Jeremias Gotthelf

Jeremias Gotthelf is the Pseudonyme (drawn from its first novel the Mirror of the peasant or life of Jérémias Gotthelf ) of the writer Bernese Albert Bitzius (born with Morat, in the Canton of Freiburg the October 4th 1797 and deceased the October 22nd 1854).

Wire of the Pasteur Sigismond Bitzius, he lived his childhood with Utzenstorf (Bern) before returning to the academy of Bern in 1814 to follow studies of Théologie. He became Vicaire of his father with Utzenstorf in 1820 and until its death in 1824 remained it. He moves then with Herzogenbuchsee, then with Bern and finally in 1830 with Lützelflüh. He starts to write in the newspaper Volksfreund following the events of 1831. But it will not be satisfied with the Journalisme. It starts to publish its books in 1837 and will not cease until its death. It leaves thirteen novels and seventy accounts. Most known are Heur and misfortune of a schoolmaster , Barthy the basket maker , Elsi the strange maidservant , the black spider , Argent and spirit.

Gotthelf sticks in its works to describe the impact of modernization (democratization, capitalism) on the country company. To return the authenticity of this rural world, he does not hesitate to interfere his prose Bernese dialect; a step which is not without announcing that of a Ramuz. Contrary to Gottfried Keller, Gotthelf is a conservative, who observes of an eye being wary Switzerland to change. The German critic sees in him a significant author of the time Biedermeier. Thomas Mann found even with the rustic simplicity of its characters something of Homeric.

Sources

External bond

Article in the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland

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