ABSTRACT
Switzerland’, comprising the Swiss abroad (like Blaise Cendrars, Edmond Fleg, Clarissa Francillon, Philippe Jaccottet, Pinget, Monique Saint-Hélier), who produced a substantial body of travel and exile literature, as well as some internationally recognized ‘French’ literature. The insular Swiss have not, as generally believed, generated solely dull and austere work. Playfulness and observation of the outside world are strong preoccupations, as if singularity could be better expressed by toying with otherness (see, for example the work of Amélie Plume). Peasant and workers’ roots have also inspired an important strain of Marxist literature (for example, Yves Velan, and Jacques Chessex, who received the Goncourt prize for L’Ogre in 1973).
