Encyclopedia of Romantic Nationalism in Europe

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Brizeux, Auguste

  • <span class="a type-340" data-type_id="340" data-object_id="252040" id="y:ui_data:show_project_type_object-340_252040">Auguste Brizeux (1845)</span>
  • BretonLiterature (fictional prose/drama)Literature (poetry/verse)
  • GND ID
    143662074
    Social category
    Creative writers
    Title
    Brizeux, Auguste
    Title2
    Brizeux, Auguste
    Text

    Auguste Pélage Brizeux (Lorient 1803 – Montpellier 1858) was given a traditionalist Catholic schooling in Vannes and in Arras, and undertook law studies in Paris in 1824. There he joined a coterie of (mainly aristocratic and reactionary-monarchist) Breton students. His literary debut was made after the 1830 revolution: Marie (1831), a long narrative poem evoking a failed love affair and, in true Romantic spirit, equating the lost beloved with the distant fatherland – in this case: Brittany. Brittany, its language and culture, became an increasing point of identification as Brizeux made contact with the aging Le Gonidec and with La Villemarqué, thirteen years his junior. Although invited to joined the Breton delegation to the 1838 Abergavenny eisteddfod, Brizeux decided to stay in Paris to keep the ailing Le Gonidec company. The bardic titles bestowed on La Villemarqué and his companions also triggered a “bardic” frame in his poetical self-identification, although meanwhile, employed at a Lycée in Marseille, he had also developed an affinity with Italy.

    Les Bretons, a romance collection inspired by Breton folklore and legends, appeared in 1845 and with the support of Alfred de Vigny and Victor Hugo obtained a prize from the Académie française. One of the romances, La chasse du Prince Arthur, evoking a medieval Duke of Brittany, later inspired a symphonic poem by Guy Ropartz (1911-12). In the next decade, many more Breton-themed verses appeared in the Revue des deux mondes. Histoires poétiques (1855) was again crowned by the Académie française.

    Brizeux developed tuberculosis after 1851 and died in 1858. He is mainly remembered as one of the founding fathers of a French-language, regionally Breton literature. However, as a native speaker of Breton, he also published Breton-language works during his stay in Paris: a verse collection, Telenn arvor (1844), and a collection of proverbs (1845). For these he did not use his native Cornouaille dialect but the standard version of Le Gonidec.

    Word Count: 310

    Article version
    1.1.1.2/a
  • Williams, Heather; “Between French and Breton: The politics of translation”, Romance studies, 27.3 (2009), 223-233.


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    All articles in the Encyclopedia of Romantic Nationalism in Europe edited by Joep Leerssen are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at https://www.spinnet.eu.

    © the author and SPIN. Cite as follows (or as adapted to your stylesheet of choice): Bouwhuis, Max, 2022. "Brizeux, Auguste", Encyclopedia of Romantic Nationalism in Europe, ed. Joep Leerssen (electronic version; Amsterdam: Study Platform on Interlocking Nationalisms, https://ernie.uva.nl/), article version 1.1.1.2/a, last changed 20-04-2022, consulted 26-12-2024.