Nederlandse Letterkunde - Volume 14, Issue 1, 2009

In Netherlandic Studies, the so-called institutional approach of literature and close-reading of (literary) texts generally are considered to belong to different paradigms. This article explores the way the analysis of texts can be used in institutional-oriented research. After a brief survey of the institutional framework, mainly based on the work of Gisèle Sapiro and the outcomes of the research program ‘The Impact of Conceptio Read More

This article deals with the recent surge of encyclopaedic historical novels in Dutch literature. A first characteristic of these novels is that they install an identification between the I-narrator and the history he or she narrates. This identification does not take on the traditional form of the typical character embodying the historical average, nor that of the hopeful Michelet-like historian who acts as a prophet for his people. Rather, Read More

This article takes as its starting point Jerome McGann’s assertion that electronic presentations of historical texts may enable us to understand better the historical specificity of the composition of these texts. Our case in point is Constantijn Huygens’ Ooghen-troost, an electronic edition of which is currently being prepared by one the authors of this contribution. The article serves as the theoretical underpinnings of the edito Read More