oa ‘Wie zich voor “marxist” uitgeeft’

‘Whoever passes oneself off as a “Marxist”’. Marxist monographs on Multatuli by J. Saks and F.W. Driessen

This paper compares two Marxist biographical monographs on Dutch 19^th century writer Multatuli, by J. Saks and F.W. Driessen, and interprets the differences between their respective approaches in relation to conflicting tendencies within Marxism. Whereas the former adheres to an objectivist (or determinist) strand in Marxist cultural analysis, the latter implicitly relies on a Lukácsian conception of realism and a subjectivist plea for political commitment. In examining these studies and comparing them to Dik van der Meulen’s authoritative biography of Multatuli this article aims to reflect on both Multatuli’s afterlife in the Dutch socialist movement and the relationship between Marxist literary analysis and the biographical approach to literary studies.