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In this paper we consider Vondel's tragedy "Lucifer" in translation and its adaptation and transformation dynamics. This international success story is quite exceptional in Dutch literature and in the theatre of the Golden Age, which seldom functioned outside the Dutch-speaking area. We address "Lucifer"’s continuing appeal: its awkward, controversial canonical status in the Low Countries, its circulation across time, space and cultural barriers and its transcultural memory potential. We particularly concentrate on "Lucifer"’s canonicity and reception dynamics between the nineteenth and the twentieth century: in the confessionalised Dutch cultural memory; in Germany, a neighbouring country with close relations with the Dutch cultural space and which has a certain cross-national intercourse with it; in South Africa and the Dutch Indies, two contexts which were geographically remote but closely related to the Dutch one. We do this within the theoretical frameworks of cultural memory, cultural transfer and Translation Studies.

This paper aims to show that Jacob Grimm’s correspondence with Dutch and Belgian colleagues clearly demonstrates that Jacob Grimm and his fellow Dutch and Belgian researchers (such as H. van Wijn, H.W. Tydeman, the Society for Dutch Literature and J.F. Willems) shared an interest in specific Dutch literary works as well as in Dutch literature in general. Moreover, in his letters Jacob Grimm presents himself as an extramural pioneer of the promotion of Dutch language and literature. The correspondence can be considered both as part of a public activity and a stimulus for his Dutch and Belgian partners. The article is part of a project financed by the German Science Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) about correspondence as part of the history of humanity in the nineteenth century. With approximately 300 letters, it reveals intense contacts between Jacob (and Wilhelm) and about forty colleagues in the Netherlands and in Belgium, but also their common goals.

Partendo dalla censura applicata alla tragedia Lucifero dopo due sole messe in scena (nel 1654), a causa della presenza sul palco (che rappresentava il cielo) di attori che impersonavo degli angeli (in carne e ossa!), nel contributo mi soffermo sul potenziale sovversivo della performance, ben messo in luce dall'autore Vondel stesso nella prefazione. Tale potenziale venne sfruttato appieno solo a partire dal XX secolo, quando registi "moderni", non più legati a un'idea di teatro realistico-illusionistica, accettarono di confrontarsi con quest'opera: sia in Olanda (su tutti Royaards e Croiset) che all'estero (agli Champs-Elysées nel 1927 e a Milano nel 1999).