RT Journal Article SR Electronic(1) A1 Rock, JanYR 2022 T1 Econscience. Op bezoek bij Hendrik Conscience in de wildernis van Eenige bladzijden uit het Boek der Natuur JF Nederlandse Letterkunde, VO 27 IS 3 SP 343 OP 364 DO https://doi.org/10.5117/NEDLET.2022.3.005.ROCK PB Amsterdam University Press, SN 2352-118X, AB Abstract In this article, I create a place-centered and relational context for reading Eenige bladzijden uit het Boek der Natuur (Some pages from the Book of Nature), a didactical dialogue on natural history from 1846, written by Flanders’ national novelist from the nineteenth century, Hendrik Conscience (1812-1883). This context does not focus on his biography or his contributions to a pedagogical Flemish national identity, but relates the work to our present (urban) environment. By doing so, often overlooked aspects in Conscience’s Romantic thought come to the fore: the limitations he put to nationalist frameworks for understanding nature and his attempt at opening up the capacities of literary imagination. For Conscience, literary imagination – rather than religious tradition or empirical precision from physics –, even in a wild and chaotic text, appeared most suitable to convey the Humboldtian idea of the interconnectedness and unity of nature., UL https://www.aup-online.com/content/journals/10.5117/NEDLET.2022.3.005.ROCK