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In the Anthropocene, the era in which humans dominate the ecosystems, Charlotte Mutsaers, a Dutch writer and artist, uses her works (literature and paintings) to shift the anthropocentric narrative towards animals. Barbara Fraipont’s book, Mutsaers en andere dieren: Naar een diergerichte benadering in de Nederlandse letterkunde (2023), explores the representation of animals in Mutsaers works. The study examines the presence of animals as a central theme and critical paradigm in Mutsaers’ oeuvre. The book’s accessible structure and rich theoretical background make it a significant contribution to animal studies in Dutch literature.

In her book Anders dan de anderen (2024), Mary Kemperink investigates the evolution of the concept of homosexuality through a detailed analysis of both literary and medical texts. Although less widely recognized, scientific inquiry into homosexuality began to emerge around the mid-nineteenth century. Kemperink elucidates the reciprocal influence between literature and medical theories, exploring how literary works contributed to the formation of scientific concepts related to homosexuality. Her research draws on a diverse range of literary and scientific sources, providing fresh insights into the social and intellectual dynamics of homosexuality’s representation in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This approach not only reveals the historical and social context of homosexuality but also underscores the pivotal role of cultural artifacts in shaping societal attitudes.

Franciszek Ksawery Bohusz (1746–1820) was an educated clergyman who travelled across Europe between 1777 and 1778. During his travels, he also visited the Low Countries. During the expedition, he kept a diary, which he carefully compiled after returning home. The article answers the question about Bohusz’s way of portraying the Dutch reality against the background of earlier (mainly 17th-century) and contemporary (to him) accounts by Polish travellers. The imagological reflection used therein makes it possible to show continuity as well as change. Bohusz was concerned with what his predecessors had been interested in – architecture, works of art, people and their customs. In these parts, his diary does not differ from the memoirs of other travellers from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth a hundred or two hundred years ago and confirms the persistence of the stereotypical image of the Dutch in the Polish world view. However, new elements dominate. Franciszek Bohusz paid much more attention to legal, economic and social matters. In the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, he was primarily concerned with political issues, especially the principle of unanimous voting. He reports with great interest on the local economy and trade, describing in detail the factories he saw and the canal-based waterway system, which he found excellent. He was also surprised to note that such a rich country struggled with the problem of poverty. He also described the methods employed by the local authorities to combat it. As a clergyman, he was interested in the worship of the various confessions whose services he attended. An interesting novelty of his writing stems from his sensitivity the arts and a certain painterly perception of reality.

The “Declaration of the letter of the Kraków Voivode, delivered among the people in Stężyca”, the authorship of which is attributed to Szczęsny Kryski, states the following: “If you so chastise Machiavel’s teachings that one ought to reign judiciously, I do not know if it will please you should the noble-born rise up against the king and the peasants against the noble-born, and, having slaughtered the noble-born, the peasants themselves should rule, as had unfolded in Holland; for such ‘Regestra’ were left by William to Maurice”. The passage refers to William I of Orange and the Dutch Revolt (1568–1648). During this insurrection, an armed conflict broke out between the Protestant population of the Low Countries and Spain. The conflict was widely considered as a religious war. In my article, I will analyse why Szczęsny Kryski, in the “Declaration of the letter of the Kraków Voivode, delivered among the people in Stężyca” (approx. 1606–1607), alluded to the Eighty Years’ War and William I of Orange, referring to Niccolò Machiavelli. I will also show why this Dutch Revolt was generally condemned in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

This article examines D.G. Jelgersma’s presentation of Francis Bacon and Thomas Hobbes to late 19th-century Dutch readers and investigates the presence of these ideas in the 19th-century Dutch socio-political discourse. In his contributions “Francis Bacon” and “Thomas Hobbes”, which were printed in De Nieuwe Gids – a periodical meant to express the views of the Dutch literary avant-garde of the 1880s – Jelgersma attempts to define the origins and development of ervaringswijsbegeerte (empirical philosophy). Published in a review whose main objective was to renew not only Dutch literature and culture but also the nation’s social and political spheres, Jelgersma’s articles are not free from ideology. Both texts show that Bacon’s and Hobbes’ ideas were current in the contemporary discussions of scientific, social, political, and theological issues in the 19th-century Netherlands. All the same, Jelgersma’s presentation of the material was not entirely unbiased since the author, who made contributions to the Tachtigers’ literary review designed for the ‘literary revival’ public, could not but share at least some of their revolutionary beliefs.

This article tries to answer the question: what happens when the fabric of literary allusions, adopted or translated elements, intertexts that occur in the original literary texts are transferred into another language? How do literary translators deal with this phenomenon, what strategies do they use to transpose the intertextuality they have identified into the target language? Finally, the question arises whether translators themselves occasionally insert intertextual elements into the translated text that did not appear in the original. Based on a number of case studies and my own experiences as a literary translator, I aim to identify these issues, classify the possible translation strategies.

The reception of literary translation can be seen as a space of intercultural encounter. As a complex phenomenon, it should be studied by referring to various testimonies, in which we can include the translation itself and newspaper articles. The analysis of these documents allows us to visualise the reception of a single work or the author’s entire presence in a given culture. The aim of this article is to examine the Polish translation and reception of Conrad Detrez’s novel L’herbe à brûler (A Weed for Burning) published in 1978 (in Polish: Wrzucić w ogień jak zielsko, published in 1987, translated by Ewa Gryczko). Detrez is one of the most important writers of the Belgitude period. In his work, many references to the complicated social situation in Belgium and the disputes between the Walloons and the Flemish can be found. Our analysis showed that Polish literary criticism has not paid attention to this aspect of Detrez’s novels and the translation techniques used do not help the Polish reader to understand Belgium’s complex political and social situation.

This article contributes to the emergent study of the representation of masculinity in Dutch fiction by focusing on the construction of masculinity in five female-authored novels from the late nineteenth century. The analysis is guided by the assumption that female constructions of male characters are to be read as ideological interventions in gender and wider political debates. The focus of this contribution is on novels negotiating contemporary political movements such as the feminist movement, the socialist movement and the anti-revolutionary movement. Their male protagonists participate in these movements and present aspects of a new type of masculinity in the public sphere, which allows for a greater emotional investment in politics. The novels reflect on the opportunities and pitfalls this new construction of masculinity opens up. In general, the novels welcome masculine sensitivity while demonstrating that emotional investment and indulgence should be carefully kept in check both in the public and the private sphere.

The article will be divided into three parts: the genesis of cycling culture in the Netherlands, a short history of cycling mobility at the turn of the 20th century; cultural, social and political sources of Dutch cycling culture, and new prospects of cycling culture/mobility in the Netherlands. The text is intended to be, among other things, an attempt to find an answer to where the phenomenon of Dutch cycling culture comes from.

The article reviews the latest book by Wendy Wauters De geuren van de kathedraal. De overweldigende 16de eeuw in Antwerpen. The author analyses the sacred space of the Gothic cathedral (full of art objects) through the possible experience of a common churchgoer in the 16th century. This historical book, intended for a broad audience, is based on the author’s doctoral thesis. Wauters uses historical anecdotes, presented in chronological order, to guide the reader through the history of the church, the city, and the reconstruction of the multisensory experience. The author’s literary style renders the imagined experience of the late-medieval church easily accessible to readers. The book challenges the common understandings of Gothic architecture: it introduces the idea of the Gothic church as a ‘memory palace’ (geheugenpaleis) instead of the Gesamtkunstwerk. The research method of Wauters leans on the ‘lived religion-approach’ but also includes other contemporary movements such as animal studies or the study of medievalism.

The circulation of money in the Czech lands was significantly changed by the influx of Dutch gold and silver trade coins. Like in many other European countries, silver thalers and gold ducats became a common part of the payment system. The paper deals with the structure and size of the Dutch coinage in Bohemian and Moravian coin finds deposited in the first half of the 17th century and its nominal composition. Attention is also paid to the geographical origin of individual coins in the broader context of the Dutch struggle for independence and their function in the global bullion trade.