3-7193-1582-5 , pp. 231–352.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Chappaz, Maurice
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss writer
DATE OF BIRTH December 21, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Lausanne
DATE OF DEATH January 15, 2009
Place of death Martigny