Pol Vandromme
Pol Vandromme (12 March 1927 – 28 May 2009) was a Belgian literary critic and writer.
Life and career
Born in Gilly, near Charleroi, on 12 March 1927,{{cite web |last=Stroobants |first=Jean-Pierre |date=6 July 2009 |url=https://www.lemonde.fr/disparitions/article/2009/07/06/paul-vandromme-essayiste-et-critique-litteraire-belge_1215810_3382.html |title=Paul Vandromme, essayiste et critique littéraire belge |website=Le Monde |language=fr |access-date=16 May 2023 }} Pol Vandromme emerged in the 1950s as a literary critic who valued style and narrative over ideas and what he called "Stalinist humanism",{{cite web |last=Authier |first=Christian |date=4 June 2009 |url=https://www.lefigaro.fr/livres/2009/06/04/03005-20090604ARTFIG00505-pol-vandromme-passeur-des-lettres-.php |title=Pol Vandromme, passeur des lettres |website=Le Figaro |language=fr |access-date=16 May 2023 }} which made him a contrarian in a time when Jean-Paul Sartre was highly regarded and placed him in association with the Hussards literary movement. In addition to Hussards like Antoine Blondin, the contemporary writers Vandromme praised included Roger Vailland and Françoise Sagan. He wrote books about the writers Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Georges Simenon, Roger Nimier, Michel Déon, Felicien Marceau, Michel Mohrt and Jacques Perret, as well as the singers Jacques Brel and Georges Brassens, and the first in-depth book about The Adventures of Tintin, published in 1959. He wrote one novel, Un été acide, published in 1990.
The Académie Française awarded Vandomme its {{ill|prix du rayonnement de la langue et de la littérature françaises|fr}} in 1984 and its {{ill|prix de la critique (Académie Française)|lt=grand prix de la critique|fr|Prix de la critique (Académie française)}} in 1992.{{cite web |url=https://www.academie-francaise.fr/pol-vandromme |title=Pol Vandromme |language=fr |publisher=Académie Française |access-date=16 May 2023 }}
He died on 28 May 2009 in Loverval.
References
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Category:Belgian literary critics
Category:Literary critics of French
Category:20th-century Belgian male writers
Category:20th-century Belgian non-fiction writers
Category:20th-century Belgian journalists