Louis Ferron (born Karl Heinz Beckering; 4 February 1942 – 26 August 2005) was a Dutch novelist and poet.

Biography

Louis Ferron was born in Leiden out of an adulterous relationship between a married German soldier and a waitress from Haarlem named Ferron. His father took the boy to Germany, and when he was killed shortly before the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Karl Heinz was raised in

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (, ), is the capital of the States of Germany, German state of the Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), a two-city-state consisting of the c ...

as the stepchild of his father's widow. After the war he returned to the Netherlands, where he was renamed Aloysius (Louis) Ferron. He was raised by his mother's parents, but also stayed with foster families and in children's homes. Initially he desired to be a painter; at age 18, he married a daughter of the author Lizzy Sara May, and his wife encouraged him to become a writer. Ferron's literary debut was a set of poems called "Kleine Krijgskunde," in the May 1962 issue of the literary journal '' Maatstaf'', which also published, in August 1965, his short story "Ergens bij de grens." His first booklength publication was the poetry collection ''Zeg nu zelf, is dit ontroerend?'', published in 1967. In 1974 he published a second book of poetry, ''Grand Guignol''. After that he published mainly prose work, for which he is known best. Ferron was also a translator of

James Baldwin James Arthur Baldwin (né Jones; August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an American writer and civil rights activist who garnered acclaim for his essays, novels, plays, and poems. His 1953 novel '' Go Tell It on the Mountain'' has been ranked ...

and

Vladimir Nabokov Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov ( ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian and American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Born in Imperial Russia in 1899, Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Rus ...

. He died of intestinal cancer, three days after receiving the first copy of his last novel, ''Niemandsbruid''.

Themes

Ferron's work involves topics found in the work of

Friedrich Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher. He began his career as a classical philology, classical philologist, turning to philosophy early in his academic career. In 1869, aged 24, Nietzsche bec ...

and

Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( ; ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies seen as originating fro ...

; he was influenced by

Thomas Bernhard Nicolaas Thomas Bernhard (; 9 February 1931 – 12 February 1989) was an Austrian novelist, playwright, poet and polemicist who is considered one of the most important German-language authors of the postwar era. He explored themes of death, iso ...

and especially by

Louis-Ferdinand Céline Louis Ferdinand Auguste Destouches (27 May 1894 – 1 July 1961), better known by the pen name Louis-Ferdinand Céline ( ; ), was a French novelist, polemicist, and physician. His first novel '' Journey to the End of the Night'' (1932) won the ' ...

. In his novels, Ferron unmasks ideologies and romantic illusions to uncover the chaos of desire and secret formal conventions. A number of critics call his work

postmodern Postmodernism encompasses a variety of artistic, cultural, and philosophical movements that claim to mark a break from modernism. They have in common the conviction that it is no longer possible to rely upon previous ways of depicting the wo ...

, especially considering his presentation of reality as unknowable. In ''Turkenvespers'' (1977), for instance, the protagonist (an unreliable narrator to begin with), finally no longer knows whether he himself exists independently, or is only an actor in the imagination of a perverse movie director. In his treatment of historical subjects Ferron also thematizes a rather unclear reality. Especially German history fascinated him; the novels ''Gekkenschemer'', ''Het stierenoffer'', and ''De keisnijder van Fichtenwald'' are often referred to as his "Teutonic trilogy," and were republished in a single volume in 2002.

Awards

* Multatuliprijs, 1977, ''De Keisnijder van Fichtenwald of de Metamorfose van een Bultenaar'' *

AKO Literatuurprijs The Bookspot Literatuurprijs (previously ECI Literatuurprijs, AKO Literatuurprijs and Generale Bank Literatuurprijs) is a prize for literature in the Netherlands and Belgium. It is awarded to authors writing in Dutch language, Dutch and amounts t ...

, 1990, ''Karelische nachten'' *

Ferdinand Bordewijk Prijs The Ferdinand Bordewijk Prize (Dutch: F. Bordewijk-prijs) is a literary award, presented annually by the Jan Campert Foundation to the author of the best Dutch prose book. The prize was established in 1948 as the Vijverberg Prize, before being na ...

, 1994, ''De walsenkoning'' * Constantijn Huygens Prijs, 2001, for his entire oeuvre

Select bibliography

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferron, Louis Dutch male novelists 1942 births 2005 deaths Constantijn Huygens Prize winners Ferdinand Bordewijk Prize winners Writers from Leiden 20th-century Dutch novelists 20th-century Dutch male writers