Robert Vivier (1894–1989) was a Belgian poet, novelist, essayist, biographer and literary critic who wrote in French.[1]
He published his first poetry collection, Le Menetrier, in 1924, which was followed by Dechirures (1927),[2] Au bord du temps (1937),[3] Le Miracle enferme (1939), Trace par l'oubli (1951), Chronos reve (1959)[2] and S'étonner d'être (1977).[4] His anxious listening to everyday life, his nostalgia for the childhood of the world, his meditations on the "glory of life" and the "very sweet eternity that breathes the world" are expressed in free verses or very classical verses (sometimes sonnets), whose cuts he redistributes according to very personal musical laws.[citation needed] According to the New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry & Poetics his poetry is characterised by "discreet interrogation".[5] It is described by Jean-Luc Wauthier as displaying "acute and sensuous surreality" and being "deceptively transparent, streaked with paradoxically calm anxiety".[1]
He also wrote novels including Non, Folle qui s'ennuie and Mesures pour rien, which Lucien Christophe and Herman Teirlinck praise for the author's "keenness of perception" in their depiction of "simple, empty" characters.[6] A later novel is Avec les hommes, set during the First World War.[3] One of his influences was the Belgian novelist, André Baillon (1875–1932).[7]
Vivier's nonfiction works include biographies of Louis Antoine, the founder of Antoinism,[8] the poet Charles Baudelaire,[6] and the artist Marcel-Louis Baugniet.[9] His critical works include Et la poésie fut langage (1954) on La Chanson de Roland, Villon, Racine, Verlaine and Mallarmé,[10][11][12] and Frères du Ciel (1962) on poetic interpretations of the Icarus and Phaethon myths.[3][13]
He held professorships in literature at the University of Liège and the Sorbonne,[1] and was a member of the Royal Academy of French Language and Literature of Belgium (1950–89).[14]
References
edit- ^ a b c Jean-Luc Wauthier. "A Panoramic View of French-Language Poetry in Belgium 1880–1980". In: Belgian Women Poets: An Anthology (Vol. 11) (2000)
- ^ a b Littératures de langue française hors de France : anthologie didactique [French-language literature outside France: a teaching anthology] (in French). Sèvres: Fédération Internationale des Professeurs de Français. 1976. p. 256. ISBN 2901106-01-3. OCLC 872057815.
- ^ a b c Jean-Louis Dumont (1964). The French Novel in Belgium: A Study of the Contemporary Scene. Books Abroad 38 (4): 353–60 JSTOR 40119060
- ^ Daniel Racine (1978). Review: S'étonner d'être by Robert Vivier. World Literature Today 52 (4): 590
- ^ R.F.L., K.J.W., L.W., A.G.W. Belgian poetry. New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry & Poetics (Princeton University Press; 1993)
- ^ a b Lucien Christophe, Herman Teirlinck (1953). A Quarter Century of Belgian Writing. Books Abroad 27 (3): 245–56 JSTOR 40092076
- ^ André Baillon. Britannica Biographies (Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.; 2024)
- ^ Régis Dericquebourg (1980). Review: Délivrez-nous du mal. Antoine le guérisseur by Robert Vivier. Archives de sciences sociales des religions 50.2: 350–51 JSTOR 30125394
- ^ Nell Andrew (2009). Living Art: Akarova and the Belgian Avant-Garde. Art Journal 68 (2): 26–49 doi:10.1080/00043249.2009.10791344
- ^ Jean Dubu (1958). Review: Et la Poésie fut langage by Robert Vivier. (1): 108–9 JSTOR 40521647
- ^ B. S. (1954). Review: Et la Poésie fut un langage by Robert Vivier. Hommes et mondes 99: 479
- ^ Henri Peyre (1955). Review: Et la poésie fut langage by Robert Vivier. Modern Philology 53 (2): 141–42 JSTOR 435630
- ^ H. Lesuisse (1963). Review: Frères du Ciel by Robert Vivier. Books Abroad 37 (4): 416 JSTOR 40118128
- ^ Nicolas, Mignon (November 2009). Lavenne, François-Xavier; Odaert, Olivier (eds.). "Absurdité, fatalité et fraternité : les Grandes Guerres de Robert Vivier (1916-1984)" [Absurdity, fatality and fraternity: the Great Wars by Robert Vivier (1916-1984)]. Interférences littéraire (in French) (3): 147–159.
- Jean Rousselot. Dictionnaire de la poesie francaise contemporaine 1968, Auge, Guillon, Hollier -Larousse, Mooreau et Cie.-Librairie Larousse, Paris
Further reading
edit- Laurent Béghin. Robert Vivier, ou La religion de la vie: biographie (Académie Royale de Langue et de Littérature Françaises de Belgique Le Cri; 2013) ISBN 978-2-87106-678-1