Literature of the Low Countries

A Short History of Dutch Literature in the Netherlands and Belgium

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For Edith

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Preface

In any definition of terms, Dutch literature must be taken to mean all literature written in Dutch, thus excluding literature in Frisian, even though Friesland is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, in the same way as literature in Welsh would be excluded from a history of English literature. Similarly, literature in Afrikaans (South African Dutch) falls outside the scope of this book, as Afrikaans from the moment of its birth out of seventeenth-century Dutch grew up independently and must be regarded as a language in its own right.

Dutch literature, then, is the literature written in Dutch as spoken in the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the so-called Flemish part of the Kingdom of Belgium, that is the area north of the linguistic frontier which runs east-west through Belgium passing slightly south of Brussels. For the modern period this definition is clear anough, but for former times it needs some explanation. What do we mean, for example, when we use the term ‘Dutch’ for the medieval period? In the Middle Ages there was no standard Dutch language, and when the term ‘Dutch’ is used in a medieval context it is a kind of collective word indicating a number of different but closely related Frankish dialects. The most important of those were the dialects of the duchies of Limburg and Brabant, and of the counties of Flanders and Holland. The term ‘Holland’ itself can be confusing as it may refer to the present-day Kingdom of the Netherlands but also to the medieval county or the later province of Holland. In this

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book the term ‘Holland’ will be used to refer to the county or province, the term ‘the Netherlands’ when referring to what is now the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The term ‘Low Countries’ will be used when reference is made to the combined territories of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Kingdom of Belgium.

The plan of the book is the simplest possible: a chronological narrative divided into periods of a century. For a first introduction to a literature this arrangement, however crude, has advantages over a subtler division into short periods and over arrangements according to genres or generations of writers.

The book is presented as a history of literature, and a short one at that. This starting-point placed limitations on its scope and led to treatment of only the most important writers. Although the selection is a fairly conventional one, it has been made in full awareness of the fact that no-one can escape his own preferences. Also, since history is normally understood to deal with the past, the temptation to include a running commentary on what is being written in the Netherlands and Belgium at the present time, has been resisted. Time, the much maligned anthologist, will have to do its work first.

The absence of footnotes does not imply a claim to originality. My indebtedness to Dutch literary scholarship in general can best be expressed by stating that if acknowledgment had been made wherever it was due, the notes would have become unwieldy.

Special thanks are due to Professor Jacob Smit, Dorothea R. Coverlid and Elizabeth Meijer-Mollison who read the manuscript and who are responsible for many improvements.

It remains to thank the Minister for Culture, Recreation and Social Work of the Netherlands for commissioning the book, and the Australian Humanities Research Council, now the Australian Academy of the Humanities, for awarding a Myer Foundation Research Grant for short-term study leave in the Netherlands.