oa Transnationaal, maar toch neerlandistiek?

This article pleads for a ‘transnational approach’ to modern Dutch literature, with proper consideration of the national and even local perspective. In fact, the tension between local, national and international tendencies is one of the factors constituting the literary system. In this respect, the study of Dutch literature has been based on the romantic idea of a ‘nation state’ and a monolingual culture, thereby neglecting the essential role of transnational factors in establishing an autonomous literary system. The authors elaborate on this argument and present two examples (i.e. the success of international regional literature and the ambivalent reception of international modernism in Flanders) to illustrate this theoretical and methodological stance.