Hugo Claus

Infobox Writer
name = Hugo Claus
pseudonym = Dorothea van Male; Jan Hyoens; Thea Streiner
birthname = Hugo Maurice Julien Claus
birthdate = Birth date|1929|4|5|mf=y
birthplace = Bruges, Belgium
deathdate = death date and age|2008|3|19|1929|4|5|mf=y
deathplace = Antwerp, Belgium
occupation = novelist, poet, playwright, painter, film director
notableworks = "The Sorrow of Belgium"

Hugo Maurice Julien Claus (April 5, 1929 – March 19, 2008) was a Flemish novelist, poet, playwright, painter and film director.

Career

Hugo Claus was considered to be one of the most important contemporary Dutch language authors [ [http://www.rtbf.be/info/societe/ARTICLE_168325 Radio-Television Belge RTBF (French)] ] [ [http://www.ledevoir.com/2008/03/20/181368.html Le Devoir (French)] ] [ [http://www.la-croix.com/article/index.jsp?docId=2332427&rubId=5548 La Croix (French)] ] . Under the pseudonym Dorothea van Male, he published the novel Schola Nostra (1971). He also used the pseudonyms Jan Hyoens and Thea Streiner. In 1983, he published "Het verdriet van België" ("The Sorrow of Belgium"), which is probably his most famous book.

Claus was also a dramatist. He wrote 35 original pieces and 31 translations from English, Greek, Latin, French, Spanish and Dutch plays and novels.

Hugo Claus' name had been put forward many times for the Nobel Prize in Literature, on which he would casually comment that "l'argent de ce prix m'aurait bien arrangé" ("this prize money would suit me fine") [http://blogrtbf.typepad.com/matin_premiere/2008/03/2003---revue-de.html Revue de la presse belge (French)] ] .

Life

Hugo Claus was born in Bruges. He was the eldest son of the printer Jozef (Joseph) Claus and Germaine Vanderlinden. In February 1931, his brother Guido was born (died November 9 1991). Guido was later followed by two other brothers -- Odo (born January 1934) and Johan (born November 1938).

From February 1953 until the beginning of 1955, Hugo Claus lived in Italy where his girlfriend Elly Overzier (born in 1928) acted in a few films. They were married on May 26, 1955, and had a son, Thomas, on October 6, 1963. In the early 1970s, he had an affair with actress Sylvia Kristel, who was 27 years younger, with whom he had a son Arthur born in 1975. The relationship ended in 1977, when she left him for actor Ian McShane [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7308618.stm BBC obituary, 2008] ] .

He was a "contrarian", of "anarchist spirit". Journalist Guy Duplat recalls that Claus had organized in Knokke the election of a "Miss Knokke Festival", which was a standard Beauty contest, except for the Claus ruling that the members of the all-male jury would have to be naked .

Claus was actively opposed to Flemish separatism [ [http://www.art-and-you.com/breve-419.htm ArtAndYou, 2008] ] .

Death

Claus suffered from Alzheimer's disease and requested his life to be terminated through euthanasia at the Middelheim Ziekenhuis in Antwerp on March 19, 2008 [ [http://www.standaard.be/Artikel/Detail.aspx?artikelId=DMF19032008_071 De Standaard online (Dutch)] ] . Euthanasia is legal in Belgium.

The Flemish Minister of Culture stated, "I knew him well enough to know that he wanted to depart with pride and dignity" [ [http://tf1.lci.fr/infos/culture/livres/0,,3782747,00-hugo-claus-ets-mort-belges-sont-chagrin-.html LCI (French)] ] . Former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt said that he imagined the onset of Alzheimer's must have been "inevitable and unbearable torture". "I can live with the fact that he decided thus", he said, "because he left us as a great glowing star, right on time, just before he would have collapsed into a black hole".

His death by euthanasia has received criticism from the Roman Catholic Church and the Belgian Alzheimer League [ [http://www.alzheimerliga.be/ (Dutch)] . The Roman Catholic Church criticized the media coverage; cardinal Godfried Danneels referred to Claus' euthanasia in his Easter Homily. [ [http://www.standaard.be/Artikel/Detail.aspx?artikelId=7Q1PP3TN De Standaard online (Dutch)] ] . The Belgian Alzheimer League respects Claus' decision, but believes the media coverage of his death neglects other options for Alzheimer patients.

Prizes

(incomplete list)
* 1952 - Arkprijs van het Vrije Woord for "De Metsiers"
* 1964 - August Beernaertprize for De verwondering
* 1965 - Henriëtte Roland Holst-prize for all his plays
* 1967 - Edmond Hustinxprize for all his plays
* 1979 - Constantijn Huygensprize
* 1985 - Cestoda-prize
* 1986 - Herman Gorterprize for Alibi
* 1986 - Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren
* 1994 - Prijs voor Meesterschap
* 1994 - VSB Poëzieprize for De Sporen
* 1997 - Libris Literatuurprize for De Geruchten
* 1998 - Aristeion Prize for De Geruchten
* 2000 - Premio Nonino

Bibliography

Claus wrote over a thousand pages of poetry, more than sixty plays, over twenty novels and several essays, film scripts, libretti and translations. Only a small part of this œuvre has been translated into English:
* Prose:
** "The Duck Hunt", 1955 ("De Metsiers", 1950)
** "Sister of Earth", 1966 ("De Metsiers", 1950)
** "The Sorrow of Belgium", 1990 ("Het verdriet van België", 1983) (ISBN 1-58567-238-6)
** "The Swordfish", 1996 ("De Zwaardvis", 1989) (ISBN 0-7206-0985-2)
** "Desire", 1997 ("Het verlangen", 1978) (ISBN 0-14-025538-9)
* Poetry:
** with Karel Appel: "Love Song", 1963 (written in English)
** "Four Flemish Poets: Hugo Claus, Gust Gils, Paul Snoek, Hugues C. Pernath / edited by Peter Nijmeijer. (1976) (ISBN 0856820342)
** with Pierre Alechinsky and Karel Appel: "Two-brush paintings: Their poems by Hugo Claus", 1980 ("Zwart", 1978)
** "An Evening of postwar poetry of The Netherlands and Flanders [sound recording] : Hugo Claus, Judith Herzberg, Gerrit Kouwenaar, and Cees Nooteboom reading their poems", 1984
** "Selected Poems 1953-1973", 1986
** "The Sign of the Hamster", 1986 ("Het teken van de Hamster", 1964) (ISBN 9071345130)
** "Greetings: selected poems", 2004 (ISBN 0151009007)
* Theatre:
** "Friday", 1972 ("Vrijdag", 1969) (ISBN 0706700511)
** "Four Works for the Theatre", 1990 (ISBN 0-9666152-1-2)
** "Friday", 1993 ("Vrijdag", 1969)
** "The sacrament and other plays of forbidden love", 2007 (ISBN 9781575911106)
* Essay:
** "Karel Appel, Painter", 1962 ("Karel Appel, Schilder", 1964)

References

ee also

* Flemish literature

External links

* [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/25/books/25claus.html?ref=obituaries New York Times: Hugo Claus, One of Belgium’s Most Renowned Authors, Dies at 78 ]
* [http://www.ua.ac.be/main.aspx?c=*CLAUS Study and Documentation Centre Hugo Claus] at the Antwerp University
* [http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/hclaus.htm Hugo Claus] on the [http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/ Pegasos] website
* [http://www.ned.univie.ac.at/lic/autor.asp?aut_id=118&user_lang_id=4 Hugo Claus] on the [http://www.ned.univie.ac.at/lic/index.asp?user_lang_id=4 Literature in Context] website
* [http://www.the-ledge.com/flash/ledge.php?prsn=118&lan=UK Hugo Claus 'Bookweb' on literary website The Ledge, with suggestions for further reading]
*imdb name|id=0165282|name=Hugo Claus