Famous People From Switzerland
One of the greatest writers of the 20th century, James Joyce belonged to Zurich. He lived from 1882 to 1941. Although his work is not found in abundance but he was well known for using language in a way that very few could comprehend. His work aimed to evoke consciousness. |
Eminent writers such Samuel Beckett, Salman Rushdie, William Burrough, Mairtin O’ Cadhain and Thomas Pynchon have been inspired by his brilliance in articulation reflected in his masterpieces entitled ‘Ulysses’ and ‘Finnegann's Wake’. The former was a 700 page novel published in the year 1922; while the latter came out in 1939 with extremely complicated vocabulary that cannot be grasped by many.
In the world of children’s novels, Johanna Spyri is a name to reckon with. Although she had contributed largely to the literary world in terms of novels for children and adults but her name finally shined in 1880 with the publication of the incredible tale ‘Heidi’. The fame of this tale over powered all her previous works with many assuming ‘Heidi’ to be her first piece of writing. Spyri’s work can be accredited to her own childhood memoirs and her aptitude of studying the behavior pattern of children. ‘Heidi’ gained fame in many other languages and on the silver screen as well. The great novelist breathed her last in 1901.
Switzerland can boast of giving to the world, one of the most inventive scientists, Albert Einstein. Born in 1879, this man created an impact on the scientific world that lasts even today. He contributed immensely through his research on the thermal properties of light with a low radiation density, the quantum theory of a monatomic gas, atomic transition probabilities and relativistic cosmology. The mathematical equation, E=MC2, where E stands for energy, M for mass and C for the speed of light was the innovation of this mastermind. Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921 for his study on the photoelectric effect.
The land of Switzerland gave the literary world another famous author, Georg Buchner. His life of only 23 years may seem short but was not short enough for him to furnish work of ingenuity. Buchner wrote many discerning plays that are valued even today. His list of talents includes ‘Danton's Death’, ‘Leonce and Lena’ and ‘Wozzeck’. Apart from writing tragic and romantic plays, the author also had an inclination towards political writing which was highlighted in the illegal pamphlet, ‘The Hessian Courier’ published in 1834.
In the realm of psychology, the name of Carl Gustav Jung is often regarded as the successor of Freud. His imagination explored new avenues of psychological study that bifurcated the human psyche into three parts namely; the ego, the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious. Jung's theory illustrated the various archetypes of the collective unconscious that included the self archetype, the mother, the shadow, the persona, the anima, the child, the hero, the animal, the trickster, the original man, the mana and the God. The prominent psychologist also typified human personalities into two categories of introverts and extroverts. He stated sensing, thinking, intuiting and feeling to be the four ways in which human beings generally tackle things around themselves. He expired at the age of 85 in Zurich.
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