Alice Rivaz
A strong literary persona uniting expression of intimacy with that of universality, and who relentlessly attempted to outline the zeitgeist by delving deep into the daily lives of ordinary people. Her contemporaries praised her writing: Corinna Bille, Maurice Chappaz, Catherine Colomb, Georges Haldas, Jean-Georges Lossier, Marcel Raymond, Gustave Roud. Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz endorsed her first novel, Nuages dans la main (1940).
Two years before Simone de Beauvoir published her Second Sex, Alice Rivaz released La Paix des Ruches (Peace in the beehives) in 1947, thus becoming the first francophone author to publish a feminist novel.
Comme le sable (1946) was followed by Sans Alcool (1961), Comptez vos jours (1966), Le Creux de la vague (1967), L’Alphabet du matin (1968), De Mémoire et d’oubli (1973), Jette ton pain (1979), Ce nom qui n’est pas le mien (1980) and Traces de vie (1983).
Laureate of the Grand Prix Ramuz in 1980, and of the Schiller Prize, first in 1942 for Nuages dans la main and then in 1969 for L'Alphabet du matin, Alice Rivaz is undoubtedly one of the major authors shaping the Swiss literary landscape.
Upcoming events
In spring 2024, La Machine à tricoter : Écrits pour la presse will be published with an introduction by Jacob Lachat. A book on Alice Rivaz will also be published in Infolio's Presto collection.
The next General Assembly of the Association will be held on 22 November at 17:30 at the Cercle Littéraire in Lausanne. The GA will be followed by the Alice Rivaz Literary Prize ceremony, at the same venue at 18:30.
17.05.2024 at 18:30 – Alice Rivaz: le travail au quotidien @ M-R-L (in French only)
Earning freedom, empowering dreams, enabling writing... they all share an intimate connection to professional activity in Alice Rivaz's life and literary work.
With the participation of Valérie Cossy, Jacob Lachat, Marianne Dyens and Christian Ciocca.
Booking recommended.
La Paix des ruches reviewed on France Inter, October 2022 (in French only)
Juliette Arnaud talks about La Paix des ruches, following the current republishing of Alice Rivaz' feminist novel.
New edition, November 2022, published at Editions Zoé, prefaced by Mona Chollet
Keywords
Her works
Published between 1940 and 1986, her works relate the profound changes in the status of women and relations between the sexes, as well as the taboos and constraints affecting ordinary people.
The Association
About the Alice Rivaz Association
La Paix des ruches
La Paix des ruches (The peace within the beehive) was published two years before Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex and precedes the feminist novels of the latter half of the 20th century.