DIE BRITISCHE SCHRIFTSTELLERIN ANTONIA SUSAN BYATT IST GESTORBEN

Die am 24. August 1936 in Sheffield geborene britische Schriftstellerin Antonia Susan Byatt (Bild) ist am 16. November 2023 gestorben. 1990 gewann ihr Roman «Possession» den Booker Prize, und Königin Elisabeth II. verlieh ihr den Titel Commander of the Order of the British Empire. 1999 wurde sie zur Dame Commander ernannt. 2014 wurde Byatt als ausländisches Ehrenmitglied in die American Academy of Arts and Sciences gewählt. 2016 wurde ihr der Erasmuspreis zugesprochen. 2017 wurde sie als Ehrenmitglied in die British Academy aufgenommen. Im Jahr 2018 erhielt Byatt den Hans-Christian-Andersen-Literaturpreis. (*)

Bild: Antonia Susan Byatt, 2011 – Foto: Fred Ernst, https://www.flickr.com/photos/nhm_nederland/6283655771 (Ausschnitt) – Lizenz: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en – Datei: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ASByatt2011.jpg 

A statement from Chatto & Windus, Vintage Books, UK

(…) We are deeply saddened to announce the death of Dame Antonia Byatt, one of the most significant writers and critics of our time. She died peacefully at home surrounded by close family. A girl from Sheffield with a strong European sensibility (‘I have a Germanic imagination,’ she told «Desert Island Discs» in 1991), Antonia had a remarkable mind which produced a unique creative vision.

She has been an integral part of Chatto & Windus’s publishing since 1964, starting with her first novel «The Shadow of the Sun». Twenty-three other spectacular novels and works of criticism followed, including the stunning sequence known as the Frederica Quartet; «Possession» (1990), a romantic tour de force about a pair of young scholars investigating the lives of two Victorian poets, which was an eminent winner of the Booker Prize; and «The Children’s Book» (2009), shortlisted for the Booker Prize and winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. She was also a master of the short story and her most recent publication, «Medusa’s Ankles: Selected Stories» (2021) brought together the best of these. (…)

https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2023/11/a-s-byatt-statement

AS Byatt: Author, critic and poet dies aged 87

«Antonia’s Quaker schooling encouraged a clear independence of thought, and throughout her career she had an unerring ability to ask direct and searching questions,» Penguin said in their statement.

«Her novels showed a profound engagement with history and historical consciousness – and an understanding of the traditions in which she wrote – whether folktale or novel.

»And if her fiction offered an imaginative realm of ideas, it was also warm and engaging, and filled with unforgettable characters.»

Steven McIntosh

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-67448696

AS Byatt obituary

The novelist AS Byatt, who has died aged 87, was throughout her existence a victim of Samuel Johnson’s «hunger of the imagination that preys incessantly upon life, and must be always appeased by some employment». In the words of one of her own heroines, whatever in the moral abstract she thought about the relative importance of writing and life, nothing mattered to her more than writing.

Harriet Harvey Wood

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/nov/17/as-byatt-dame-antonia-byatt-obituary

Writer and critic won the Booker Prize in 1990 for her novel «Possession»

Also known as Dame Antonia Byatt, the author won the revered Booker Prize in 1990 for «Possession», a novel about two academics falling in love while researching the relationship between fictional Victorian poets.

«Possession» was adapted for a 2002 romance mystery movie of the same name starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Aaron Eckhart, Toby Stephens and Tom Hollander.

Last year, her 1995 short story «The Djinn In The Nightingale’s Eye» inspired a fantasy drama starring Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton, «Three Thousand Years Of Longing», which features a conversation between a genie and an academic in a hotel room in Istanbul.

Nicole Vassell

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/as-byatt-author-dead-possession-b2449232.html

Author Dame Antonia Byatt dies aged 87

Clara Farmer, her publisher at Chatto & Windus, an imprint of Penguin Random House, said: «Antonia’s books are the most wonderful jewel boxes of stories and ideas.

»Her compulsion to write (A4 blue notebook always to hand) and her ability to create intricate skeins of narrative was remarkable. It was always a treat to see her, to hear updates about her evolving literary characters and indulge in delicious titbits of literary gossip.

Charlotte McLaughlin

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/author-dame-antonia-byatt-dies-booker-prize-possession-b1121121.html

A.S. Byatt, Scholar Who Found Literary Fame With Fiction, Dies at 87

One of Britain’s most ambitious and intellectual novelists, she won the Booker Prize with «Possession,» her 1990 tale of illicit love spanning two centuries.

Rebecca Chace

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/17/books/as-byatt-dead.html

Muere A. S. Byatt, la autora de ‘Posesión’ y ‘El libro de los niños’

Ganadora del premio Booker en 1990, su literatura era compleja e intelectual, pero logró cautivar a críticos y público a lo largo de cinco décadas de intensa producción

Rafa de Miguel

https://elpais.com/cultura/2023-11-17/muere-as-byatt-la-autora-de-posesion-y-el-libro-de-los-ninos.html

È morta la scrittrice inglese A.S. Byatt, autrice di «Possessione»

Nel 1990, con il suo romanzo più famoso, diventato un film con Gwyneth Paltrow, vinse il Booker Prize. Aveva 87 anni

https://www.repubblica.it/cultura/2023/11/17/news/e_morta_la_scrittrice_inglese_as_byatt_autrice_di_possessione-420594020/

L’écrivaine britannique Antonia Byatt, auteure de «Possession», est morte

L’ancienne enseignante de littérature anglaise et américaine à University College de Londres avait remporté en 1990 le Booker Prize, qui récompense les meilleurs auteurs anglophones du Commonwealth et d’Irlande.

https://www.lemonde.fr/livres/article/2023/11/17/l-ecrivaine-britannique-antonia-byatt-auteure-de-possession-est-morte_6200764_3260.html 

Ihr bekanntestes Werk

A.S. Byatts wohl bekanntestes Buch wurde der im Jahr 1990 veröffentlichte Roman «Posessed» (Dt.: «Besessen», 1993). Die Mischung aus Liebesgeschichte und Krimi im akademischen Milieu, die vom Auffinden einer Korrespondenz zwischen einem fiktiven Dichterpaar aus dem 19. Jahrhundert handelt, wurde mit dem Booker-Preis ausgezeichnet und später auch verfilmt.

https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/buecher/verfasserin-des-romans-besessen-a-s-byatt-gestorben-19322102.html

Mit dem Roman «Besessen» wurde sie 1990 berühmt

Ihr bekanntestes Werk blieb bis zuletzt «Besessen», für das sie den Booker Prize erhalten hat. 2002 wurde das Buch von Neil LaBute auch verfilmt.

Marion Löhndorf

https://www.nzz.ch/feuilleton/die-autorin-a-s-byatt-ist-87-jaehrig-gestorben-ld.1315261?reduced=true

Videos:

episode 102 – A. S. Byatt – part 01

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkcLdrUkKWc&t=18s 

AS Byatt: ‚I don’t believe in God. I believe in Wallace Stevens‘

https://www.theguardian.com/books/video/2010/aug/25/as-byatt-facebook

A.S. Byatt: The Children’s Book | 92Y Readings

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8hgsM6TWeo

Mehr:

https://www.asbyatt.com/

https://www.facebook.com/asbyatt

https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/a-s-byatt 

https://www.nndb.com/people/433/000104121/

https://www.britannica.com/biography/A-S-Byatt

https://isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?2805

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0125706/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._S._Byatt

(*) https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._S._Byatt 

#ASByatt #AntoniaSusanByatt #CHcultura @CHculturaCH ∆cultura cultura+