NLPVF:: Essays

Judges' Report

Vondel Translation Prize 2009

Paul Binding, Susan Massotty, Ina Rilke

The Vondel Translation prize for the best English translation of a Dutch book published during 2007 and 2008 goes to Sam Garrett for his translation of Ararat, written by Frank Westerman (Harvill Secker 2008).... Continued...

Character

On Character by F. Bordewijk

By Cees Nooteboom

Histories of Dutch literature identify the novel Character as a work of the New Objectivity, a movement from the first half of the twentieth century that came as a reaction to the lyrical and symbolist prose that preceded it. Continued...

Dark Poetry and Ambiguity

On the The Darkroom of Damocles by W.F. Hermans

By Milan Kundera

History as it is recorded on the collective memory bears little resemblance to what actual people lived through. Without realising, people eventually come to be fashion their memories on what is said in the present. Then, one day, a novelist... Continued...

Waiting for a Pioneer

The Development of the Dutch Thriller

By Gijs Korevaar

A writer’s success can, to a certain degree, be determined by his sales figures. By this token, Saskia Noort stands head and shoulders above the rest. Of her three books that have been published so far, more than 750,000 have... Continued...

Young poets, packed houses

Dutch poetry from the eighties to the present

By Tatjana Daan

They were on either side of forty, the poets who passed for the 'young guard' of Dutch poetry in the mid-eighties. Huub Beurskens, Willem Jan Otten, Robert Anker, Anneke Brassinga, Stefan Hertmans, Luuk Gruwez, Charles Ducal. For many years they had been regarded as the newest generation of gifted poets. But in the late nineties things began to change, and today's 'young poets' are no longer in their forties, but in their twenties and thirties. Continued...

Beauty and Truth neighbours once more

Literary Non-Fiction in the Netherlands and Flanders

By Ger Groot

Considering there are many highly literary works of non-fiction from Flanders and the Netherlands, Ger Groot asks how justifiably the position is that literature means 'fiction'. A look at a number of highlights. Continued...

God's Fingerprint

Modern Dutch Prose

By Onno Blom

Dutch literature has much to offer, even when compared to the literatures from close-by Germany, France and Britain. Onno Blom charts the developments over the last five years. Continued...

A Quilt of Many Colours

Contemporary Children's Books

By Annemie Leysen

The children's book landscape of the Low Countries is particularly rich in variety. It resembles a patchwork quilt of tiny meadows and broad pastures, of busy sprawling cities and peaceful sleepy villages, of hilly regions and vast plains, of weed-covered ditches and turbulent streams. Upon closer examination the literary geographer will also notice a demographic distinction: a single language region with two dialects, two cultures, two historical backgrounds. Continued...

Between the Individual and Society

Postwar Prose in Holland and Flanders

By Jaap Goedegebuure

Dutch is a language spoken not only by some twenty-five million people living in the Netherlands and Flanders (the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium) but also in Surinam and on the islands of Curaçao, Bonaire and Aruba. Authors who write in Dutch can therefore communicate with readers in a variety of different countries. Continued...

There Is No Such Thing as Dutch Literature

Dutch Literature Seen From Abroad

By Hermann Wallmann

One of Germany's leading critics, Hermann Wallmann, discovered Dutch and Flemish literature before the crucial 1993 Schwerpunkt at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Since then, he has seen many Dutch-language authors break through to the German market. What's the secret of their success? How is Dutch literature seen from abroad? And, is there really such a thing as Dutch literature? Continued...

A Walk on the Wild Square

Poetry of the 1980s and 1990s

By Paul Demets

In the essay A Walk on the Wild Square Paul Demets strolls around in the poetic landscape of the 1980s and 1990s. Demets is a poetry critic for the Flemish weekly Knack. He also contributes regularly to literary journals such as Poëziekrant, Kunst en Cultuur and Ons Erfdeel. Continued...