The Low Countries. Jaargang 9

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Publication

 

This ninth yearbook is published by the Flemish-Netherlands Foundation ‘Stichting Ons Erfdeel’, with the support of the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (Zoetermeer) and the Flemish Ministry of Culture (Brussels).

 

The Foundation ‘Stichting Ons Erfdeel’ also publishes the Dutch-language periodical Ons Erfdeel and the French-language periodical Septentrion. Arts, lettres et culture de Flandre et des Pays-Bas, the bilingual yearbook De Franse Nederlanden - Les Pays-Bas Français and a series of books in several languages covering various aspects of the culture of the Low Countries.

 

The Board of Directors of ‘Stichting Ons Erfdeel’

 

President: Philip Houben

 

Managing Director: Jozef Deleu

 

Directors: Herman Balthazar / Jan Bosselaers / Marcel Cockaerts / Annemarie Deleu-Deblaere / Jan Desmyter / Luc Devoldere / Vaast Leysen / Cecile Maeyaert-Cambien / Aad Nuis / Adriaan van der Staay / Cees van der Velden / Ludo Verhoeven / Adriaan Verhulst

 

Honorary President: Raf Renard

 

Address of the Editorial Board and the Administration

 

‘Stichting Ons Erfdeel’, Murissonstraat 260, 8930 Rekkem, Flanders, Belgium

tel. +32 56 41 12 01

fax +32 56 41 47 07

url http://www.onserfdeel.be

 

Head of Administration: Bernard Viaene

Administrative Secretaries: Adinda Houttekier / Hans Verhaeghe

 

Aims

 

With The Low Countries the editors and publisher aim to present to the English-speaking world the culture and society of the Dutch-speaking area which embraces both the Kingdom of the Netherlands and also Flanders, the northern part of the Kingdom of Belgium.

 

The articles in this yearbook survey the living, contemporary culture of the Low Countries as well as their cultural heritage. In its words and pictures The Low Countries provides information about literature and the arts, but also about broad social and historical developments in Flanders and the Netherlands.

 

The culture of Flanders and the Netherlands is not an isolated phenomenon; its development over the centuries has been one of continuous interaction with the outside world. In consequence the yearbook also pays due attention to the centuries-old continuing cultural interplay between the Low Countries and the world beyond their borders.

 

By drawing attention to the diversity, vitality and international dimension of the culture of Flanders and the Netherlands, The Low Countries hopes to contribute to a lively dialogue between differing cultures.

 

issn 0779-5815

isbn 90-75862-54-7

nugi 601

 

Copyright © 2001 ‘Stichting Ons Erfdeel’ Printed by Die Keure, Bruges, Flanders, Belgium

 

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the prior permission of the copyright holder.

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The Low Countries

 

Cover: Eugène Laermans, ‘Exodus’, central panel of The Emigrants (detail). 1896. Canvas, 159 × 224 cm. Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp.

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TLC 9

The Low Countries

ARTS AND SOCIETY IN FLANDERS AND THE NETHERLANDS

Published by the

Flemish-Netherlands Foundation ‘Stichting Ons Erfdeel’, 2001

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Editorial Board

 

Chief Editor: Jozef Deleu

 

Deputy Editors: Luc Devoldere, Frits Niessen, Reinier Salverda

 

Secretary: Filip Matthijs

 

Members: Dirk van Assche, Anton Korteweg, Hans Vanacker

 

Design and Picture Editor: Kees Nieuwenhuijzen

 

Advisory Committee

 

Fred G.H. Bachrach, Twickenham, United Kingdom

E.M. Beekman, Amherst, ma, usa

André Brink, Cape Town, South Africa

Christopher Brown, Oxford, United Kingdom

Bram Buijze, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Patricia Carson, Ghent, Belgium

Jan Deloof, Zwevegem, Belgium

Theo D'haen, Leiden, The Netherlands

Bruce C. Donaldson, Melbourne, Australia

Charles Ford, London, United Kingdom

Amy Golahny, Williamsport, pa, usa

Jaap Harskamp, London, United Kingdom

Adrian van den Hoven, Windsor, Ontario, Canada

Jonathan Israel, Princeton, nj, usa

E.H. Kossmann, Groningen, The Netherlands

Frank Ligtvoet, New York, ny, usa

Hans van Marle, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Martin Mooij, Capelle a / d IJssel, The Netherlands

Arnold J. Pomerans, Colchester, United Kingdom

Ethel Portnoy, The Hague, The Netherlands

Paul R. Sellin, Los Angeles, ca, usa

William Z. Shetter, Bloomington, in, usa

Johan P. Snapper, Berkeley, ca, usa

Kees Snoek, Dordrecht, The Netherlands

Paul Vincent, London, United Kingdom

Leo Vroman, Fort Worth, tx, usa

Rudi Wester, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

John Willemse, Pretoria, South Africa

Michael J. Wintle, Hull, United Kingdom

Manfred Wolf, San Francisco, ca, usa

Joanna Woodall, London, United Kingdom

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Contents

Low Countries, Host Countries?
11	Foreword
12	Luc Devoldere
A Convenient Desert The Low Countries as a Refuge for the Spirit
Extracts and Poems by René Descartes, Benedictus de Spinoza, Charlotte Brontë, Victor Hugo, Charles Baudelaire, Klaus Mann, W.H. Auden, Irmgard Keun, L.P.J. Braat, Jean Améry, R.P. Cleveringa, Willem Elsschot, Györgi Konrád and Josse de Pauw
54	Désirée Schyns
Between Descent and Destiny Intercultural Authors in the Netherlands
Extracts and Poems by Hafid Bouazza, Mustafa Stitou and Vera Illés
66	Kader Abdolah
And then in that Low Country
73	Rudolf Boehm
Half a Century of Belgium
78	Anil Ramdas
The Enigma of Arrival
89	Moses Isegawa
Jackfruit and Dry Mushrooms
94	Marc Hooghe
Borders of Hospitality The Difficult Birth of a Multicultural Society

 

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108	Martha Hollander
Space, Light, Order The Paintings of Pieter de Hooch
116	Rob van Ginkel
Discourses on Dutchness
124	Filip Rogiers
Past Imperfect, Present Continuous Belgian Current Affairs in Flemish Literature
Extracts by Hugo Claus and Chris de Stoop
135	Elsbeth Etty
‘Auntie Yet’ and Humanity The Internationalism of Henriette Roland Holst
A Poem by Henriette Roland Holst
143	Filip Matthijs
Messalina or Salomé? The Life and Times of Mata Hari, International Woman of Mystery
155	Marc Reynebeau
Africa Is Very Far Away Belgium and its Colonial Past in Congo
164	Jan Berkouwer
Robin Hood in the Polders? Poverty in the Netherlands and the Western World
172	Marjoleine de Vos
I Faced Love The Work of Toon Tellegen
A Story and Four Poems by Toon Tellegen
179	Lauran Toorians
Portrait of the Child as Sitter Children of a Golden Age
190	Saskia Bak
The Wry Aesthetics of Co Westerik
197	Bart Vervaeck
In the Belly of the Boa The Work of Peter Verhelst
Three Poems and Two Extracts by Peter Verhelst
207	Marc Ruyters
The Turd as Be-All and End-All of the Cosmos The Work of Patrick van Caeckenbergh
212	Jeroen Vullings
To their Downfall, Eyes Wide Shut About the Novels of Thomas Rosenboom
Extract from ‘Public Works’ by Thomas Rosenboom
219	Michel Bakker
Many Waters to Bridge Bridges in the Netherlands
231	Jan W. de Vries
Vigour and Flexibility Recent Developments in the Dutch Language

 

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239	Jozef Deleu
‘Printed matter bursting with question marks’ Fifteen Contemporary Poems
Poems by K. Michel, Hugo Claus, Frank Koenegracht, Lut de Block, Leonard Nolens, Eva Gerlach, Peter Holvoet-Hanssen, Esther Jansma, Miriam Van hee, C.O. Jellema, Gwy Mandelinck, Hagar Peeters, Piet Gerbrandy, Stefan Hertmans and Leo Vroman
250	Erik Martens
The Long and the Short of It Short Film in Flanders
257	Koen Vergeer
Riposte to Death Esther Jansma's Poetry
Five Poems by Esther Jansma

 

Chronicle

Architecture
263	Dieter de Clercq
Architecture and National Identity
Cultural Policy
265	Dirk van Assche
De Brakke Grond, a Flemish House in the Netherlands

 

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Film and Theatre
266	Dana Linssen
Facts and Fakes The Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival
268	Wim de Poorter
A Painter Film-Maker Homage to Raoul Servais
269	Jos Nijhof
Multicultural Theatre: Diversity Unites
271	Daniël Biltereyst
Split Screen The Flemish Search for a Cinematographic Identity
273	Filip Matthijs
Sphere of Operations: the World Tone Brulin's Theatre of Dreams
History
275	Anonymous
Centre of Rotterdam Taken Out
277	Marc Derez
Leuven and Louvain-la-Neuve: Aller / Retour
279	Reinier Salverda
The Death of the Village Geert Mak's ‘Jorwerd’
280	Hans Vanacker
‘Going into the world’ Dutch Immigrants in Canada
281	Reinier Salverda
Women in the Dutch colonies
Language
283	Anton Claessens
A Gigantic Dutch-Flemish Language Project The Corpus of Spoken Dutch
Literature
284	Cyrille Offermans
A Lost World The Novels of Erwin Mortier
286	Rita Ingram Givens
The Babel Guide to Dutch and Flemish Fiction in English Translation
287	Paul Demets
A Strange Host Called Poetry The Watou Summers
Music
288	Yves Knockaert
The Essential Guide to Dutch Music
290	Rudy Tambuyser
The Revival of a Museum in a Revived Building The Brussels Museum of Musical Instruments
Philosophy and Science
291	Dirk van Delft
D.J. Struik's Marxist Mathematics
292	Arnold Heumakers
Put the Blame on Baruch
Society
294	John Mace
Living inside Belgium
296	Luc Devoldere
Securing a ‘Good Death’ under the Law Euthanasia Legislation in the Netherlands

 

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Visual Arts
298	Kurt de Boodt
Brussels: From Cross-Roads to Parking Place
299	José Boyens
André Volten, Sculptor in Public Space
302	Filip Matthijs
Short Takes
308	Bibliography of Dutch-Language
Publications translated into English (traced in 2000)
318	Contributors
319	Translators