Jakob Schaffner

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Jakob Schaffner

Swiss writer

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Born:: Nov. 14, 1875, Basel, Switz.

Died:: Sept. 25, 1944, Strasbourg, France (aged 68)

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Jakob Schaffner (born Nov. 14, 1875, Basel, Switz.—died Sept. 25, 1944, Strasbourg, France) was a Swiss writer who lived in Germany from 1913. He belonged to a new generation of Swiss writers who, searching for uncompromising greatness and believing in life as a boundless adventure, broke away from the saturated tradition of middle-class society.

Schaffner was orphaned at an early age. He described his life in four autobiographical novels: Johannes (1922), Die Jünglingszeit des Johannes Schattenhold (1930; “The Youth of Johann Schattenhold”), Eine deutsche Wanderschaft (1931; “A German Journey”), and Kampf und Reife (1939; “Struggle and Resolution”). These works depict his experiences as a child, a charity schoolboy, a shoemaker, and a roving and self-taught writer.

His other novels include Konrad Pilater (1910), Der Dechant von Gottesbüren (1917; “The Dean of Gottesbüren”), and Die Glücksfischer (1925; “The Fisher for Happiness”). He also wrote a volume of poetry, Bekenntnis (1940; “Confessions”), as well as the essays Die Predigt der Marienburg (1931; “The Sermon of Marienburg”) and Berge, Ströme und Städte, eine schweizerische Heimatschau (1938; “Mountains, Streams, and Towns, a View of My Swiss Homeland”).

4:043 Dickinson, Emily: A Life of Letters, This is my letter to the world/That never wrote to me; I'll tell you how the Sun Rose/A Ribbon at a time; Hope is the thing with feathers/That perches in the soul

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Influenced by the Swiss-born writer Gottfried Keller, Schaffner’s writing is colourful, spirited, and imaginative. His convictions were those of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and, to some extent, of the Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky and finally led him to Nazism.

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Swiss literature

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Swiss literature

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Key People:: Adolf Wölfli; Stefano Franscini; Peter Bichsel; Robert Walser; Johann Kaspar Lavater

Related Topics:: literature; Western literature; Rhaetian dialects

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Swiss literature, properly, the writings in the only language peculiar to Switzerland, the Rhaeto-Romanic dialect known as Romansh, though broadly it includes all works written by Swiss nationals in any of the three other languages of their country: German, French, and Italian, or the Swiss dialect forms of any one of them. It also should be noted that the earliest literature produced in Switzerland was written in Latin.

Treated here are the writings in Romansh and Swiss dialects. For information about all other manifestations of Swiss literature, see Latin Literature; German Literature; French Literature; Italian Literature.

Romansh literature was in its origins predominantly ecclesiastical, and began in the Middle Ages. The Reformation gave it new life. In 1560 a fine translation of the New Testament was published; in 1679 the entire Bible was translated by J.A. Vulpius and J. Dorta. There is also a rich variety of popular songs, especially of the religious and political kind. Owing to its geographical distribution Romansh literature is essentially regional in character. Nevertheless, the anthologist Caspar Decurtins; the poets Peider Lansel, Jon Guidon, and Artur Caflisch; and the prose fiction writer Giachen Michel Nay have achieved decidedly more than a merely local fame in the 20th century.

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) only confirmed photograph of Emily Dickinson. 1978 scan of a Daguerreotype. ca. 1847; in the Amherst College Archives. American poet. See Notes:

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The fortunes of Swiss dialect literature vary according to the language situation in each section of the country. In the Ticino, dialect literature is produced with much devotion but has been of little consequence. In the French-speaking part of the country the local dialects are on the wane. The important instances of dialect literature there belong to the past, such as the Genevan ballads commemorating the victory of the escalade in 1602. International fame was achieved by the various ranz des vaches (melodies sung, or played on the alphorn, by herdsmen).

Dialect literature flourishes mainly in the German-speaking part of the country, chiefly because there the people, regardless of social rank and education, consistently use dialect for everyday purposes. The existence of numerous local idioms might even produce an ever-increasing variety of dialect writings. This, however, would be at cross-purposes with the determination of writers and readers to remain on common ground with German literature as a whole. Some of the best poets have expressed themselves both in High German and in their dialect. Thus, Adolf Frey published a volume of poems in the dialect of the Aargau (Duss und underm Rafe, 1891), and Meinrad Lienert wrote several poems in the dialect of Schwyz. Almost every canton has its Mundartdichter, or local poet. There are vigorous novels in the Bernese dialect by the 20th-century writers Rudolf von Tavel and Simon Gfeller. Schaffhausen is represented in the novels of Albert Bächtold, and Joseph Reinhart wrote in the dialect of Solothurn.