All About Switzerland
Swiss Literature
Switzerland has a rich literary tratition in its
four national languages.
Switzerland is not (and was never) an ethnically and culturally homogeneous
nation. It shares its three major languages with the neighbouring countries:
- German (73%, central, northern and eastern Switzerland)
with Germany, Austria and the Pricipality of Liechtenstein
- French (21%, western Switzerland) with France
- Italian (5%) with Italy
The fourth official language, Rumantsch (Romansh), is spoken
by a minority of less than 1% of the population, but has nevertheless
a tradition of more than 2000 years in southeastern Switzerland.
- Timeline of Swiss authors, poets and writers in German language:
Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi,
Jeremias Gotthelf,
Gottfried Keller,
Conrad Ferdinand Meyer,
Johanna Spyri,
(author of
Heidi),
Carl Friedrich Georg Spitteler
(Nobel Prize for Literature 1919),
Hermann Hesse (Nobel Prize in Literature 1946),
Max Frisch,
Friedrich Dürrenmatt
are well known outside
Switzerland, but there are many more interesting post-war authors to be
discovered: Friedrich Glauser, Peter Bichsel, Kurt Marti and Eveline Hasler
as well as Franz Hohler, Zoë Jenny, Thomas Hürlimann among
contemporary Swiss writers in German language ...
- Timeline of Swiss authors, poets and writers in French language:
Jean-Jacques Rousseau,
Mme de Staël and Benjamin Constant
and Blaise Cendrars
are often regarded as French authors because they lived and published
in Paris, but they all had Swiss roots.
Other Swiss authors writing French like
Charles Ferdinand Ramuz,
Denis de Rougemont, Alice Rivaz, Anne-Lise Grobéty
and many more stayed in Switzerland and were less noticed by the
French speaking community.
- Timeline of Swiss authors, poets and writers in Italian language:
Francesco Chiesa, Piero Bianconi, Ugo Canonica
and many more
- Timeline of Swiss authors, poets and writers in Rumantsch/Romansh language:
Peider Lansel, Selina Chönz, Peder Cadotsch, Gion Deplazes,
Clo Duri Bezzola, Linard Bardill and many more
Solothurn Literary Workshops
Writers and poets from all language regions of Switzerland and
Swiss authors living in foreign countries meet each May at the
Solothurn Literary Workshop
for readings and discussions.
National Professional Associations of Writers, Authors and Poets
- Schweizerischer Schriftstellerinnen- und Schriftstellerverband
[Swiss Writers' Association]
Nordstrasse 9
CH-8035 Zurich
www.ch-s.ch.
- Schweizer Autoren Gruppe Olten
[Swiss Authors' Group, Olten]
Industriestrasse 23
CH-8500 Frauenfeld
www.gruppeolten.ch
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only with explicit written consent by the editor.
