Théophile Gautier
Théophile Gautier ( born August 30, 1811 in Tarbes, Hautes -Pyrénées, † October 23, 1872 in Neuilly -sur -Seine near Paris) was a French writer.
Life and work
Gautier was born in Tarbes (South West France) and grew up in Paris. After graduating from high school, he first thought of a future as a painter. In 1829 he joined the literary circle around Victor Hugo, the " Cénacle ". In 1830 he appeared at the premiere of Hugo's Hernani piece with a provocative, because in the theater unseemly red doublet, the legendary " gilet rouge", and was one of the loudest cheerleaders in the legendary bataille d' Hernani.
He then published poems and short stories and became one of the main representatives of the " Bohème ," that provocative nonconformist writers and artists of the edge of the bourgeois Parisian society.
His first success was the epistolary novel Mademoiselle Maupin (1835 ), the story of a young woman dressed as a man to realize their ideal of love in homo - and hetero -erotic experiences tried this also creates a beautiful night, but then abandons any continuation in order not to sand into the routine of a relationship. Literary history, especially the preface of the novel is interesting, where Gautier the theory of l' art pour l'art designs, ie the doctrine that art had to be completely useless, must avoid any social or even political commitment and alone in the perfection of their products find a meaning - a doctrine in which the collective frustration of an entire intellectual generation is expressed by the was the July Revolution of 1830 initially set into optimism, but then disappointed by the political repression after 1832.
From 1836 earned Gautier his money in the rapidly evolving press with reports of social events, art exhibitions and literary publications, but also with the coveted at magazines and book publishing travel reports and impressions, for which he (sometimes together with his schoolmates Gérard de Nerval ) England, Holland, Belgium and the Mediterranean traveled.
Gautier was a follower of mesmerism. " The animal magnetism is one of the science long established fact because one may not doubt. " ( In a review of the comedy " Tronquette, the Sleepwalker " the brothers Cogniard, about 1838). A reflection of this conviction is his Avatar novel of 1856.
In the years after 1839 Gautier tried rather unfortunate, as a dramatist with the pieces Une larme du diable ( " A tear of the devil" ), Le Tricorne Enchanté ( " The Enchanted tricorn hat ( hat ) " ) and Pierrot posthumous and, with more luck as a librettist. 1841 scored the ballet Giselle a brilliant success.
In addition, he wrote short stories and still mostly wrote poems he chased like a craftsman. Became famous for his collection of poems Émaux et camées ( " Enamels and Cameos ", 1852), which served a whole generation of poets, the " Parnassian " as a model.
Gautier's late novels, Le Roman de la momie (1858 ) and Le Capitaine Fracasse (1863 ) were only moderately successful.
Théophile Gautier is the father of the writer Judith Gautier.
Quotes
- " The only possible aristocracy, the beauty that belongs to the women, for men it is the genius. " From: Celle- ci et celle -là In: Les Jeunes -France ( 1833)
- " The Orient is in my opinion the only country in the world where women are in place. At home and in bed ," From: " Celle- ci et celle -là " In " Les Jeunes -France " (1833 )
- " Beauty can not exist without wealth. " From: Mademoiselle de Maupin (1835 /36)
Works
First editions
- Albertus, prose poem, 1833
- Les Jeunes -France, short stories, 1833
- Omphale, novella, 1834
- Mademoiselle de Maupin, epistolary novel, 1835
- Fortunio, novel, 1838
- Libretto for the ballet Giselle to the music of Adolphe Adam, 1841
- Libretto for the ballet La Peri to music by Friedrich Burgmuller, choreography Jean Coralli, 1843
- Une nuit de Cléopathre, narrative, 1845
- Émaux et camées ( German Enamels and Cameos ), poems, 1852
- Avatar, novel, 1857
- Jettatura, novel, 1857
- Le Roman de la momie. ( German novel of The Mummy ), novel, 1858
- Le Capitaine Fracasse. Novel, 1863 ( edited as an opera )
- Quand on voyage. Travelogues, 1865 ( digitized )
Translations
- Novels and short stories. Edited and Foreword by Dolf Oehler. Fourier, Wiesbaden 2003, ISBN 3-932412-40-0. After the 15 - volume edition of Avalun -Verlag, Hellerau near Dresden, in 1925 and 1926, translated by Alastair (pseudonym of Hans- Henning von Voigt ).
- Avatar. Jettatura. Two fantastic stories. From the French by Alastair. Suhrkamp, 1985, ISBN 3-518-37661-6
- Jettatura. Amendment. Translation and afterword Holger Fock. Dörlemann, Zurich 2006, ISBN 3-908777-21-6
- The loving undead. Translated from the French, annotate, and an afterword by Ulrich Klappstein. jmb -Verlag, Hannover 2010, ISBN 978-3-940970-77-0
- The Jeunes -France. Translated from the French, with an afterword and supplementary texts and notes by Melanie Grundmann. Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-88221-549-6
- Avatar. Translated from the French and with notes by Jörg Alisch, with an afterword by Michael Roes. Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-88221-548-9
- Mademoiselle de Maupin. From the French by Caroline Vollmann, afterword by Dolf Oehler. Manesseplatz Verlag, Zurich 2011, ISBN 978-3-7175-2264-5
Musical settings
- Roland Moser: Avatar. Opera, world premiere on 3 May 2003 at the Theater St. Gallen.