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According to existing historiography the coffee house played an important role in the sociabilization of the late seventeenth- and the eighteenth-century bourgeoisie. The assumption in existing historiography is that the bourgeois went to the Dutch coffee houses to socialize, converse about political and ethical issues, and thus achieve personal growth. Sociabilization in the coffeehouses was encouraged by ‘literary socialization’: the conversations were spurred by the bourgeois’ reading of texts and introduced them to literary reading of these texts. In this article, we question this historiography for the case of Amsterdam between 1685 and 1785 by a closer investigation of both literary representations of coffee houses and judicial (notary) sources. Coffee houses often appear as scenes of gambling and violent encounters in the notary archives. Literary representations (plays, diaries) confirm a more dissolute and less civilizing character of the Amsterdam coffee house. Moreover, the number of coffee houses in Amsterdam diminished in the eighteenth century, and literary representations are almost completely absent after 1730. They do not appear in a typical bourgeois novel such as Sara Burgerhart. We conclude that coffee houses did not play the key role in literary socialization and sociabilization previously assumed.

It was not until this century that ecology emerged as a major theme in Dutch-language literature. Most overviews of literary history, in fact, do not touch upon the subject. Reading historically situated literature in light of – and in dialogue with – the then-contemporary environmental debates can fill up this historiographical lacuna. In this article, I aim to do precisely that by presenting a contextualizing analysis of the Dutch literary production of 1972, the year in which 250.000 copies were sold of the Dutch translation of The Limits to Growth. My analysis focuses on a wide and diverse selection of texts, including poetry (Sonja Prins, H.H. ter Balkt, Lucebert, Robin Hannelore, Rutger Kopland, Dick Hillenius), prose (Gerrit Krol, Anton Koolhaas, Roel van Duyn, Ben Borgart), theatre (Walter Van den Broeck), comics (Suske en Wiske, Jommeke, Safari, Tom Poes), song lyrics (Farce Majeure, Jan De Wilde), diaries (Jan Wolkers), documentary scripts (Koolhaas for Bij de beesten af by Bert Haanstra; Geert Bekaert for De straat by Jef Cornelis), television interviews (Hillenius) and a special issue of the literary journal De Gids. The leading research question is: how did authors respond to the projected environmental crisis? Did they agree with the Club of Rome that there were, indeed, limits to growth? What causes of, and solutions for, this crisis did they identify

The very first article of the very first edition of Nederlandse letterkunde in 1996 was an article on poetry. Wiljan van den Akker and Gillis Dorleijn presented an empirical study in which they counted the number of poems that were published in magazines and the number of poetry books that were published in the Netherlands, between 1901 and 1940, by Dutch language poets who were alive at the time. They claim this method enabled them to research the complete production of poetry in that period. However, their choices concerning method and corpus excluded certain types of poetry based on gender, genre, medium and degree of autonomy. Since the publication of their article in 1996, several developments concerning poetry research in the Dutch language area have resulted in a shift from a top-down, book-centric, exclusive and autonomous perspective on poetry, to a bottom-up, media-wide, inclusive and heteronomous perspective on poetry.

In this contribution the last twenty-five years of research concerning early modern Dutch theatre are discussed. Jan Konst argued that research of early modern Dutch theatre up to the year 2000 can be characterised as belonging to a historic paradigm. In this article it is argued that Dutch theatre research of the past two decades has been changing to include more critical reflections of society. It is maintained that this is needed so that theatre-historical research remains relevant in the twenty-first century.

This article investigates new perspectives on ecocriticism through the works of the Flemish poet Dominique De Groen. Taking Timothy Morton’s notion of ‘dark ecology’ as a starting point, it argues that De Groen’s poetry represents a form of anthropocenic writing that exceeds the scope of traditional ecocriticism. Read through the lens of the Anthropocene as both a geological era and an episteme, her writing can shed light on the entanglement between the human subject and its environment that is central to the conceptualisation of the Anthropocene as discourse. It is argued that the discursive dimension of the Anthropocene can be a valuable way to not only broaden our understanding of ecocritical literature, but also to include literary texts focusing on questions of labour, industrialisation, and capitalism in the anthropocenic debate. Samenvatting Dit artikel verkent nieuwe perspectieven op de ecokritiek aan de hand van het werk van de Vlaamse dichter Dominique De Groen. Met Timothy Mortons notie van de donkere ecologie als uitgangspunt wordt er betoogd dat De Groens poezie een vorm van antropocenisch schrijven vertegenwoordigt die buiten het bestek van de traditionele ecokritiek valt. Gelezen door de lens van het idee dat de term 'antropoceen' zowel een geologisch tijdperk als een episteme aanduidt, kan haar werk een nieuw licht werpen op de verwevenheid van het menselijke subject en zijn milieu, een idee dat een grote rol speelt bij de conceptualisering van het antropoceen als discours. Dit artikel maakt inzichtelijk dat het in ogenschouw nemen van de discursieve dimensie van het antropoceen waardevol kan zijn, niet alleen om ons begrip van ecokritische literatuur te verbreden, maar ook om literaire teksten die kwesties van arbeid, industrialisering en kapitalisme thematiseren in het antropoceendebat te betrekken.

Songs aimed at the Dutch youth became a booming business in the Dutch Republic. In contemporary Western culture, such popular songs constitute an important vehicle for expressing youth identities. With regard to the Low Countries, it is this article’s hypothesis that in the booming business of songs composed by and for youngsters – loosely defined here as ‘unmarried young people’ – early stages of these modern processes of identity formation are visible. By exploring this vast and unique corpus and its functionality in the context of the NWO research project ‘Dutch Songs On Line’, this article aims to contribute to the international debate on youth identities, more specifically to the much debated question when ‘adolescence’ as a category was discovered: in the 19th century, or in the early modern era? Building on several trends in the existing literature the first part of this article will offer a framework for the analysis of the identity formation function of the songs for the early modern Dutch youth. The second part is dedicated to a case study: focusing on songs about and for students the potential of this type of research is explored.

During the occupation of the Netherlands by Nazi Germany, the Dutch literary field was drastically restructured and politicized. Immediately after the liberation, efforts were made to rebuild the field. The first step that was made in the reconstruction, was to purge the field of collaborators. This purge was carried out by the Board of Honour for the Letters and the Central Board of Honour for the Arts. This article investigates just how these Boards contributed to the reconstruction of a(n) (relatively) autonomous literary field in the Netherlands. In doing so, it takes recourse to historical sociological theories regarding the legal and deontological responsibility of the writer.

It is commonly maintained that Belgium held less appeal for intellectuals in exile between the two wars than the Netherlands or France. This phenomenon has not been studied in Belgium extensively enough to fully verify or explain it. We do know, however, that a relatively smaller number of Jews were deported from Belgium during the occupation than from the Netherlands or France. Would it be fair to hypothesize, then, that Jewish intellectuals were safer there, or in any event had a better chance of surviving, than in neighbouring countries? Could more survival strategies be deployed in Belgium than elsewhere? My focus in this paper is on Hans Handovsky (1888-1959), a German chemist of Austrian Jewish origin, who emigrated to Ghent in 1934 and returned to Heidelberg in 1957. By examining his letters to the two Flemish writers August Vermeylen and Fernand Toussaint van Boelaere, we can shed light on how he managed to survive the German occupation. We show how the assistance of non-Jewish intellectuals could contribute to saving a Jewish intellectual.

This article discusses the history and relevance of ‘Periodiek’, a section of Nederlandse letterkunde in which two editors would briefly present the articles that were published in other journals on Dutch literature. The section ran from 1996 to 2003. First, this section is compared to overviews of recent publications in other journals; then, the nature and content of ‘Periodiek’ is discussed; and the article concludes with an exploration of what might have caused the end of this section: the improved search methods and access to articles online, or rather the transformations in the widening field of Dutch (literature) studies itself, making it unfeasible to provide relevant information to all readers.

Omnis Determinatio est Negatio. On Habermas, Myth, and Truth With his monumental genealogy of Western philosophy Jurgen Habermas delivers an achievement that is worthy of great praise. In carefully constructed arguments he presents in detail the close connection between, and the mutual indebtedness of, religion and philosophy as they developed in the West for more than two millennia. With regard to the current state of affairs he acknowledges that we should continue to engage with subjects such as purpose, meaningfulness, and how to behave. He proposes that where religion is withdrawing, philosophy should take its place. In spite of its great merits, there are some fundamental shortcomings in the overall image Habermas wishes to convey. By suggesting that Western religion and philosophy have been the major driving forces not only of cognitive but also of ethical progress, he underestimates the moral value of pre-Socratic and other holistic world views that radically differ from the idiosyncratic Western one. For example, he perceives Homer’s mythological thinking as nothing but a primitive state of mind against which the ethical and intellectual progress of later developments could come to the fore. This paper proposes that we should give much more weight to the difference between the ‘cognitive’ and the ‘ethical’ than Habermas does. In principle, as a form of argumentative reasoning, philosophy belongs to the (cognitive) domain of truth. As such, it is not a suitable successor to religion. On the other hand, provided they operate primarily within their own domain – which is the domain of meaningfulness –, religion (in whatever form), literature and the arts, ancient myth, friendship, love, and humour may still be best equipped to sharpen our sense of justice and help us deal with feelings of moral disorientation and fragmentation.

This chapter combines hermeneutic and empirical methods to discuss contemporary minimalist lifestyles – lifestyles that revolve around the reduction of material belongings, mental distraction, and work-life stress. It examines understandings of social and ecological engagement among the advocates and practitioners of minimalist lifestyles in order to explore if and how minimalist lifestyles might promote a societal transition to degrowth. The chapter reveals that minimalists and degrowthers share concern about socio-environmental exploitation and the ideal of a good life under conditions of material sufficiency but that they diverge on their theories of change. To envision an alignment between minimalist lifestyles and degrowth ambitions, the chapter develops the concept of “engaged mindfulness.”

Is historical scholarship compatible with commitment to social values? Do professional historians have particular social responsibilities and if so, how can they best exercise them? These are questions which are chronically open to debate in the light of changing historical circumstances and changing historical practices. In recent years, they have re-emerged as a result of a number of theoretical and cultural developments: the increasing realization that historians 'construct' history in selecting some topics for investigation rather than others; the calls among professionals and non-professionals alike to give priority to the preservation of private and collective 'memories' of the past; the increasing power of the mass media in disseminating views of the past and in thus competing with professional historians.In the light of these developments, the present collection surveys the relationship between historical writing and social values. It aims to stimulate and to inform discussion by clarifying, from a variety of points of view, the theoretical and the practical issues confronting contemporary historians.

In vijf reflecties verkent Hannah Van Hove, vanuit haar eigen schrijf- en onderzoekservaringen, wat het betekent om in het onderzoeksproces de ‘ik’, meestal ogenschijnlijk weggecijferd in academische teksten, te benadrukken. Een centrale vraag bij deze bedenkingen betreft de invloed van de onderzoekservaring zelf op ideeën over taal als methodologisch instrument, wetenschappelijke argumentatie en de waarde van onderzoek.

This essay focuses on the cultural representation of masculinity in times of war. It unravels the gender effects of the topic ‘call to arms’ in which men are addressed as soldiers while women are often relegated to invisibility or to a helping role. Thus, the onset of war creates gender. The topic reconstitution of men and women in times of war is first analysed in a selected corpus of Dutch war poetry (Jan Camperts ‘Het lied der achttien dooden’ (1943) among others), secondly in Michael Curtiz’ classic film Casablanca (1942) and finally in W.F. Hermans’ novel De donkere kamer van Damocles (1958). Cultural texts can create genders, as I am demonstrating through a detailed analysis of Casablanca, but they can also resist this creation and critically enlighten its failure, which is, in my view, the gender scenario of De donkere kamer van Damocles.

Departing from the present need for cultural models within the public debate, this volume offers a new contribution to the study of cultural icons. From the traditional religious icon to the modern mass media icon, from the recognizable visual icon to the complex entanglement of image and collective narratives: The Construction and Dynamics of Cultural Icons offers an overview of existing theories, compares different definitions and proposes a comprehensive view on the icon and the iconic. Focusing in particular on the making of iconic representations and their changing social-cultural meanings through time, scholars from cultural memory studies, art history and literary studies present concrete operationalizations of the ways different types of cultural icons can be studied.

Since the appearance of her early-career bestseller Gender Trouble in 1990, American philosopher Judith Butler is one of the most influential thinkers in academia. Her work addresses numerous socially pertinent topics such as gender normativity, political speech, media representations of war, the democratic power of assembling bodies, and the force of nonviolence. The volume Bodies That Still Matter: Resonances of the Work of Judith Butler brings together essays from scholars across academic disciplines who apply, reflect on, and further Butler’s ideas in their own research. It includes a new essay by Butler herself, from which it takes its title. Organized around four key themes in Butler’s scholarship – performativity, speech, precarity, and assembly – the volume offers an excellent introduction to the contemporary relevance of Butler’s thinking, a multi-perspectival approach to key topics of contemporary critical theory, and a testimony to the vibrant interdisciplinary discourses characterizing much of today’s humanities research.

UNDER BLACK PETE’S SKIN Dark figures around the nineteenth-century Feast of Saint Nicholas The Dutch debate surrounding Black Pete (Zwarte Piet) has become deeply polarized. Proponents as well as opponents of the black assistant of Saint Nicholas base their opinions on his assumed origin. While supporters of Black Pete believe that he originated from pre-Christian traditions, the anti-Black Pete camp is convinced he can be traced back to a world of slavery and racism. This article shows that the present figure of Black Pete is a nineteenth-century amalgamation of different types and traditions. This means that Black Pete cannot be reduced to a single, unambiguous meaning. Therefore, the answer to the question concerning his identity and his alleged racist character must be found in his reception rather than his origin.

In dit artikel tonen we aan de hand van kwalitatieve data aan hoe talige praktijken met sprekers en artiesten uit drie steden in de periferie van Nederland en België, namelijk Tilburg, Heerlen en Genk een lokale identiteit construeren en reproduceren en hoe op die manier het besef van lokale eigenheid tot stand komt. We laten zien dat in deze drie steden artiesten en sprekers aan de hand van geënsceneerde en gemediatiseerde taalprakijken bewust nieuwe lokale identiteiten construeren. In de drie gevallen gaat het om hybride of heterogene taalprakijken, waarbij het Nederlands of lokale dialectale elementen gecombineerd worden met elementen uit andere aanwezige (contact)talen (zoals het Surinaams of het Italiaans). Bovendien worden deze taalpraktijken in Tilburg en Heerlen, maar ook ‐ hoewel in mindere mate ‐ voor Genk, via parodie verspreid, versterkt en vernieuwd. ispartof: Taal en Tongval vol:70 issue:2 pages:149-177 status: published

co-authored column that voices a critique of the ubiquitous use of the notion of super diversity, esp. in social policy and social work, and proposes intersectionality as a more critical analytical tool

Lyric Address in Dutch Literature, 1250-1800 provides accessible and comprehensive readings of ten Dutch lyrical poems, discussing each poem's historical context, revealing its political or ideological framing, religious elements, or the self-representational interests of the poet. The book focuses on how the use of the speaker's "I" creates distance or proximity to the social context of the time. Close, detailed analysis of rhetorical techniques, such as the use of the apostrophe, illuminates the ways in which poetry reveals tensions in society.

This article reflects on today’s ‘technostalgic’ trend in media culture by examining the various ways in which Super 8 film as a media technology from the past is re-appropriated and remediated in contemporary memory practices. By looking specifically at restorative and reflective forms of technostalgia manifest in the project BYE BYE SUPER 8 – IN LOVING MEMORY OF KODACHROME (2011) and the digital smartphone app iSupr8 (2011), the author explores how in contemporary memory practices media technologies not only construct and mediate memories but have also become the objects of memory themselves. While analysing this double mnemonic process – accounting for both the memory construction by the media technology and the reminiscence of the media technology itself – it is argued that we currently witness a new kind of memory practice enforcing an attentive shift from technologies of memory to a memory of technologies.