oa ‘HET OGENBLIKKELIJKE OF HET TOEKOMENDE, WIE HEEFT GELIJK?’

The war literature of Abraham Hans

Even though his name may mean little to readers today, the work of Abraham Hans (1882-1939) was hugely popular with the Flemish public in the interwar period. This article studies his neglected World War I novels which, like most of the Flemish war literature, have received little critical attention. On the one hand, it explores the ideas that inform Hans’ representation of the war. On the other, it argues that his work did play a role as a medium of cultural memory in the interwar period.