Eva Haldimann (née Román; 8 March 1927 – 15 September 2019) was a Swiss literary critic and translator from Hungarian into German.

Biography

Education

Eva Haldimann received her PhD from the

University of Zurich The University of Zurich (UZH, ) is a public university, public research university in Zurich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 from the existing colleges of the ...

in 1956. Her thesis subject was about critical studies of translations of

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

Literacy critic

She started a career as a literary critic in 1963 in the Swiss German newspaper

Neue Zürcher Zeitung The (''NZZ''; "New Newspaper of Zurich") is German language daily newspaper, published by NZZ Mediengruppe in Zurich. The paper was founded in 1780. It has a reputation as a high-quality newspaper, as the German Swiss newspaper of record ...

, particularly on contemporary Hungarian literature. She wrote more than 300 reviews and her credo was: ''See what Hungarian literature has to offer, in terms of quality, it can compete with the great European literature''. On 19 March 1977 she wrote a literary review of the novel Fatelessness by the Hungarian writer Imre Kertesz, describing it as the "novel of a desperate man" that helped to make it known in the West. Imre Kertész discovered by chance criticism in an abandoned newspaper in a Budapest swimming pool and a correspondence between literary critic and the writer began, also accompanied by several personal encounters. Imre Kertesz's letters were published in 2009 under the title ''Letters to Eva Haldimann''. Eva Haldimann was also a translator from Hungarian into German of several novels by the writer Magda Szabo.

Prize

1991:

Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary The Hungarian Order of Merit () is the fourth highest Order (honour), State Order of Hungary. Founded in 1991, the order is a revival of an original order founded in 1946 and abolished in 1949. Its origins, however, can be traced to the Order of ...

in recognition of its activity in the popularization of Hungarian literary works abroad 1992: Honorary member of the

Széchenyi Academy of Literature and Arts The Széchenyi Academy of Literature and Arts (, ) was created in 1992 as an academy associated yet independent from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. It is intended to be the national academy of artists and writers, who could be elected to the HAS ...

References

7. Kiss Noémi Haldimann Éva halálára https://litera.hu/irodalom/publicisztika/kiss-noemi-a-szabadulast-itt-osszeomlaskent-elik-at.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Haldimann, Eva 1927 births 2019 deaths Recipients of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary Swiss literary critics Swiss women literary critics Swiss translators Translators from Hungarian Translators to German University of Zurich alumni 20th-century Swiss translators