Jean-Louis de Rambures
Encyclopedia
Jean-Louis Vicomte de Bretizel Rambures (May 19, 1930, Paris
- May 20, 2006, Vaudricourt, Somme
) was a French
journalist, author, translator of literature, literary critic, and cultural attaché.
He went to school in Toulouse and Paris and then enrolled at the Institut d'Études Politiques in Paris, where he earned a diploma, a "Licence en droit" and a "Licence d´allemand". He learned to speak English fluently; and also studied German literature at the university of Tübingen
(in the province of Baden-Württemberg, Germany).
In 1958 he started writing for the monthly magazine "Realités", portraying famous artists, as e.g. Herbert von Karajan
, Karlheinz Stockhausen
, Luchino Visconti
et al.
From 1968 on he contributed to the art magazine Connaissances des Arts, to L'Express
and the daily Le Monde
, that was to print his articles for the following 25 years. He developed a special interest in the way authors work and analysed the genesis of literature. In the course of several years he contacted numerous contemporary writers, and many of them agreed to grant him an interview, Roland Barthes
, Julien Gracq
, Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio
, Hélène Cixous
, Herta Müller
, Ernst Jünger
, Thomas Bernhard
, Günter Grass
and Heinrich Böll
, among others.
These talks were printed in Le Monde
and a selection was presented in his book Comment travaillent les écrivains (How writers work, Flammarion, Paris 1978), which was translated into Japanese and published in Tokyo (Chuokoron-sha, 1979).
In the early 1970s de Rambures was a cultural attaché for his country in Bonn
. In 1975 he began working for the culture department of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From 1987 to 1995 he headed the Institut Français (the French equivalent of the British Council), first in Saarbrücken
, then in Frankfurt
.
He translated German literature into French, e.g. Paul Nizon
, who thus became known in France.
Short portrait of "Jean-Louis de Rambures"
Announcement of his death:
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
- May 20, 2006, Vaudricourt, Somme
Vaudricourt, Somme
Vaudricourt is a commune in the Somme department in Picardie in northern France.-Geography:Vaudricourt is situated west of Abbeville, on the D106 and the D63 roads.-Population:-External links:*...
) was a French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
journalist, author, translator of literature, literary critic, and cultural attaché.
Life
His parents were Lucille Calogera, from Brazil, and her husband, Vicomte Bernard de Bretizel Rambures from Picardy, France. Besides learning both their languages, Portuguese und French, he was also taught German at a very early age and acquired a taste for German literature, which he was to study later.He went to school in Toulouse and Paris and then enrolled at the Institut d'Études Politiques in Paris, where he earned a diploma, a "Licence en droit" and a "Licence d´allemand". He learned to speak English fluently; and also studied German literature at the university of Tübingen
Tübingen
Tübingen is a traditional university town in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, on a ridge between the Neckar and Ammer rivers.-Geography:...
(in the province of Baden-Württemberg, Germany).
In 1958 he started writing for the monthly magazine "Realités", portraying famous artists, as e.g. Herbert von Karajan
Herbert von Karajan
Herbert von Karajan was an Austrian orchestra and opera conductor. To the wider world he was perhaps most famously associated with the Berlin Philharmonic, of which he was principal conductor for 35 years...
, Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Another critic calls him "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music"...
, Luchino Visconti
Luchino Visconti
Luchino Visconti di Modrone, Count of Lonate Pozzolo was an Italian theatre, opera and cinema director, as well as a screenwriter. He is best known for his films The Leopard and Death in Venice .-Life:...
et al.
From 1968 on he contributed to the art magazine Connaissances des Arts, to L'Express
L'Express (France)
L'Express is a French weekly news magazine. When founded in 1953 during the First Indochina War, it was modelled on the US magazine TIME.-History:...
and the daily Le Monde
Le Monde
Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper owned by La Vie-Le Monde Group and edited in Paris. It is one of two French newspapers of record, and has generally been well respected since its first edition under founder Hubert Beuve-Méry on 19 December 1944...
, that was to print his articles for the following 25 years. He developed a special interest in the way authors work and analysed the genesis of literature. In the course of several years he contacted numerous contemporary writers, and many of them agreed to grant him an interview, Roland Barthes
Roland Barthes
Roland Gérard Barthes was a French literary theorist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. Barthes' ideas explored a diverse range of fields and he influenced the development of schools of theory including structuralism, semiotics, existentialism, social theory, Marxism, anthropology and...
, Julien Gracq
Julien Gracq
Julien Gracq , born Louis Poirier in Saint-Florent-le-Vieil, in the French département of Maine-et-Loire, was a French writer. He wrote novels, critiques, a play, and poetry. His literary works were noted for their Surrealism.Gracq first studied in Paris at the Lycée Henri IV, where he earned his...
, Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio
Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio
Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio , usually identified as J. M. G. Le Clézio, is a French author and professor. The author of over forty works, he was awarded the 1963 Prix Renaudot for his novel Le Procès-Verbal....
, Hélène Cixous
Hélène Cixous
Hélène Cixous is a professor, French feminist writer, poet, playwright, philosopher, literary critic and rhetorician. She holds honorary degrees from Queen's University and the University of Alberta in Canada; University College Dublin in Ireland; the University of York and University College...
, Herta Müller
Herta Müller
Herta Müller is a Romanian-born German novelist, poet and essayist noted for her works depicting the effects of violence, cruelty and terror, usually in the setting of Communist Romania under the repressive Nicolae Ceauşescu regime which she experienced herself...
, Ernst Jünger
Ernst Jünger
Ernst Jünger was a German writer. In addition to his novels and diaries, he is well known for Storm of Steel, an account of his experience during World War I. Some say he was one of Germany's greatest modern writers and a hero of the conservative revolutionary movement following World War I...
, Thomas Bernhard
Thomas Bernhard
Thomas Bernhard was an Austrian novelist, playwright and poet. Bernhard, whose body of work has been called "the most significant literary achievement since World War II," is widely considered to be one of the most important German-speaking authors of the postwar era.- Life :Thomas Bernhard was...
, Günter Grass
Günter Grass
Günter Wilhelm Grass is a Nobel Prize-winning German author, poet, playwright, sculptor and artist.He was born in the Free City of Danzig...
and Heinrich Böll
Heinrich Böll
Heinrich Theodor Böll was one of Germany's foremost post-World War II writers. Böll was awarded the Georg Büchner Prize in 1967 and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1972.- Biography :...
, among others.
These talks were printed in Le Monde
Le Monde
Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper owned by La Vie-Le Monde Group and edited in Paris. It is one of two French newspapers of record, and has generally been well respected since its first edition under founder Hubert Beuve-Méry on 19 December 1944...
and a selection was presented in his book Comment travaillent les écrivains (How writers work, Flammarion, Paris 1978), which was translated into Japanese and published in Tokyo (Chuokoron-sha, 1979).
In the early 1970s de Rambures was a cultural attaché for his country in Bonn
Bonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
. In 1975 he began working for the culture department of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From 1987 to 1995 he headed the Institut Français (the French equivalent of the British Council), first in Saarbrücken
Saarbrücken
Saarbrücken is the capital of the state of Saarland in Germany. The city is situated at the heart of a metropolitan area that borders on the west on Dillingen and to the north-east on Neunkirchen, where most of the people of the Saarland live....
, then in Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
.
He translated German literature into French, e.g. Paul Nizon
Paul Nizon
Paul Nizon is a Swiss art historian and writer.The son of a Russian chemist and a Swiss mother, after leaving school he studied history of art, classical archaeology and German language and literature in the universities of Berne and Munich. He obtained his doctorate in 1957 with a thesis on...
, who thus became known in France.
Awards
Jean-Louis de Rambures was made a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres and was honoured with the Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.External links
- Photograph by M. Thelen http://www.anne-tucker.de/Deckblatt-Jean-Louis.htm
Short portrait of "Jean-Louis de Rambures"
- http://chronobio.com/structure.php?rub=3&id=22213&azer=Jean-Louis%20de 20Rambures.
Announcement of his death:
- http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A9c%C3%A8s_en_2006