Bea Vianen

{{Short description|Surinamese writer and poet (1935–2019)}} {{Infobox person | name = Bea Vianen | image = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Beatrice Sylvia Vianen | birth_date = 6 November 1935 | birth_place = Paramaribo, Suriname | death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|2019|1|6|1935|11|6}} | death_place = Paramaribo, Suriname | other_names = | occupation = Writer, poet | years_active = | known_for = | notable_works = ''Sarnami, Hai'' (1969)<br>''Strafhok'' (1971)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1927060.Bea_Vianen|title=Bea Vianen|website=Good Reads|access-date=17 May 2020}}</ref> }} '''Beatrice Sylvia Vianen''' (6 November 1935 in Paramaribo – 6 January 2019) was a Surinamese writer and poet who went by the name '''Bea Vianen'''.<ref>[http://www.dbnl.org/auteurs/auteur.php?id=vian001 Bea Vianen in the Digitale Bibliotheek Nederlandse Letteren (Dutch)]</ref> Bea Vianen was the first Surinamese woman who had a book published by a Dutch publishing house (Querido).<ref name="nrc">{{cite news|url=https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2019/01/07/schrijfster-bea-vianen-toonde-een-verdeeld-suriname-van-binnenuit-a3128145|title=Schrijfster Bea Vianen toonde een verdeeld Suriname van binnenuit|date=7 January 2017|website=NRC Handelsblad|access-date=16 May 2020|language=nl|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

== Biography == Bea Vianen was of both African and Indian ancestry. At the age of eight, her mother died of tuberculosis, and she was put in a Catholic foster home.<ref name="groene">{{cite news|url=https://www.groene.nl/artikel/bea-vianen-6-november-1935-6-januari-2019|title=Bea Vianen, 6 november 1935 – 6 januari 2019 |website=De Groene Amsterdammer|access-date=16 May 2020|language=nl}}</ref> Vianen went to the Netherlands in 1957 for her Bachelor of Education.<ref name="repeating_islands">{{cite web|url=https://repeatingislands.com/2019/01/10/in-memoriam-bea-vianen-suriname-1935-2019/|title=In Memoriam Bea Vianen Suriname 1935-2019|website=Repeating Islands|access-date=16 May 2020}}</ref> Vianen wrote mainly in Dutch, but occasionally in Sranan Tongo,<ref name="Wilson1991"/> and her writing contained many autobiographical elements.<ref name="dbnl"/> Her first novel was ''Sarnami, Hai'' or "Surinam I am" in 1969,<ref name="Wilson1991"/> a coming of age story of a young East Indian girl in a country torn apart by religious and ethnic differences, and a colonial past.<ref name="dbnl">{{cite web|url=https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/bork001nede01_01/bork001nede01_01_1373.php|title=De Nederlandse en Vlaamse auteurs|date=1985|website=Digital Library for Dutch Literature|access-date=16 May 2020|language=nl}}</ref> It's a bleak story set in a world without love, but also about a young woman who persists in life.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/pos_002inle01_01/pos_002inle01_01_0001.php|title=Inleiding tot de Surinaamse literatuur|website=Digital Library for Dutch Literature|first=Hugo|last=Pos|access-date=16 May 2020|date=1973}}</ref> It was translated into English and released in 2024 under the title 'My Name is Sita'<ref>https://wordswithoutborders.org/read/article/2024-06/the-birthday-present-bea-vianen-kristen-gehrman-my-name-is-sita/</ref>

Vianen also wrote poetry, which has been collected in ''Liggend stilstaan bij blijvende monumenten'' (1975).<ref name="dbnl"/> In 1978, she started to work for ''Avenue'' for whom she travelled to places like Peru, Colombia and Ecuador. The journeys resulted in many poems, and many personal dramas.<ref name="groene"/>

Vianen was an admirer of the Trinidadian novelist V. S. Naipaul.<ref name="Wilson1991">{{cite book|author=Katharina M. Wilson|title=An Encyclopedia of Continental Women Writers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ncN7uneLKrcC&pg=PA1299|year=1991|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-8240-8547-6|page=1299}}</ref> Vianen died in Paramaribo on 6 January 2019 at the age of 83.<ref name="nrc"/>

== References == {{Reflist}}

==External links== * [https://www.dbnl.org/auteurs/auteur.php?id=vian001 Bea Vianen at the Digital Library for Dutch Literature] (''Sarnami, hai'' and ''Het paradijs van Oranje'' are available as free downloads) * [https://www.surinameview.com/sranan/literatuur/s-z/bea-vianen/ Bea Vianen at Suriname View Literature]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vianen, Bea}} Category:1935 births Category:2019 deaths Category:Dutch-language writers Category:Writers from Paramaribo Category:Indo-Surinamese people Category:Surinamese poets Category:Surinamese Hindus Category:Surinamese women writers Category:Surinamese women poets Category:Writers in Sranan Tongo