Geneva (EFE).- The archives of the Swiss writer Johanna Spyri, known worldwide for having written the series of children’s novels “Heidi”, have been included in the documentary record “Memory of the World” of the United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO).
Among these documents are more than 1,000 manuscripts, photographs, original illustrations, letters or records.
Currently, Spyri’s documents are kept in two Zurich-based institutions: the Johanna Spyri Archive (run by the Swiss Institute for Youth and the Media) and the Heidi Archive (run by the Heidiseum cultural project).
The University of Zurich, which is in charge of studying Spyri’s famous work, celebrated this recognition by UNESCO in a press release and recalled that the adventures of “Heidi” have been read all over the world and translated to hundreds. of languages.
Heidi’s stories
Published between 1880 and 1881, the stories of the alpine girl Heidi, her grandfather, her friends Pedro and Clara and the implacable Miss Rottenmeier are still an icon in Switzerland today, where it even has an open-air museum in the town of Maienfeld.
But what has truly made Heidi an international character are the numerous adaptations that have told her story through all possible formats, from the well-remembered anime created by Isao Takahata, to “Mad Heidi”, the latest recreation of the novel in bloody horror tone.
“The fascinating thing about Heidi’s international career is that her character evokes a multitude of interpretations depending on the cultural, social and political context, interpretations that constantly change and evolve throughout history,” said the University’s media expert. from Zurich, Christine Lötcher.
The international registry project “Memory of the World” was created in 1992 and its mission is to promote document protection and offer guarantees of free access to documents.
The entry “Heidi” and the files of its author Johanna Spyri enter the UNESCO documentary record was first published in EFE Noticias.
