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Yves Bonnefoy

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Yves Bonnefoy
Bonnefoy in 2004
Born
Yves Jean Bonnefoy

24 June 1923
Tours,France
Died1 July 2016(2016-07-01)(aged 93)
Paris, France
Alma materUniversity of Paris
Parent(s)Marius Elie-Bonnefoy
Hélène Maury

Yves Jean Bonnefoy(24 June 1923,Tours– 1 July 2016 Paris) was a Frenchpoetandart historian.[1]He also published a number of translations, most notably the plays ofWilliam Shakespearewhich are considered among the best in French.[2][1]He was a professor at theCollège de Francefrom 1981 to 1993 and is the author of several works on art,art history,and artists includingMiróandGiacometti,and a monograph on Paris-based Iranian artist Farhad Ostovani.[2]The Encyclopædia Britannicastates that Bonnefoy was ″perhaps the most important French poet of the latter half of the 20th century.″[3]

Life and career

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Bonnefoy was born inTours,Indre-et-Loire,the son of Marius Elie Bonnefoy, a railroad worker, and Hélène Maury, a teacher.[4][5]He studiedmathematicsandphilosophyat theUniversities of Poitiersand theSorbonnein Paris.[2]After theSecond World Warhe travelled in Europe and the United States and studied art history.[4]From 1945 to 1947 he was associated with theSurrealistsin Paris (a short-lived influence that is at its strongest in his first published work,Traité du pianiste(1946)). But it was with the highly personalDu mouvement et de l'immobilité de Douve[fr](On the Motion and Immobility of Douve,1953) that Bonnefoy found his voice and that his name first came to public notice.[6]Bonnefoy's style is remarkable for the deceptive simplicity of its vocabulary.[4][7]

Bonnefoy's work has been translated into English by, among others,Emily Grosholz,Galway Kinnell,John Naughton,Alan Baker,Hoyt Rogers, Antony Rudolf,Beverley Bie Brahicand Richard Stamelmann. In 1967 he joined withAndré du Bouchet,Gaëtan Picon,andLouis-René des Forêtsto foundL'éphémère,a journal of art andliterature.Commenting on his work, Bonnefoy has said:

One should not call oneself a poet. It would be pretentious. It would mean that one has resolved the problems poetry presents. Poet is a word one can use when speaking of others, if one admires them sufficiently. If someone asks me what I do, I say I'm a critic, or a historian.[6][8]

He taught literature at a number of universities in Europe and in the USA:Brandeis University,Waltham, Massachusetts (1962–64); Centre Universitaire, Vincennes (1969–1970);Johns Hopkins University,Baltimore; Princeton University, New Jersey; University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut;Yale University,New Haven, Connecticut;University of Geneva;University of Nice(1973–1976);University of Provence,Aix (1979–1981); andGraduate Center of the City University of New York,where he was made an honorary member of the Academy of the Humanities and Sciences.[9]In 1981, following the death ofRoland Barthes,he was given the chair of comparative study of poetry at theCollège de France.[2]

Bonnefoy continued to work closely with painters throughout his career and wrote prefaces for artists’ books, including those by his friendMiklos Bokor.[10]

Bonnefoy died on 1 July 2016 at the age of 93 in Paris. PresidentFrançois Hollandestated of Bonnefoy on his death that he would be remembered for "elevating our language to its supreme degree of precision and beauty".[11]

Awards and honours

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Bonnefoy was honoured with a number of prizes throughout his creative life. Early on he was awarded thePrix des Critiquesin 1971. Ten years later, in 1981,The French Academygave him its grand prize, which was soon followed by theGoncourt Prize for Poetryin 1987.[2]Over the next 15 years, Bonnefoy was awarded both thePrix mondial Cino Del Ducaand theBalzan Prize(for Art History and Art Criticism in Europe) in 1995, theGolden Wreath of StrugaPoetry Evenings in 1999, and the Grand Prize of the FirstMasaoka Shiki International Haiku Awardsin 2000. Toward the final years of his life, Bonnefoy was recognized with theFranz Kafka Prizein 2007 and, in 2011, he received the Griffin Lifetime Recognition Award, presented by the trustees of theGriffin Poetry Prize.[4]In 2014, he was co-winner of theJanus Pannonius International Poetry Prize.[12]He won the 2015International Nonino Prizein Italy.

Yves Bonnefoy, Collège de France, 2004 (withJoumana Haddad).

Selected works in English translation

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  • 1968:On the Motion and Immobility of Douve.Translated byGalway Kinnell.(Ohio University Press:ASIN: B000ILHLXA) – poetry
  • 1985:Poems: 1959-1975.Translated byRichard Pevear.(Random House:ISBN9780394533520) – poetry
  • 1991:In the Shadow's Light.Translated by John Naughton. (University of Chicago Press:9780226064482) – poetry
  • 1991:Mythologies[2 Volumes]. Compiled by Yves Bonnefoy. Edited byWendy Doniger.(University of Chicago Press,ISBN9780226064536)[n 1][13]
  • 1993:Alberto Giacometti: A Biography of His Work.(Flammarion:ISBN978-2080135124) – art criticism
  • 1995:The Lure and the Truth of Painting: Selected Essays on Art.(University of Chicago Press,ISBN9780226064444) – art criticism[3]
  • 2004:Shakespeare and the French Poet.– essays on the role of the translator. (University of Chicago Press:ISBN9780226064437)
  • 2007:The Curved Planks.Translated by Hoyt Rogers. (Farrar, Straus and Giroux:ISBN9780374530754). – poetry
  • 2011:Second Simplicity: New Poetry and Prose, 1991-2011.Selected, translated, and with an introduction by Hoyt Rogers. (Yale University Press:ISBN978-0-300-17625-4). – poetry
  • 2012:Beginning and End of the Snow[followed byWhere the Arrow Falls]. Translated byEmily Grosholz.(Bucknell University Press:ISBN978-1611484588) – poetry
  • 2013:The Present Hour;with an Introduction byBeverley Bie Brahic.(Seagull Books:ISBN9780857421630) – poetry[14]
  • 2014:The Digamma;with an introduction by Hoyt Rogers. Translated by Hoyt Rogers. (Seagull Books:ISBN978 0 8574 2 183 8). – poetry
  • 2015:The Anchor's Long Chain;with an Introduction by Beverley Bie Brahic. (Seagull Books:ISBN978-0857423023) –includes both poems and short stories[3]
  • 2017:Together Still[followed byPerambulans in Noctem]; with an afterword by Hoyt Rogers. Translated by Hoyt Rogers with Mathilde Bonnefoy. (Seagull Books:ISBN978 0 8574 2 424 2). – poetry

Notes

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  1. ^a restructured translation ofDictionnaire des mythologies et des religions des sociétés traditionelles et du monde antique( "Dictionary of Mythologies and Religions of Traditional Societies and the Ancient World" ). Compiled by Yves Bonnefoy and prepared under the direction of Wendy Doniger; translated by Gerald Honigsblum [and others]

References

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  1. ^ab"Dictionary of Art Historians - Yves Bonnefoy".
  2. ^abcde"Yves Bonnefoy, Pre-Eminent French Poet, Dies at 93".The New York Times.6 July 2016.
  3. ^abcThe Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica (updated 3 July 2016)"Yves Bonnefoy - French author".Encyclopædia Britannica.
  4. ^abcd"2011 – Yves Bonnefoy".Griffin Trust. Archived fromthe originalon 17 November 2019.Retrieved10 July2012.
  5. ^Publications, Europa (1 January 2003).The International Who's Who 2004.Psychology Press.ISBN9781857432176– via Google Books.
  6. ^abShusha Guppy, "Yves Bonnefoy, The Art of Poetry No. 69",The Paris Review.Retrieved 1 June 2013.
  7. ^Naughton, John (1984).The Poetics of Yves Bonnefoy.University of Chicago Press. pp. 43–.ISBN978-0-226-56947-5.Retrieved1 June2013.
  8. ^Harry Eyres, "The quest of a lifetime",Financial Times,31 May 2013. Retrieved 1 June 2013.
  9. ^"CUNY Academy for the Humanities and Sciences".
  10. ^Vavasseur, Pierre."Miklos Bokor, corps et âme".Paris, France: Le Parisien.Retrieved2021-04-20.
  11. ^Grimes, William (6 July 2016)."Yves Bonnefoy, Pre-Eminent French Poet, Dies at 93".New York Times.Retrieved6 July2016.
  12. ^"Janus Pannonius Prize goes to Adonis and Yves Bonnefoy".Hungarian Literature Online.September 4, 2014.RetrievedSeptember 5,2014.
  13. ^Bonnefoy, Yves; Doniger, Wendy (1 January 1991).Mythologies.University of Chicago Press.OCLC22346848.
  14. ^The Present Hour.The French List. University of Chicago Press.
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