Christiane Singer

Christiane Singer, married name Christiane Thurn-Valsassina (23 March 1943, in Marseille – 4 April 2007, in Vienna) was an Austrian writer, essayist and novelist.

Biography

Her father was of Hungarian origin and her mother was half Russian and half Czech. Because of the persecution of the Jews, her parents fled Hungary, then Austria, and settled in Paris, France, in 1935.Biographie, on the site of her publisher, Éditions Albin Michel
. She was born eight years later, in 1943, in Marseille.

She attended high school and the Conservatory of Theatre and Dramatic Arts in Marseille and then went on to study literature at the University of Aix-en-Provence, where she obtained a Doctorate of Modern Literature.Article de Monique Beltrame, sur le site de ''Mediapart''.
/ref>

In 1968, she met Count Georg von Thurn-Valsassina, an architect, who would become her husband, and settled in 1973 in his medieval castle of Rastenberg (Austria), not far from Vienna. There she raised their two sons. This castle inspired the poetical essay of the same name in 1996, "Rastenberg". She also organized personal development seminars in her home, which she designed, and which her architect husband built.

She followed the teachings of Karlfried Graf Dürckheim (a disciple of C.G. Jung). In Switzerland, she was a lecturer at the University of Basel, then a lecturer at the University of Friburg.

Her work and her personal reflection were entirely centered on the necessary taking into account of the spiritual which lives in everyone's heart. She was a relatively prolific writer, of Christian sensitivity imbued with Oriental wisdom, who refrained from giving lessons in morals and excluded all dogmatism. She won several literary prizes, including the Prix des libraires for ''La Mort viennoise'' in 1979, le Prix Albert Camus for ''Histoire d'âme'' in 1989, and le prix de la langue française en 2006 for the whole of her work.

She once said in a radio-interview:

In September 2006, when doctors announced that she had six months left to livePrésentation du livre ''Derniers fragments d'un long voyage'', sur le site of publisher, Albin Michel
/ref> as a result of cancer, she wrote a diary in her last months, which was published under the title ''Derniers fragments d'un long voyage''.

Distinctions

* 1979: Prix des libraires for ''La Mort viennoise''.
* 1982: Prix Alice-Louis Barthou de l'Académie française for ''La Guerre des filles''.
* 1989: Prix Albert Camus for ''Histoire d'âme''.
* 1993: Prix Écritures & Spiritualités for ''Une passion. Entre ciel et terre''.
* 2000: Prix Anna de Noailles of the Académie française for ''Éloge du mariage, de l'engagement et autres folies''.
* 2006: Prix de la langue française for her body of work.
* 2007: Prix ALEF for ''Seul ce qui brûle''.

Documentary

In 2011, the documentary film ''Passion - Hommage à Christiane Singer'', by Austrian filmmaker Carola Mair, was released.

Work

Novels

*1965: ''Les Cahiers d'une hypocrite'', Albin Michel
*1965: ''Vie et mort du beau Frou'', Albin Michel
*1976: ''Chronique tendre des jours amers'', Albin Michel
*1978: ''La Mort viennoise'', Albin Michel, prix des libraires 1979
*1981: ''La Guerre des filles'', Albin Michel, prix Alice-Louis Barthou of the Académie française.Ses deux prix de l'Académie Française, sur le site officiel.
/ref> 1982
*1981: ''Histoire d'âme'', Albin Michel, reissued 2001 prix Albert Camus 1989
*1996: ''Rastenberg'', Albin Michel
*2002: ''Les Sept Nuits de la reine'', Albin Michel
*2006: ''Seul ce qui brûle'', Albin Michel, Prix ALEF 2007.

Essays

*1983: ''Les Âges de la vie'', Albin Michel
*1992: ''Une passion. Entre ciel et chair'', Albin Michel, 1993.
*1996: ''Du bon usage des crises'', Albin Michel
*2000: ''Éloge du mariage, de l'engagement et autres folies'', Albin Michel (prix Anna de Noailles de l'Académie française.
*2001: ''Où cours-tu, Ne sais-tu pas que le ciel est en toi ?'', Albin Michel
*2005: ''N'oublie pas les chevaux écumants du passé'', Albin Michel
*2007: ''Derniers fragments d'un long voyage'', Albin Michel, essay / narrative / diary

; Collective
*2000: ''La Quête du sens'', collectif, Albin Michel, reissued 2004 with Khaled cheikh Bentounès, Marie de Hennezel, , Stan Rougier
*2002: ''Le Grand Livre de la tendresse'', Albin Michel,, collective, under the direction of Gérald Pagès, with participations by Boris Cyrulnik, Marie de Hennezel, Dr. Gérard Leleu, Jean-pierre Relier, Stan Rougier, Dr. Michèle Salamagne, Jacques Salomé, , Christiane Singer

References

External links

Articles and documents à propos Christiane Singer

Christiane Singer
on YouTube

Christiane Singer
on ''Les insoumis''

Christiane Singer
on Babelio

''Le dernier message de Christiane Singer''
on ''Psychologie''

{{DEFAULTSORT:Singer, Christiane
21st-century French non-fiction writers
French Roman Catholic writers
French women essayists
20th-century French essayists
21st-century French essayists
Prix des libraires winners
Writers from Marseille
1943 births
2007 deaths
Deaths from cancer in France
20th-century French women writers
21st-century French women writers