DUTCH LITERATURE

Literature written in the Dutch language. The earliest extant samples are the works of Heinrich von Veldeke (fl. about 1160–1200), who wrote a life of St. Servatius based on a Latin source, an Eneïde (Aeneid) after a French original, and various love songs. A significant literature began to appear after 1250 with the work of Jacob van Maerlant (1225–91). Called the father of Dutch literature, he wrote didactic poetry, romances of chivalry, and treatises on history and government. The new literature declined under the Burgundian domination of the Netherlands (1363–1477), when French words and forms became assimilated into Dutch. During the first half of the 16th century, however, the work of the Dutch scholar and humanist Desiderius Erasmus (written in Latin) led to an intensification of literary activity in the Netherlands and throughout Europe. Two later writers, Dirk Volkertszoon Coornhert (1522–90) and Philip van Marnix (1540–98), directly influenced the Golden Age of Dutch literature. Coornhert wrote poetry, drama, and prose. Marnix is the author of one of the most acrimonious satires ever written against the Roman Catholic church, Biencorf der heiligher Roomscher kercke (1569; The Beehive of the Romish Church, 1578?).

The Influence of Humanism.

The Golden Age of Dutch literature was coexistent with the establishment of the republic and a period of great commercial prosperity. It lasted most of the 17th century and is characterized by intellectual independence, an emphasis on humanist values, and the suppression of foreign terms and idioms in the language. Jacob Cats, known as “Father” Cats, enjoyed wide popularity as a poet. His simple moral precepts and workaday philosophy, expounded in such works as Houwelijck (Marriage, 1625) and Trou-ringh (The Wedding Ring, 1637), exercised great influence on the middle class. Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft (1581–1647), in contrast, reflects the spirit of the Renaissance; his works, culturally and intellectually sophisticated, include the tragic dramas Geeraerd van Velsen (1613) and Baeto (1626), which were modeled after the dramas of the Roman philosopher and dramatist Seneca. Gerbrand Bredero, one of the founders of the Amsterdam Theater, first wrote romantic plays but achieved his greatest success in low-comedy farces. His most popular play was De Spaansche Brabander (The Spaniard from Brabant, 1617).

Joost van den Vondel was the greatest and most prolific of the poets and playwrights of the Golden Age. Of his 24 poetic dramas in the classical form, the masterpiece was Lucifer (1654), concerning the revolt of the angels against God. It has been the subject of literary controversy, one school of critics holding that Lucifer served as the model and source for the epic poem Paradise Lost, by the English writer John Milton.

In the latter part of the 17th century there was a gradual slackening of this literary activity. Pieter Langendijk (1683–1756), one of the important writers of the first half of the 18th century, was the author of comedies that are still performed in the Netherlands. His best-known work, The Mirror of Dutch Merchants (1760), was finished posthumously by two unknown writers. Another noteworthy writer of this period was Justus van Effen (1684–1735), who imitated contemporary English periodicals with his Hollandsche Spectator (1731–35).

The Verlichting.

The last quarter of the 18th century is marked by a movement known as the Verlichting (“enlightenment”), which was characterized by an opposition to the rules and forms of classicism. Among the distinguished contributors to this movement were Betje Wolff-Bekker (1738–1804) and her friend Aagje Deken (1741– 1804), whose collaboration produced a number of novels in letter form, among them Sara Burgerhart (1782) and Willem Leevend (1784–85). Willem Bilderdijk became the hero of a political and religious movement called the Réveil (“revival”). His works include the epic poem De ondergang der eerste wereld (The Destruction of the First World, 1820) and the famous Ode van Napoleon (1806).

Romanticism.

The 19th century opened inauspiciously with writing marked by conventionality, lack of originality, and an emphasis on form. The prose of this period includes the literary criticism of Jacob Geel (1789–1862) and the historical novels of Jacob van Lennep (1802–68), which were influenced by the Scottish novelist and poet Sir Walter Scott. Everhardus Johannes Potgieter (1808–75), apart from his own creative writing, was the founder, in 1837, of the review De Gids (The Guide), which served as an organ for the romantic movement in literature. His masterpiece is Florence (1868), a study of medieval Italy. Nicolaas Beets, one of the most famous writers of this period, owes his reputation to a single collection of essays and stories, Camera Obscura (1839), a gently humorous reflection of the life and manners of middle-class society. Anna Louise Geertruida Bosboom-Toussaint (1812–86), also associated with De Gids, was the author of novels influenced by the English romantics. Her works include a cycle (1845–55) on the adventures of the English soldier Robert Dudley in the Netherlands.

Eduard Douwes Dekker, who wrote under the pseudonym Multatuli, anticipated the revolutionary movement in Dutch letters by some 20 years. In the novel Max Havelaar (1860), a satire on Dutch colonialism, his style was simple and free from the formalism that had become a literary standard of the language. The success of his work did much to emancipate the next generation of writers from meaningless restrictions.

The “Eightiers.”

During the 1880s Dutch writers attempted to produce a major national literature comparable to the best contemporary European literary achievements. Their efforts, coinciding with a period of great economic, social, and artistic expansion in the Netherlands, are generally dated from the first issue (October 1885) of a review called De Nieuwe Gids (The New Guide). The leaders of the “Eightiers,” as the new movement was called, were the poets Willem Kloos (1859–1938), Frederik van Eeden (1860–1932), Lodewijk van Deyssel (pseudonym of Karel Alberdingk Thym, 1864–1952), and Albert Verwey (1865–1937). The poetry of Kloos, first published in De Nieuwe Gids, revolutionized literary diction. Van Eeden, one of the most versatile of the Eightiers, wrote poems, criticism, novels, and dramas with equal facility. His works include the long poem Het lied van schijn en wezen (The Song of Seeming and Being, 1895–1922) and the novel The Quest (1885; trans. 1907). Van Deyssel was the prophet of the movement, coining its slogans and credos and proving their validity in his writings, which include a quantity of critical writing for De Nieuwe Gids. During the 20th century, De Nieuwe Gids, in which these writers combined elements drawn from European literature and other arts, declined in influence and was replaced by Verwey’s periodical De Beweging (The Movement, 1905–20).

A reaction against the Eightiers was led by C. S. Adama Scheltema (1877–1924), a socialist who opposed their preoccupation with “art for art’s sake,” and by Herman Gorter (1864–1927), who wrote Mei (May, 1889), one of the great poems of modern Dutch literature. The poetry of Henriëtte Roland Holst-van der Schalk (1869–1952) is identified with communism and social rebellion; her works include De nieuwe geboort (The New Birth, 1902) and De vrouw in het woud (The Woman in the Wood, 1912). Of the novelists of this period, Louis Couperus (1863–1923), the author of The Book of the Small Souls (4 vol., 1901–3; trans. 1932), won an international reputation.

Vitalism and Contemporary Literature.

After World War I, a reaction to the overintellectualized literature of the early 1900s was led by Hendrik Marsman (1899–1940), who championed the cause of “vitalism,” a form of expressionism, based on the concept that the poet is merely a member of, and speaks for, the masses. Another group gathered around the periodical Forum (1932–35), founded by the writers C. Edgar du Perron (1899–1940) and Menno ter Braak (1902–40). Contending that the vitalists were becoming too sylized and obscure, the Forum group advocated the use of simple language, realism, and an intellectual rather than emotional approach to literature. The fiction and poetry of the physician Simon Vestdijk (1898–1971), perhaps the outstanding Dutch writer of the mid-20th century, clearly reflect the influence of Sigmund Freud. Vestdijk won international attention with such novels as the trilogy Symfonie van Victor Slingeland (Symphony of Victor Slingeland, 1958–60), a first-person narrative of a musician analyzing his own creativity. His autobiographical novel The Garden Where the Brass Band Played (1950; trans. 1965) is an account of the stifling effects of small-town life.

The German occupation of Holland during World War II forced Dutch writers to go underground; their literature, mostly poetry, expressed resistance to the invaders, hatred for the cruelties of war, and patriotism. By the end of the war, the younger generation of writers had rejected many of the theories of their predecessors; and postwar Dutch literature reflected the disillusionment brought on by the atomic age, the new welfare state, and the cold war. In this spirit the writer Bert Schierbeck (1918– ) created an experimental prose, and the poet and painter Lucebert (pseudonym of Lubertus Jacobus Swaanserkjk, 1924– ) sought to express his reaction against conventionality and rationalism. The problem of human solitude and isolation was poignantly presented in the fiction of Anna Blaman (1906–60); and Maria Dermoôt (1888–1962) meticulously evoked sensuous memories of life in the Dutch East Indies in her novels Days Before Yesterday (1951; trans. 1960) and The Ten Thousand Things (1955; trans. 1958), both written when she was more than 60 years old. Questions of personal responsibility and political commitment, often approached with skepticism and cynicism, are treated in the works of Willem Frederik Hermans (1921– ) and Harry Mulisch (1927– ), author of The Stone Bridal Bed (1959; trans. 1963) and The Assault (1982; trans. 1985), a widely translated parable about war. Other writers, for example, Jan Wolkers (1925– ), showed an interest in psychology, sociology, sexuality, and existential philosophy. Wolkers was the author of the novels A Rose of Flesh (1963; trans. 1967) and Turkish Delight (1969; trans. 1974). His plays De Babel (The Babels, 1963) and Wegens sterfgeval gesloten (Closed Because of Death, 1966) were black comedies.

By the mid-1980s Dutch fiction showed a new optimism and a revived concern with ethical values.