Rascha Peper

Portrait of Rascha Peper (Jaap Versteegh, 2008, acrylic on canvas, Letterkundig Museum )

Rascha Peper is the pseudonym of the Dutch writer Jenneke Strijland (born January 1, 1949 in Driebergen-Rijsenburg ; † March 16, 2013 in Amsterdam ). She is considered one of the most important authors in her country.

Life

Rascha Peper studied Dutch language and literature at the University of Amsterdam . After that she worked as a teacher for a few years. In 1983 she moved to Vienna with her husband, who worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs . There she began to write. From 1999 the couple lived in New York City .

Peper made her debut as a writer in 1990 with De waterdame , a collection of short stories . She chose a pseudonym for it because she was sending her first manuscript to a neighbor. In the following years she published another 15 works, mainly novels . She also wrote columns for the NRC Handelsblad .

Rascha Peper spent the last years of her life in Amsterdam. In October 2012, she announced that she was terminally ill. She died of pancreatic cancer in March of the following year at 64 .

Work and reception

Peper takes up many different topics in her works. Often dreams, passions and eroticism play a role. In an interview, she described the characters in her books as people who are barely able to cope with their real life and instead hold onto a dream or fantasy. They often develop a certain passion that leads to dramatic entanglements.

Already in Peper's first publication, the collection of short stories De waterdame , her preference for authentically depicted, but fictional material was evident. Her subsequent debut novel, Oesters , has autobiographical traits and is about the love between a student and a much older art dealer.

In the course of her writing career, Peper gained increasing recognition from critics and readers with her clear and structured writing style. Many critics also praised the skill with which Peper depicts unusual feelings and passions.

Peper had her breakthrough in 1993 with her novel Rico's vleugels . It is about a childless Dutch couple who amass an extensive collection of seashells in the Philippines . Back in the Netherlands, the actually pedophile husband questions his previous life and develops an obsession for the 14-year-old Rico. The novel was received very positively by critics and was nominated for the AKO Literatuurprijs in 1994.

Peper's work includes books that combine fiction and historical elements. In 1995, for example, she published her novel Russian blauw , in which an unemployed historian investigates the murder of Nicholas II's family and a possible relationship to himself. Russian blauw was translated into German and in 1996 was awarded the Dutch Multatuliprijs literary prize. Another fictional historical novel is Vingers van marsepein , published in 2008 . It is about an orphan who visits his uncle, the Dutch anatomist and botanist Frederik Ruysch , and is confronted with his anatomical collection. A second storyline, which also centers on a child, takes place in the present.

Also in German were Peper's novel The Girl Who Fell From Heaven , which in turn deals with the love between a young woman and an older man, and Visions of Hanna , in which two people mourn a woman in different ways after a shipwreck seems to have disappeared from the bottom of the sea.

Shortly before her death, Peper completed another book entitled Handel in veren . It was published in June 2013 and is about a bird expert who went on an expedition to New Guinea in the 1950s in search of a species of bird that was considered extinct . A previously planned second part only exists as a summary.

Works

• De waterdame. LJ Veen, Utrecht 1990, ISBN 9-020-42456-4 .
• Oesters. LJ Veen, Amsterdam 1991, ISBN 9-020-42701-6 .
• Oefeningen in manhaftigheid. LJ Veen, Amsterdam 1992, ISBN 9-025-40213-5 .
• Rico's vleugels. LJ Veen, Amsterdam 1993.
• Russian blue LJ Veen, Amsterdam 1995, ISBN 9-025-40825-7 .
  • Russian blue. translated by Ira Wilhelm, Luchterhand, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-630-86977-7 .
• All behave. LJ Veen, Amsterdam 1997, ISBN 9-025-42443-0 .
• Een Spaans hondje. LJ Veen, Amsterdam 1998, ISBN 9-020-45667-9 .
• Kiev, Kiev .... February Boekhandels, Amsterdam 1998.
• Dooi. LJ Veen, Amsterdam 1999, ISBN 1-350-94041-0 .
  • The girl who fell from the sky. translated by Sibylle Mulot , Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-498-05299-3 .
• How scheep gaat. LJ Veen, Amsterdam 2003, ISBN 9-020-40797-X .
  • Visions of Hanna. translated by Andreas Ecke , Marebuchverlag, Hamburg 2006, ISBN 3-936384-98-3 .
• City affaires. Nieuw Amsterdam, Amsterdam 2006, ISBN 9-046-80156-X .
• Avail. LJ Veen, Amsterdam 2005, ISBN 9-020-40335-4 .
• Vingers van Marsepein. Nieuw Amsterdam, Amsterdam 2008, ISBN 978-9-046-80382-0 .
• Zwartwaterkoorts. Nieuw Amsterdam, Amsterdam 2009, ISBN 978-9-046-80676-0 .
• Vossen blond. Querido, Amsterdam 2011, ISBN 978-9-021-44015-6 .
• Fantoompoezen. Querido, Amsterdam 2012, ISBN 978-9-021-44618-9 .
• Trade in veren. Querido, Amsterdam 2013, ISBN 978-9-021-44771-1 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Rascha Peper in the catalog of the German National Library
• Literature by and about Rascha Peper in the bibliographic database WorldCat
• Short biography and reviews of works by Rascha Peper at perlentaucher.de
• Profile and texts of Rascha Peper in the Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Letteren (Dutch)
• Profile of Rascha Peper on the website of the Dutch Foundation for Literature (English)
• Obituary in de Volkskrant (Dutch)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Rascha Peper perlentaucher.de, accessed on April 3, 2013.
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Writing window Rascha Peper (64) overled. In: de Volkskrant March 19, 2013, accessed April 3, 2013.
3. ↑ Rascha Peper - LAS-avond bij Boekhandel Van der Velde stichtinglas.nl, February 17, 2010, accessed on April 3, 2013.
4. ↑ ^{a b} schrijfster Rascha Peper op-64 jarige stuff leeftijd. ( Memento of the original from June 10, 2013 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. In: Metro March 19, 2013, accessed April 3, 2013. 
5. ↑ Joop Dirksen: 'Move your ass into your vocation' Het werk van Rascha Peper in klas en leeskring. dbnl.org, accessed April 3, 2013.
6. ↑ Rasha Peper, Dyed in the Skin letterenfonds.nl retrieved on April 3, 2013.
7. ↑ ^{a b} Daan Cartens: Onbedwingbare passies. The romans and behavior of Rascha Peper. dbnl.org, accessed April 3, 2013.
8. ↑ Rascha Peper, Embarkation letterenfonds.nl, accessed on April 3, 2013.
9. ↑ Genomineerden en winnaars ( Memento of the original from October 10, 2013 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. akoliteratuurprijs.nl, accessed April 3, 2013. 
10. ↑ Rascha Peper, Russian Blue letterenfonds.nl, accessed on April 3, 2013.