Carl Spitteler
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Carl Friedrich Georg Spitteler | |
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Born | Liestal, Switzerland | 24 April 1845
Died | 29 December 1924 Lucerne, Switzerland | (aged 79)
Occupation | Poet |
Language | German |
Education | University of Basel, Heidelberg University |
Notable awards | Nobel Prize in Literature 1919 |
Carl Friedrich Georg Spitteler (24 April 1845 – 29 December 1924) was a Swiss poet who was awarded the
Biography
Spitteler was born in
Later he worked in Russia as tutor, starting from August 1871, remaining there (with some periods in Finland) until 1879. Later he was elementary teacher in Bern and La Neuveville, as well as journalist for the Der Kunstwart and as editor for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. In 1883 Spitteler married Marie op der Hoff, previously his pupil in Neuveville.
Under the pseudonym Carl Felix Tandem, Spitteler published the allegoric prose poem Prometheus and Epimetheus in 1881, contrasting between ideals and dogmas through the mythological figures of
In 1882 he published his Extramundana, a collection of poems. He gave up teaching in 1885 and devoted himself to a journalistic career in Basel. Now his works began to come in rapid succession. In 1891 there appeared Friedli, der Kalderi, a collection of short stories, in which Spitteler, as he himself says, depicted Russian realism. Literarische Gleichnisse appeared in 1892, and Balladen in 1896.[1]
In 1900–1905 Spitteler wrote the powerful allegoric-epic poem, in
During World War I he opposed the pro-German attitude of the Swiss German-speaking majority, a position put forward in the essay "Unser Schweizer Standpunkt". In 1919 he won the Nobel Prize. Spitteler died at Lucerne in 1924.
Carl Spitteler's estate is archived in the Swiss Literary Archives in Bern, in the Zürich Central Library and in the Dichter- und Stadtmuseum in Liestal.
In popular culture
Carl Jung claimed his idea of the archetype of the Anima was based upon what Spitteler described as 'My Lady Soul'. Musician David Bowie, who famously described himself as Jungian, wrote the 1973 song "Lady Grinning Soul".[2]
Works
- Prometheus und Epimetheus (1881)
- Extramundana (1883, seven cosmic myths)
- Schmetterlinge ("Butterflies", 1889)
- Der Parlamentär (1889)
- Literarische Gleichnisse ("Literary Parables”, 1892)
- Gustav (1892)
- Balladen (1896)
- Conrad der Leutnant (1898)
- Lachende Wahrheiten (1898, essays)
- Der olympische Frühling (1900–1905, revised 1910)
- Glockenlieder ("Grass and Bell Songs", 1906)
- Imago (1906, novel)
- Die Mädchenfeinde (Two Little Misogynists, 1907)
- Meine frühesten Erlebnisse ("My Earliest Experiences", 1914, biographical)
- Prometheus der Dulder ("Prometheus the Suffering”, 1924)
References
- ^ a b This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: William F. Hauhart (1920). . In Rines, George Edwin (ed.). Encyclopedia Americana.
- ^ Stark, T., “Crashing Out with Sylvian: David Bowie, Carl Jung and the Unconscious” in Deveroux, E., M.Power and A. Dillane (eds) David Bowie: Critical Perspectives: Routledge Press Contemporary Music Series. 2015 (chapter 5)
External links
- Media related to Carl Spitteler at Wikimedia Commons
- Literary estate of Carl Spitteler in the archive database HelveticArchives of the Swiss National Library
- Publications by and about Carl Spitteler in the catalogue Helveticat of the Swiss National Library
- Carl Spitteler on Nobelprize.org
- Official Site of the Carl Spitteler Foundation
- Works by or about Carl Spitteler at Internet Archive
- List of Works
- Works by Carl Spitteler at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Newspaper clippings about Carl Spitteler in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW