Yves Velan, (29 August 1925 in

Saint-Quentin, Aisne Saint-Quentin (; ; ) is a city in the Aisne Departments of France, department, Hauts-de-France, northern France. It has been identified as the ''Augusta Veromanduorum'' of antiquity. It is named after Saint Quentin, Saint Quentin of Amiens, wh ...

– 6 May 2017) was a Swiss writer from Bassins.

Biography

He studied literature at Lausanne, where he joined the Society of Belles Lettres, and worked two years as a reader at the

University of Florence The University of Florence ( Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Firenze'') (in acronym UNIFI) is an Italian public research university located in Florence, Italy. It comprises 12 schools and has around 50,000 students enrolled. History The f ...

. In 1950 he was one of the founders the leftist

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publishing house Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

Éditions Rencontre Éditions Rencontre (Meeting Editions) was a left wing publishing house in Francophone Switzerland founded in Lausanne in 1950. In 1970 they sold 6 million books globally to the Francophone world. Éditions Rencontre was founded as a co-operative ...

which published the literary magazine ''La revue Rencontre''. A communist, he was a member of the

Swiss Party of Labour The Swiss Party of Labour (; ; ; ) is a communist party in Switzerland. History The party was founded in 1944 by the illegal Communist Party of Switzerland. On 21 May, the constituent conference of the Basel Federation of the party was held. ...

from the end of the war until 1957. He was forbidden to work and was excluded from teaching in the

Canton of Vaud Vaud ( ; , ), more formally Canton of Vaud, is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of ten districts; its capital city is Lausanne. Its coat of arms bears the motto "Liberté et patrie" on a white-green bicolou ...

. He then moved to

La Chaux-de-Fonds La Chaux-de-Fonds (; archaic ) is a Swiss city in the canton of Neuchâtel. It is located in the Jura Mountains at an altitude of 992 metres, a few kilometres south of the French border. After Geneva, Lausanne, Biel/Bienne, and Fribourg, ...

Canton of Neuchâtel The Republic and Canton of Neuchâtel (; ; ; ) is a mostly French-speaking canton in western Switzerland. In 2007, its population was 169,782, of whom 39,654 (or 23.4%) were foreigners. The capital is Neuchâtel. History County of Neuchâtel ...

where he taught literature at the gymnasium until his retirement in 1991. In the late sixties he temporarily left the Neuchâtel Jura for a long stay in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

where he taught

French literature French literature () generally speaking, is literature written in the French language, particularly by French people, French citizens; it may also refer to literature written by people living in France who speak traditional languages of Franc ...

at the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...

. His first novel ''Je'' was published in 1959 in Paris. He also published two novels, ''La Statue de Condillac retouchée'' (1973), ''Soft Goulag'' (1977) and an essay, ''Contre-pouvoir'', where he questions culture and its requirements. In addition to these books, there are numerous publications in reviews, a "essay-poem", ''Onir'' (1974), a tale, ''Le Chat muche'' (1986). Moreover, during the years 1950 to 1980, he had an important activity of criticism published in France, the United States and French-speaking Switzerland. Yves Velan received the Grand Prix C. F. Ramuz and the literature prize of the canton of Neuchâtel for his work. Velan died on 6 May 2017.

Publications

*1959: ''Je'',

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*1973: ''La Statue de Condillac retouchée'', Seuil *1974: ''Onir'', in Écriture 9, éditions Bertil Galland, Vevey *1977: ''Soft Goulag'', éditions Bertil Galland, Vevey

Bibliography

* Pascal Antonietti, ''Yves Velan'', New York/Amsterdam, Rodopi, 2005 * Hadrien Buclin, ''Les intellectuels de gauche. Critique et consensus dans la Suisse d'après-guerre'', Lausanne, Antipodes, 2019

References

Sources

Écrivain vaudois
* ''A contre temps'', huitante textes vaudois de 1980 à 1380, p. 37 * Hadrien Buclin, Entre culture du consensus et critique sociale. Les intellectuels de gauche dans la Suisse de l'après-guerre (1945-1968), Thèse de doctorat, Université de Lausanne, 2015. * Alain Nicollier, Henri-Charles Dahlem, ''Dictionnaire des écrivains suisses d'expression française'', vol. 2, p. 874-877 * ''Histoire de la littérature en Suisse romande'', under the dir. de R. Francillon, vol. 3, p. 445-456 * La Revue de Belles-Lettres, 1992, no 3-4 ''La machine Velan'' devoted to Yves Velan

External links

A D S - Autorinnen und Autoren der Schweiz - Autrices et Auteurs de Suisse - Autrici ed Autori della Svizzera

CULTURE :: Lire encore Yves Velan

TSR Archives
{{DEFAULTSORT:Velan, Yves 1925 births 2017 deaths People from Saint-Quentin, Aisne 20th-century Swiss novelists 21st-century Swiss novelists Prix Fénéon winners Swiss literary critics Academic staff of the University of Florence Swiss writers in French