BiblioVault - Books about Dutch literature

Dutch is Beautiful

Fifty Years of Dutch and Flemish Studies at the University of Michigan

Ton Broos, Annemarie Toebosch, and Karla Vandersypen

Michigan Publishing Services, 2019

Dutch is Beautiful tells the story of the fifty years of Dutch and Flemish Studies at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. It is an account of the efforts to promote Dutch and Flemish culture and language, as well as a description of how the teaching of Dutch language, literature, history and culture can be a tool to look at a world of diverse identities. It also offers a comprehensive overview of the beginnings of a successful program that included Dutch writers-in-residence, visiting Netherlands professors, cultural and educational events, arts, music, films, conferences and publications. Several alumni of the program look back at their college years with appreciation. Articles and essays on history, Anne Frank, and conversations on colonialism discuss critical and educational views on Dutch and Flemish Studies in past, present and future, when diversity, equity and inclusion are important goals and objectives, and public scholarship and academic activism will be a larger part of the curriculum. This book will inform, entertain, stimulate and impress everyone who is interested in the culture of the Low Countries. The title says it all!

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A Family Occupation

Children of the War and the Memory of World War II in Dutch Literature of the 1980s

Jolanda Vaderwal Taylor

Amsterdam University Press, 1997

Many of today's Dutch writers were children during World War II. Even today, the traumatic childhood experience of enemy occupation is still central to the work of many of them. This interest cuts across the traditional boundaries between fiction, autobiography and the literature of trauma and recovery. A Family Occupation is the first English-language introduction to Dutch-language texts written by and about the 'Children of the War' and their cultural context. Their themes and literary conventions throw an interesting light on the Dutch approach to issues such as guilt and innocence, memory and narrative, national identity, child abuse and victimhood.

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Language, Literature and the Construction of a Dutch National Identity (1780-1830)

Edited by Rick Honings, Gijsbert Rutten, and Ton van Kalmthout

Amsterdam University Press, 2018

In exploring the birth of a Dutch identity between 1780 and 1830, this book integrates nationalism studies with literary and linguistic history by highlighting scholarly study of the Dutch language as a factor in the creation of the national identity. These early scholars promoted the Dutch language during a time of political upheaval, when citizens needed something to feel proud of. This book examines the impact individual agents had on a crucial stage in the Dutch nation-building process.

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New Germans, New Dutch

Literary Interventions

Liesbeth Minnaard

Amsterdam University Press, 2009

In the globalised world of today, traditional definitions of national Self and national Other no longer hold. The unmistakable transformation of German and Dutch societies demands a thorough rethinking of national boundaries on several levels. This book examines how literature of migration intervenes in public discourses on multiculturality in Germany and the Netherlands, epitomised in the strikingly parallel debates on the ‘German Leitkultur’ and the Dutch ‘multicultural drama’ in the year 2000. By juxtaposing detailed analyses of literary work by the Turkish-German writers Emine Sevgi Özdamar and Feridun Zaimoglu and the Moroccan-Dutch writers Abdelkader Benali and Hafid Bouazza, New Germans, New Dutch offers crucial insights into the specific ways in which this literature negotiates its national context of writing. This book demonstrates how German literature of migration seeks alternative forms of community outside the national parameters, whereas the Dutch literature negotiates difference and re-imagines Dutchness within the national framework.

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North Sea Crossings

The Literary Heritage of Anglo-Dutch Relations 1066–1688

Sjoerd Levelt and Ad Putter

Bodleian Library Publishing, 2022

North Sea Crossings sheds new light on the literature and art of a pivotal period in European history by exploring the cultural relationship between speakers of Dutch and speakers of English in England and the Dutch Low Countries.

This richly illustrated book tells the story of cultural exchange between the people of the Low Countries and England in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, revealing how Anglo-Dutch connections changed the literary landscape on both sides of the North Sea.

Ranging from the Norman Conquest of 1066 to the “Glorious Revolution” of 1688, North Sea Crossings uncovers the lasting impact of contacts and collaborations between Dutch and English speakers on historical writing, map-making, manuscript production, and early printing. The literary heritage of Anglo-Dutch relations is explored and lavishly illustrated through a unique collection of manuscripts, early prints, maps, and other treasures from the Bodleian Library.

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