Literature Tchantchès) of an (also)
avant-garde theater linking French language and
Walloon language literature
In Walloon Literature is written principally in French but also in Walloon and other regional languages, colloquially called Walloon literature.
Walloon literature (regional language not French) has been printed since the 16th century. But it did have its golden age, paradoxically, during the peak of the
Flemish immigration to Wallonia in the 19th century: "That period saw an efflorescence of Walloon literature, plays and poems primarily, and the founding of many theaters and periodicals." The
New York Public Library possesses a surprisingly large collection of literary works in Walloon, quite possibly the largest outside Belgium, and its holding are representative of the output. Out of nearly a thousand, twenty-six were published before 1880. Thereafter the numbers rise gradually year by year, reaching a peak of sixty-nine in 1903, and then they fall again, down to eleven in 1913. See 'Switching Languages', p. 153. Yves Quairiaux counted 4800 plays for 1860–1914, published or not. In this period plays were almost the only popular show in Wallonia. But this theater remains popular in the present-day Wallonia: Theater is still flourishing, with over 200 non-professional companies playing in the cities and villages of Wallonia for an audience of over 200,000 each year. There are links between French literature and (the very small) Walloon literature. For instance
Raymond Queneau set
Editions Gallimard the publication of a Walloon Poets' anthology.
Ubu roi was translated in Walloon by
André Blavier, a
Verviers pataphysician, for the new and important
Puppets theater of Liège of Jacques Ancion, the
Al Botroûle theater "at the umbilical cord" in Walloon indicating a desire to return to the source (according to Joan Cross). But Jacques Ancion wanted to develop a regular adult audience. From the 19th century, he included the Walloon play ''Tati l'Pèriquî
by E.Remouchamps and the avant-garde Ubu roi'' by
A.Jarry. For Jean-Marie Klinkenberg, "the dialectal culture is no more a sign of attachment to the past but a way to participate to a new synthesis".
In French Jean-Marie Klinkenberg (member of the
Groupe μ) wrote that Wallonia, and literature in Wallonia, has been present in French language since its formation. In their 'Histoire illustrée des lettres française de Belgique', Charlier and Hanse (editors), La Renaissance du livre, Bruxelles, 1958, published 247 pages (on 655 ), about the "French" literature in the Walloon provinces (or Walloon principalities of the Middle-Age, sometimes also Flemish provinces and principalities), for a period from the 11th to the 18th century. Among the works or the authors, the
Sequence of Saint Eulalia (9th century),
La Vie de Saint Léger (10th century),
Jean Froissart (14th century in the
County of Hainaut),
Jean d'Outremeuse,
Jean Lebel,
Jean Lemaire de Belges (16th century from
Bavay), the
Prince of
Ligne (18th century,
Beloeil). There is a Walloon
Surrealism, especially in
Hainaut Province.
Charles Plisnier (1896–1952), born in Mons, won the
Prix Goncourt in 1936, for his novel
Mariages and for
Faux Passeports (short stories denouncing Stalinism, in the same spirit as
Arthur Koestler). He was the first foreigner to receive this honour. The Walloon
Georges Simenon is likely the most widely read French-speaking writer in the world, according to the
Tribune de Genève. More than 500 million of his books have been sold, and they have been translated into 55 languages. There is a link between the
Jean Louvet's work and the social issues in Wallonia.
In Picard Picard is spoken in
Hainaut Province of western Belgium. Notable Belgian authors who wrote in Picard include Géo Libbrecht, Paul Mahieu, Paul André, Francis Couvreur and Florian Duc. ,
Landscape with the Fire of Sodom, 21.5 x 33 cm, c. 1526–1550, Musée des Arts anciens du Namurois, Namur. This landscape is similar to the
Meuse between
Dinant and
Namur Mosan art, painting, architecture Mosan art is a regional style of
Romanesque art from the
Meuse river valley in present-day Wallonia, and the
Rhineland, with manuscript illumination, metalwork, and enamel work from the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries. Among them is the masterpiece of
Renier de Huy and perhaps of the whole Mosan art
Baptismal font at St Bartholomew's Church, Liège. The architecture of Roman churches of Wallonia are also named mosan, exemplified by the
Collegiate Church of Saint Gertrude in
Nivelles, and the churches of
Waha and
Hastière,
Dinant. The
Ornamental brassware is also a part of the Mosan art and among these dinandiers
Hugo d'Oignies and
Nicholas of Verdun.
Jacques Du Brœucq was a sculptor of the 16th century.
Flemish art was not confined to the boundaries of modern Flanders and several leading artists came from or worked in areas in which langues d'oïl were spoken, from the region of modern Wallonia, e.g.
Robert Campin,
Rogier van der Weyden (Rogier de la Pasture) and
Jacques Daret.
Joachim Patinir Henri Blès are generally called
mosan painters.
Lambert Lombard (
Liège, 1505 – 1566) was a
Renaissance painter, architect and theorist for the
Prince-Bishopric of Liège.
Gérard de Lairesse,
Bertholet Flemalle were also important painters in the Prince-Bishopric of Liège.
Gustave Serrurier-Bovy (
Liège, 1858 –
Antwerp, 1910) architect and furniture designer, credited (along with
Paul Hankar,
Victor Horta and
Henry van de Velde) with creating the
Art Nouveau style, coined as a style in Paris by Bing.
George Grard (1901—1984) was a Walloon sculptor, known above all for his representations of the female, in the manner of
Pierre Renoir and
Aristide Maillol, modelled in clay or plaster, and cast in bronze. During the 19th and 20th centuries many original
romantic,
expressionist and
surrealist Walloon painters emerged, including
Félicien Rops,
Paul Delvaux,
Pierre Paulus,
Fernand Verhaegen,
Antoine Wiertz,
René Magritte ... The avant-garde
CoBrA movement appeared in the 1950s.
Music (left), with
Gilles Binchois There was an important musical life in
Prince-Bishopric of Liège since the beginning. Between 1370 and 1468, a school of music flourished in Liège, notably producing
Johannes Brassart and
Johannes Ciconia (the third Master of
Ars Nova). The
vocal music of the so-called
Franco-Flemish School developed in the southern part of the Low Countries and was an important contribution to Renaissance culture. Robert Wangermée and Philippe Mercier wrote in their encyclopedic book about the Walloon music that
Liège,
Cambrai and
Hainaut Province played a leading part in the so-called Franco-Flemish School. Among them were
Orlande de Lassus,
Gilles Binchois,
Guillaume Dufay In the 19th and 20th centuries, there was an emergence of major violinists, such as
Henri Vieuxtemps,
Eugène Ysaÿe (author of the unique opera in
Walloon during the 20th century
Piére li houyeû – Pierre the miner – based on a real incident which occurred in 1877 during a miners' strike in the Liège region), and
Arthur Grumiaux, while
Adolphe Sax (born in
Dinant) invented the saxophone in 1846. The composer
César Franck was born in
Liège in 1822,
Guillaume Lekeu in
Verviers. More recently,
André Souris (1899–1970) was associated with
Surrealism.
Zap Mama is a more international group.
Henri Pousseur is generally regarded as a member of the
Darmstadt School in the 1950s. Pousseur's music employs
serialism, mobile forms, and aleatory, often mediating between or among seemingly irreconcilable styles, such as those of
Schubert and
Webern (
Votre Faust), or Pousseur's own serial style and the protest song "We shall overcome" (
Couleurs croisées). He was strongly linked to the social strikes in
Liège during the 1960s. He worked also with the French writer
Michel Butor.
Cinema Walloon films are often characterized by
social realism. It is perhaps the reason why the documentary
Misère au Borinage, and especially its co-director
Henri Storck, is considered by Robert Stallaerts as the father of the Walloon cinema. He wrote: "Although a Fleming, he can be called the father of the Walloon cinema". For F. André between
Misère au Borinage and the films like those of the
Dardenne brothers (since 1979), there is ''
Déjà s'envole la fleur maigre'' (1960) (also shot in the
Borinage), a film regarded as a point of reference in the history of the cinema. On the other hand, films such as
Thierry Zéno's
Vase de noces (1974),
Mireille in the life of the others by
Jean-Marie Buchet (1979), ''C'est arrivé près de chez vous
(English title: Man bites dog) by Rémy Belvaux and André Bonzel (1992) and the works of Noël Godin and Jean-Jacques Rousseau are influenced by surrealism, absurdism and black comedy. The films of the Dardenne brothers are also inspired by the Bible and Le Fils'' for instance is regarded as one of the most spiritually significant films.
Festivals The
Ducasse de Mons (Walloon French for
Kermesse), is one of the
UNESCO Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. It comprises two important parts: the procession, the descent and the ascent of the shrine of
Waltrude, and the combat between
Saint George and the dragon. The combat (after the procession), plays out on the Trinity Sunday between 12:30 pm and 1:00 pm on the
Mons's central square. It represents the fight between Saint George (the good) and the dragon (the evil). The dragon is a mannequin carried and moved by the
white men (
fr:Hommes blancs). The dragon fights Saint George by attacking with his tail. Saint George on his horse turns clockwise and the dragon turns in the other direction. Saint George finally kills the dragon. The
Gilles of
Binche and the giants' procession in
Ath are also
UNESCO Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
Cuisine Orval, with a branded glass Wallonia is famous for a number of different foods and drinks, a great many of which are specialties of certain cities or regions. The
Liège waffle a rich, dense, sweet, and chewy waffle native to Liège, is the most popular type of waffle in Belgium, and can be found in stores and even vending machines throughout the country.
Cougnou, or the
bread of Jesus, is a sweet bread typically eaten around Christmas time and found throughout the region. Other specialties include
Herve cheese, an
apple butter called
sirop de Liège, the
Garden strawberry of
Wépion. Also notable is the
Dinant specialty
Flamiche: These cheese tarts are not found in window displays as they are meant to be eaten straight from the oven. As one restaurateur stated in a book about Walloon gastronomy "it is the client who waits for the flamiche, as the flamiche does not wait for the client". There are also the
Ardennes ham, the
tarte al djote from
Nivelles, a dessert pie made with beet leaves and cheese, while
tarte au riz is a rice-pudding filled pie from
Verviers. The Walloons of the Door Peninsula in Wisconsin have a tradition of making what is called a Belgian Pie but which is a flat pie more like a pizza covered with prune purée and topped with a thin cheese layer. These were made by the dozens in outdoor stone ovens for the many kermisses, in a tradition that dates back to immigration in the 1850s. Cussette is a fresh cheese which gets its airborne
P. roqueforti culture from a tradition of making it in the kitchen. This is aged only one week at 30 degrees C, until it develops a faint blue cast and a tang. Walloon headcheese differs from the German in that it is more finely ground, includes bits of cartilage, and is allowed to sit for a month or two in a cool place before being eaten. In terms of drink, Wallonia mirrors Belgium as a whole; beer and wine are both popular, and a great diversity of beers are made and enjoyed in Wallonia. Installed in Bierghes in the Senne valley, the Gueuzerie Tilquin is the only gueuze blendery in Wallonia. Wallonia boasts three of the seven
Trappist beers (from
Chimay,
Orval and
Rochefort) in addition to a great number of other locally brewed beers. Wallonia is also home to the last bastion of traditional rustic
saison, most notably those produced at the
Brasserie de Silly and the Brasserie Dupont (located in , in the region of Western
Hainaut Province historically known for its production of rustic farmhouse ales).
Jupiler, the best-selling beer in Belgium, is brewed in
Jupille-sur-Meuse in
Liège. Wallonia also home to a
Jenever called Peket, and a
May wine called Maitrank. ==Transportation==