Jacques Chessex

Calvinism and the Text

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, French, European, Nonfiction, Religion & Spirituality, Christianity, Christian Literature
Cover of the book Jacques Chessex by David Bond, University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: David Bond ISBN: 9781442633896
Publisher: University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division Publication: December 15, 1994
Imprint: Language: English
Author: David Bond
ISBN: 9781442633896
Publisher: University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division
Publication: December 15, 1994
Imprint:
Language: English

Despite an impressive body of poems, novels, short stories, and literary criticism; high praise for his writing by French and Swiss critics; and a collection of honours that includes the prestigious Prix Goncourt, awarded for his novel L’Ogre in 1973, Jacques Chessex is relatively unknown outside France and Switzerland. With this book, David J. Bond provides the first comprehensive study of his work in any language—a study that reveals Chessex’s deep ambivalence towards his Calvinist heritage and his efforts to resolve this dilemma through his texts.

Born in 1934 in Payerne, in the region of French-speaking Switzerland known as the Vaud, Chessex grew up amid the pervasive influence of the Calvinist church. His writing, which tells of Vaud society and the hypocrisy of many of its leading members, reveals his preoccupation with a rigid morality, sin, remorse, and death. Bond shows that while Chessex uses his texts to escape this heritage and affirm alternative values, particularly sexual pleasure and enjoyment of life, his writing reveals a deep nostalgia for the stability and security of a strict religious system in a world that he finds unstable and even absurd without it. Chessex looks to the text as a univocal organizing principle that might impose order and sense. Bond sees in Chessex’s writing an attempt to find unity in opposing values, to establish contact with others, and to overcome an obsession with death and the passing of time.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Despite an impressive body of poems, novels, short stories, and literary criticism; high praise for his writing by French and Swiss critics; and a collection of honours that includes the prestigious Prix Goncourt, awarded for his novel L’Ogre in 1973, Jacques Chessex is relatively unknown outside France and Switzerland. With this book, David J. Bond provides the first comprehensive study of his work in any language—a study that reveals Chessex’s deep ambivalence towards his Calvinist heritage and his efforts to resolve this dilemma through his texts.

Born in 1934 in Payerne, in the region of French-speaking Switzerland known as the Vaud, Chessex grew up amid the pervasive influence of the Calvinist church. His writing, which tells of Vaud society and the hypocrisy of many of its leading members, reveals his preoccupation with a rigid morality, sin, remorse, and death. Bond shows that while Chessex uses his texts to escape this heritage and affirm alternative values, particularly sexual pleasure and enjoyment of life, his writing reveals a deep nostalgia for the stability and security of a strict religious system in a world that he finds unstable and even absurd without it. Chessex looks to the text as a univocal organizing principle that might impose order and sense. Bond sees in Chessex’s writing an attempt to find unity in opposing values, to establish contact with others, and to overcome an obsession with death and the passing of time.

More books from University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division

Cover of the book Constructing Neoliberalism by David Bond
Cover of the book Macroeconomic Dynamics by David Bond
Cover of the book The Order of Canada by David Bond
Cover of the book Premodern Ecologies in the Modern Literary Imagination by David Bond
Cover of the book The Domestic Space Reader by David Bond
Cover of the book The Atlantic Region to Confederation by David Bond
Cover of the book Taking Life Seriously by David Bond
Cover of the book Negotiating the Deal by David Bond
Cover of the book The Politics of Federalism by David Bond
Cover of the book Canadian Economic Policy and the Impact of International Capital Flows by David Bond
Cover of the book Lorca in Tune with Falla by David Bond
Cover of the book Lifting a Ton of Feathers by David Bond
Cover of the book Troubled Masculinities by David Bond
Cover of the book Fictions of Youth by David Bond
Cover of the book The Making of a Generation by David Bond
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy