Piet van Aken

Piet van Aken, 1942

Piet van Aken (born February 15, 1920 in Terhagen an der Rupel , † May 3, 1984 in Antwerp ) was a Flemish writer and editor. His socially engaged narrative prose is set mainly in the marshland of his childhood among ordinary people. For his novel Slapende honden (Sleeping Dogs) he received the Belgian State Prize for narrative prose in 1966.

Life and effect

Even before he graduated from high school at the Athenaeum in Mechelen , the linguistic talent of the brickworker's son was noticed, which was also encouraged by his teacher Filip De Pillecyn . Van Aken made his novel debut in 1942. In 1945 he married Rosa Callaert, who also comes from Rupel. The couple initially lived in Brussels and later in Mechelen. From 1945 until his death in 1984 van Aken was editor of the membership magazine De Werker (The Worker) of the Belgian General Trade Union Confederation, which was at least initially socialist. In addition, he was part of the editorial team of the literary magazine Nieuw Vlaams Tijdschrift for decades , at times as editor-in-chief. He often and bluntly intervened in literary debates.

His books are all about power, sexuality, and fate. According to Marina De Bruijn, van Aken has always been on the side of the "underdogs". He was deeply disappointed by the Belgian Labor Party's turn for the weather . His novel De blinde spiegel (1981) is a blunt exposure of the Pöstchenjägeri and career addiction among politicians and trade unionists, it was read in Belgium as the key novel on Van Aken's experiences among trade union officials. Van Aken had a keen sense of justice, but also a thick head. According to his son Paul, he has the greatest happiness in personal peace of mind.

Piet van Aken died after a stroke.

Desire

In 1961 van Aken's novel Das Begehren (translator: Johannes Piron ) was published in the GDR. It is told from the perspective of the young farmer Balten Reusens, who is proud of his toughness, but bites granite with Maria, his brother's lover, Tonne. In return, Balten allows himself to be drawn into the trade union struggles of the brickworks through his other brother Jep, despite the scornful comments he has for such efforts. The clash with mounted gendarmes transports the strong and self-righteous Baltic to prison. Only here, at the end of the novel, does the reader realize that he has read the report of a prisoner, which is almost a punchline. Another concerns Balten's desire for Maria. Since Tonne, not without Balten's influence, had a fatal accident in a night chase in the undergrowth, the way to Maria might now have been clear - but the uproar of the brickworks brought Balten three months in jail. Whether Maria will still hear him, at least visit him in prison, remains completely open. Only Balten is convinced of it. Van Aken manages to combine simplicity and incorruptibility in a concise language. This has the rare side effect that the reader is captivated by an unsympathetic first-person narrator for 260 pages.

Works

De falende God , Brussels 1942
Het hart en de klok , Brussels 1944
De duivel vaart in ons , Brussels 1946
Alleen de dooden ontkomen , Brussels 1947
Het begeren , Amsterdam 1952 (German: Desire )
Zondaars en sterren , in: Zes Vlaamse novellen , 's-Gravenhage 1952
Klinkaart , Antwerp 1954
De wilde jaren , Amsterdam 1958 (German: the wild years )
De nikkers , Antwerp 1959
De verraders , Antwerp 1962
De onschuldige barbaren , Antwerp 1964
De jager, niet de prooi , Antwerp 1964
Slapping dogs , Antwerp 1965
Grut. De mooie zomer van 40 , Bruges 1966
Agenda van een heidens lezer (essays), Antwerp 1967
Dood getij , Amsterdam 1979
De Goddemaers en other behavior , Antwerp 1980
De blind mirror , Amsterdam 1981
De hoogtewerkers , Amsterdam 1982
De Goddemaers , Antwerp 1983

literature

PE Popelier: Piet van Aken , Utrecht 1972
F. Auwera: Piet van Aken , Antwerp 1974

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b G.J. van Bork, B. Ranke: Aken, Piet van . In: Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Letteren (DBNL), accessed on October 21, 2019.

^ Ronny De Schepper: Piet Van Aken (1920–1984) , accessed on October 21, 2019.

↑ Quoted from this website ( Memento of the original from December 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed December 5, 2010 @1@ 2

↑ Quoted from this website ( Memento of the original from December 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed December 5, 2010 @1@ 2

personal data
SURNAME	Van Aken, Piet
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Belgian writer and editor
DATE OF BIRTH	February 15, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH	Terhagen
DATE OF DEATH	May 3, 1984
Place of death	Antwerp

[DBNL-1] G.J. van Bork, B. Ranke: Aken, Piet van . In: Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Letteren (DBNL), accessed on October 21, 2019.

[2] Ronny De Schepper: Piet Van Aken (1920–1984) , accessed on October 21, 2019.