Hugo Claus

Encyclopedia : H : HU : HUG : Hugo Claus

Hugo Maurice Julien Claus (born April 5, 1929 in Bruges, Belgium) is a prolific Flemish novelist, poet, playwright, painter and film director. He is considered to be one of the most important contemporary Dutch language authors.

Hugo Claus was born in Bruges. 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 is also a dramatist. He has written 35 original pieces and 31 translations from English, Greek, Latin, French, Spanish and Dutch plays and novels.

Hugo Claus has been connected with the Nobel Prize for Literature for several years now, but he himself claims to have given up hope of ever receiving it.

Prizes

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

(incomplete list)

Bibliography

Claus has written 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 1585672386)
* The Swordfish, 1996 (De Zwaardvis, 1989) (ISBN 0720609852)
* Desire, 1997 (Het verlangen, 1978) (ISBN 0140255389)
Poetry:
* with Karel Appel: Love Song, 1963 (written in English)
* with Pierre Alechinsky and Karel Appel: Two-brush paintings: Their poems by Hugo Claus, 1980 (Zwart, 1978)
* Selected Poems 1953-1973, 1986
* The Sign of the Hamster, 1986 (Het teken van de Hamster, 1964)
Theatre:
* Friday, 1972 (Vrijdag, 1969)
* Four Works for the Theatre, 1990 (ISBN 0966615212)
* Friday, 1993 (Vrijdag, 1969)
Essay:
* Karel Appel, Painter, 1962 (Karel Appel, Schilder, 1964)

External links

[Study and Documentation Centre Hugo Claus] at the Antwerp University
[Hugo Claus] on the [Pegasos] website.
[Hugo Claus] on the [Literature in Context] website.

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.