Dutch Literature

Hamlet

Hamlet

Reader
Edited to take out my poor humour now the moment has passed. Don't write funny when you have a flu. It doens't work.
 
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Polly Parrot

Polly Parrot

Reader
Great Britain said:
Anne Frank's schoolmates still looked like this: View attachment 473

A lot has changed though since she started off Dutch literature.
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Unlikely. It wasn't all clogs early 20th century, it was more like this:
2428742


And whatever made you think that Anne Frank started off Dutch literature?
 
GoJohnnyGo

GoJohnnyGo

New member
peter_d said:
Seriously. Could one of the moderators open a Holland bashing thread in the general section for John? His comments have been tolerated long enough now in the serious threads, I believe. They were sometimes in the beginning. But not anymore now.
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Go and read your Xaviera Hollander
 
GoJohnnyGo

GoJohnnyGo

New member
Eric said:
But part of the reason that some Dutch writers get promoted is the lasting guilt about collaboration with the enemy during the German Nazi occupation during WWII. So efforts to promote the youngish Jewish gay writer Arnon Grunberg, now living in New York, as I believe, achieves three goals: a) showing that the Dutch love Jews; b) showing that the Dutch love gays; c) showing that the Dutch love America. Whether this love-in is skin-deep or profound is hard to tell. A chap I met in the pub yesterday, a Peruvian exile, summed up the Dutch using a short phrase I have now forgotten but was something like "friendly arrogance" or similar. The tragedy about Dutch literature, as I have grumbled about on many occasions, is that its promotion reflects a kind of mercantile mentality, i.e. it must be sold as a product. And most foreign readers don't want to have books pushed down their throats by national propagandists who "know" they are right. One of Thomas Mann's figures of fun was just such a bumptious knowall, Mijnheer Peeperkorn in "Magic Mountain". But deep down, the Dutch are highly insecure about the quality of their literature and agonise about the tedium of Protestant church domination, which then swings to the other extreme with people writing mildly, or not so mildly, pornographic novels.
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This sums up the Dutch well imo. Why would they promote Arnon Grunberg in the first place?
 
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B

Bernadette

Publisher
Oh dear, well if you want a taste of wonderful Dutch literature come to the Dutch Centre, 7 Austin Friars London EC2N 2HA, on 24 October at 7pm. Lloyd Haft, American-born Dutch poet, writer and translator & sinologist, will talk about translating one of the poems Gerrit Kouwenaar.

Gerrit Kouwenaar, born in 1923, is arguably the greatest living Dutch poet. He no longer travels but his poetry does. He has won all the major Dutch language poetry and literature prizes including, in 1970, the PC Hooft Prize for his entire oeuvre, and, in 1989, the Dutch Literature Prize again for his entire oeuvre.

He inspired many poets and this is how he puts it: ‘Art only deals with a couple of simple themes: life, death, injustice, beauty. You want to create something that will withstand time. Nothing is present forever. A good work of art has been stolen from time, it has outwitted merciless time.’

Tickets are £5, conc. £3, available at the door, or through booking via www.dutchcentre.com and you can also reserve tickets by email: bernadette@hollandparkpress.co.uk

More information is available from: http://hollandparkpress.co.uk/magazine_detail.php?magazine_id=273&language=English
 
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Bernd

Guest
We at world literature forum don't believe the Dutch propaganda anymore, Bernadette. Gerrit really has to come up with some world-class poetry.
 
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Patrick Murtha

Patrick Murtha

Reader
Patrick Murtha said:
Martin Seymour-Smith is very enthusiastic about van Schendel. I count that five of his novels have been translated into English:

Grey Birds
The House in Haarlem
The ‘Johanna Maria’
John Company
The Waterman
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Finally got around to John Company, and it is first-rate. It is “impersonal” in the sense that the Dutch East India Company of the 17th Century is the protagonist, and not any individual. Van Schendel’s approach is original, he gives a comparatively dry and objective-sounding account of “goings-on” in Dutch Indonesia without any conventional plot as such. John Company is not like other novels, and all the better for it.
 
Stevie B

Stevie B

Current Member
Patrick Murtha said:
Finally got around to John Company, and it is first-rate. It is “impersonal” in the sense that the Dutch East India Company of the 17th Century is the protagonist, and not any individual. Van Schendel’s approach is original, he gives a comparatively dry and objective-sounding account of “goings-on” in Dutch Indonesia without any conventional plot as such. John Company is not like other novels, and all the better for it.
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Van Schendel looks like a student's worst nightmare for a headmaster.
1664164806994.png
 
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Ben Jackson

Well-known member
Haven't read a Dutch writer, but since Mulisch and Noteboom are highly praised, I think I will start with them and maybe add Stefan Hertmans.
 
wordeater

wordeater

Well-known member
The literature in my first language deserves some attention. Apart from Anne Frank literature in Dutch doesn't get much international recognition. This is a pity, because there have been some great writers who are worth discovering. Early works of importance are the poetic fable Van den Vos Reynaerde (13th century) and the plays by Joost van den Vondel (17th century).

In the Netherlands there were poets like Piet Paaltjens and Herman Gorter. Several novelists have produced major works. Multatuli and Hella Haasse wrote about the East Indian colony, today's Indonesia. Harry Mulisch found inspiration in his teenage years during World War II, and treated heavy topics like philosophy, religion and history. He's one of the "Great Three", next to Hermans and Reve. For younger people there are the children's books by Annie M. G. Schmidt and the teenage adventures by Jan Terlouw and Thea Beckman. Here's a list of some of the best Dutch novels available in English translation:

1860 Multatuli - Max Havelaar
1894 Marcellus Emants - A Posthumous Confession [Een Nagelaten Bekentenis]
1918 Nescio - Little Titans [Titaantjes]
1947 Gerard Reve - The Evenings [De Avonden]
1948 Hella Haasse - Oeroeg
1951 Simon Vestdijk - Ivory Guardians [Ivoren Wachters]
1953 Annie M. G. Schmidt - Jip and Janneke [Jip en Janneke]
1958 W. F. Hermans - The Darkroom of Damocles [De Donkere Kamer van Damokles]
1969 Jan Wolkers - Turkish Delight [Turks Fruit]
1972 Jan Terlouw - Winter in Wartime [Oorlogswinter]
1973 Thea Beckman - Crusade in Jeans [Kruistocht in Spijkerbroek]
1982 Harry Mulisch - The Assault [De Aanslag]
1992 Harry Mulisch - The Discovery of Heaven [De Ontdekking van de Hemel]
1993 Tessa de Loo - The Twins [De Tweeling]

In Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, there is more. Important poets were the priest Guido Gezelle and the modernist Paul Van Ostaijen. The three major prose writers were Elsschot, Boon and Claus. Elsschot wrote clever short novels and novellas in a concise style. Boon was an innovator who wrote about social injustice, but who also treated perverted themes. Claus found much inspiration in the period around World War II, with all its political implications. Also worth mentioning is the magical realism of Lampo. Here are some important novels that were translated into English:

1907 Stijn Streuvels - The Flaxfield [De Vlaschaard]
1933 Willem Elsschot - Cheese [Kaas]
1953 Louis Paul Boon - Chapel Road [De Kapellekensbaan]
1960 Hubert Lampo - The Coming of Joachim Stiller [De Komst van Joachim Stiller]
1962 Hugo Claus - Wonder [De Verwondering]
1978 Ward Ruyslinck - The Reservation [Het Reservaat]
1982 Hugo Claus - Het Verdriet van België [The Sorrow of Belgium]
2002 Kristien Hemmerechts - Thursday Afternoon. Half Past Four. [Donderdagmiddag. Halfvier.]

Hopefully this stimulates people to read some of these authors of the Low Countries.
 
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Leseratte

Leseratte

Well-known member
wordeater said:
The literature in my first language deserves some attention. Apart from Anne Frank literature in Dutch doesn't get much international recognition. This is a pity, because there have been some great writers who are worth discovering. Early works of importance are the poetic fable Van den Vos Reynaerde (13th century) and the plays by Joost van den Vondel (17th century).

In the Netherlands there were poets like Piet Paaltjens and Herman Gorter. Several novelists have produced major works. Multatuli and Hella Haasse wrote about the East Indian colony, today's Indonesia. Harry Mulisch found inspiration in his teenage years during World War II, and treated heavy topics like philosophy, religion and history. He's one of the "Great Three", next to Hermans and Reve. For younger people there are the children's books by Annie M. G. Schmidt and the teenage adventures by Jan Terlouw and Thea Beckman. Here's a list of some of the best Dutch novels available in English translation:

1860 Multatuli - Max Havelaar
1894 Marcellus Emants - A Posthumous Confession [Een Nagelaten Bekentenis]
1918 Nescio - Little Titans [Titaantjes]
1947 Gerard Reve - The Evenings [De Avonden]
1948 Hella Haasse - Oeroeg
1951 Simon Vestdijk - Ivory Guardians [Ivoren Wachters]
1953 Annie M. G. Schmidt - Jip and Janneke [Jip en Janneke]
1958 W. F. Hermans - The Darkroom of Damocles [De Donkere Kamer van Damokles]
1969 Jan Wolkers - Turkish Delight [Turks Fruit]
1972 Jan Terlouw - Winter in Wartime [Oorlogswinter]
1973 Thea Beckman - Crusade in Jeans [Kruistocht in Spijkerbroek]
1982 Harry Mulisch - The Assault [De Aanslag]
1992 Harry Mulisch - The Discovery of Heaven [De Ontdekking van de Hemel]
1993 Tessa de Loo - The Twins [De Tweeling]

In Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, there is more. Important poets were the priest Guido Gezelle and the modernist Paul Van Ostaijen. The three major prose writers were Elsschot, Boon and Claus. Elsschot wrote clever short novels and novellas in a concise style. Boon was an innovator who wrote about social injustice, but who also treated perverted themes. Claus found much inspiration in the period around World War II, with all its political implications. Also worth mentioning is the magical realism of Lampo. Here are some important novels that were translated into English:

1907 Stijn Streuvels - The Flaxfield [De Vlaschaard]
1933 Willem Elsschot - Cheese [Kaas]
1953 Louis Paul Boon - Chapel Road [De Kapellekensbaan]
1960 Hubert Lampo - The Coming of Joachim Stiller [De Komst van Joachim Stiller]
1962 Hugo Claus - Wonder [De Verwondering]
1978 Ward Ruyslinck - The Reservation [Het Reservaat]
1982 Hugo Claus - Het Verdriet van België [The Sorrow of Belgium]
2002 Kristien Hemmerechts - Thursday Afternoon. Half Past Four. [Donderdagmiddag. Halfvier.]

Hopefully this stimulates people to read some of these authors of the Low Countries.
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I read Het dwaallicht by Elsschot and liked it and there is a Multatuli book on my TBR list.
 
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Ben Jackson

Well-known member
I willl try as much as possible to tackle Nooteboom, Mulisch, Claus and Paul Boon next year, as the four writers were considered for Nobel.
 
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