Robert Vivier

{{short description|Belgian poet and writer}}

Robert Vivier (1894–1989) was a Belgian poet, novelist, essayist, biographer and literary critic who wrote in French.Jean-Luc Wauthier. "A Panoramic View of French-Language Poetry in Belgium 1880–1980". In: Belgian Women Poets: An Anthology (Vol. 11) (2000)

He published his first poetry collection, Le Menetrier, in 1924, which was followed by Dechirures (1927), Au bord du temps

(1937), Le Miracle enferme (1939), Trace par l'oubli (1951), Chronos reve (1959){{cite book |title=Littératures de langue française hors de France : anthologie didactique |trans-title=French-language literature outside France: a teaching anthology |date=1976 |publisher=Fédération Internationale des Professeurs de Français |location=Sèvres |isbn=2901106-01-3 |page=256 |url=https://archive.org/details/litteraturesdela0000unse |language=fr|oclc=872057815}} and S'étonner d'être (1977).Daniel Racine (1978). Review: S'étonner d'être by Robert Vivier. World Literature Today 52 (4): 590 His anxious listening to everyday life, his nostalgia for the childhood of the world, his meditations on the "glory of life" and the "very sweet eternity that breathes the world" are expressed in free verses or very classical verses (sometimes sonnets), whose cuts he redistributes according to very personal musical laws.{{cn|date=November 2024}} According to the New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry & Poetics his poetry is characterised by "discreet interrogation".R.F.L., K.J.W., L.W., A.G.W. Belgian poetry. New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry & Poetics (Princeton University Press; 1993) It is described by Jean-Luc Wauthier as displaying "acute and sensuous surreality" and being "deceptively transparent, streaked with paradoxically calm anxiety".

He also wrote novels including Non (1931), Folle qui s'ennuie (1933) and Mesures pour rien, which Lucien Christophe and Herman Teirlinck praise for the author's "keenness of perception" in their depiction of "simple, empty" characters.Maria Chiara Gnocchi (2024). From Belgium to the world and back? The case of Rieder. Perspectives: Studies in Translation Theory and Practice 32 (6): 1050–62 {{doi|10.1080/0907676X.2024.2327628}} A later novel is Avec les hommes, set during the First World War. One of his influences was the Belgian novelist, André Baillon (1875–1932).André Baillon. Britannica Biographies (Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.; 2024)

Vivier's nonfiction works include biographies of Louis Antoine, the founder of Antoinism,Régis Dericquebourg (1980). Review: Délivrez-nous du mal. Antoine le guérisseur by Robert Vivier. Archives de sciences sociales des religions 50.2: 350–51 {{jstor|30125394}} the poet Charles Baudelaire,Lucien Christophe, Herman Teirlinck (1953). A Quarter Century of Belgian Writing. Books Abroad 27 (3): 245–56 {{jstor|40092076}} and the artist {{ill|Marcel-Louis Baugniet|fr}}.Nell Andrew (2009). Living Art: Akarova and the Belgian Avant-Garde. Art Journal 68 (2): 26–49 {{doi|10.1080/00043249.2009.10791344}} His critical works include Et la poésie fut langage (1954) on La Chanson de Roland, Villon, Racine, Verlaine and Mallarmé,Jean Dubu (1958). Review: Et la Poésie fut langage by Robert Vivier. (1): 108–9 {{jstor|40521647}}B. S. (1954). Review: Et la Poésie fut un langage by Robert Vivier. Hommes et mondes 99: 479Henri Peyre (1955). Review: Et la poésie fut langage by Robert Vivier. Modern Philology 53 (2): 141–42 {{jstor|435630}} and Frères du Ciel (1962) on poetic interpretations of the Icarus and Phaethon myths.Jean-Louis Dumont (1964). The French Novel in Belgium: A Study of the Contemporary Scene. Books Abroad 38 (4): 353–60 {{jstor|40119060}}H. Lesuisse (1963). Review: Frères du Ciel by Robert Vivier. Books Abroad 37 (4): 416 {{jstor|40118128}}

He held professorships in literature at the University of Liège and the Sorbonne, and was a member of the Royal Academy of French Language and Literature of Belgium (1950–89).{{cite journal |last1=Nicolas |first1=Mignon |editor1-last=Lavenne |editor1-first=François-Xavier |editor2-last=Odaert |editor2-first=Olivier |title=Absurdité, fatalité et fraternité : les Grandes Guerres de Robert Vivier (1916-1984) |trans-title=Absurdity, fatality and fraternity: the Great Wars by Robert Vivier (1916-1984)|journal=Interférences littéraire |date=November 2009 |issue=3 |pages=147-159 |url=https://interferenceslitteraires.be/index.php/illi/article/download/774/624/1221 |language=fr}}