Research team

Expertise

- general knowledge of modern Dutch literature, with specialised expertise about Louis Paul Boon, Hugo Claus, Hendrik Conscience, Conrad Busken Huet and Gerard Walschap; - interaction between the Flemish Movement and literary fiction; en in general: the study of literature, art and nation construction.

The Country House and the Tension between Modernity and Tradition in Flemish Narrative Prose: Towards a New Reading of Maurice Gilliams 01/10/2012 - 30/09/2015

Abstract

This project calls for a significant rethinking of the scholarly attitudes towards Maurice Gilliams (1900-1982). It aims to cast new light on Gilliams's image as a writer whose literary world is said to be 'disconnected from immediate current affairs or the common world of representation'. (M. de Jong) Not unlike Gilles Deleuze has convincingly argued that there is another Proust than the writer within the cork walls, this project shows, by different means, that there is another Gilliams than the perfection-seeking producer of autonomous aesthetic objects. It will become apparent that Gilliams can be situated in a context in which the Flemish Movement plays a prominent role and the autonomist poetics are less evident than in e.g. France or England. In order to situate Gilliams within a broader literary history, the author will be compared with English novelist and social critic E.M. Forster (1879-1970). The literary topos of the country house, which in this research is key, is a prominent feature in both Gilliams's and Forster's work. Although Forster was, unlike Gilliams, blessed with a higher education and a family that had all the gravitas and social influence Gilliams's lacked, both writers cultivated an image of 'aristocrat of the mind'. Therefore, this project questions Gilliams's elitist status. For what did it actually mean to be a writer of highly stylized Flemish fiction in an emancipating Flanders, when one belonged to the Flemish-speaking middle class?

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  • Research Project

Gilliams and Signs: An investigation into the repercussion of a significantly increasing autonomy of the literary field on the critical representation of reality in (Flemish) narrative prose. 01/10/2011 - 30/09/2012

Abstract

This case-study aims to cast new light on the complex evolution of Flemish literature during the interwar period. This project will nuance the more recent thesis put forward by Missinne, Dorleijn, De Geest e.a. that during the 1930s the Flemish literary field knew a significant development: on the one hand this is a period of cultural pillarization, on the other, literature dissociates itself from so-called non-literary institutions (church, state, political parties) and develops yet more in accordance with its own rules and conventions.

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  • Research Project

The composition of an exhibition L.P. Boon 1912-2012: for no chanterikpeu! 18/07/2011 - 31/03/2012

Abstract

This project represents a formal service agreement between UA and on the other hand Stad Aalst. UA provides Stad Aalst research results mentioned in the title of the project under the conditions as stipulated in this contract.

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  • Research Project

Curatorship of an exhibition L.P. Boon in the House of Literature. 26/12/2010 - 31/03/2012

Abstract

This project represents a formal service agreement between UA and on the other hand Musea en Erfgoed Antwerpen. UA provides Musea en Erfgoed Antwerpen research results mentioned in the title of the project under the conditions as stipulated in this contract.

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The Dutchification of Flemish literature. An analysis of editing policy in the Flemish publishing house of A. Manteau (1951-1970). 01/10/2008 - 30/09/2011

Abstract

This research project aims at reconstructing the systematic 'translation' into Standard Dutch -- or 'Dutchification' -- of literary texts written by Flemish authors between 1945 and 1970.

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The influence of montage principles in film on L.P. Boon's 'Mijn kleine oorlog' (1947), 'De Kapellekensbaan' (1953) and 'Zomer te Ter-Muren' (1956): a literary-historical situation and a thorough formal analysis. 01/10/2008 - 30/09/2009

Abstract

This project will pay attention to the formal aspects of Louis-Paul Boon's oeuvre. By studying the way in which Boon's texts are constructed, as well as the effects of the techniques he uses, the literary-historical significance in a Flemish and international context of this radical innovator will be defined more closely than it is today.

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  • Research Project

The work of L.P.-Boon. 01/07/2006 - 31/12/2012

Abstract

The Collected Works of Louis Paul Boon (24 volumes) consists not only of all published novels and stories, but also of anthologies of his journalistic writings, letters and the 'Boontjes'. Besides the scholarly adited text, each volume also contains an informative epilogue, an editorial statement and a bibliography. Exhaustive editorial comment, in which a substantial variorum apparatus is included, and a dictionary of non-standard words, will be made available on the site of the L.P. Boon Research Center (www.lpbooncentrum.be) The publication of the Collected Works of Louis Paul Boon is the result of the cooperation between the L.P. Boon Research Center (University of Antwerp), the Department Dutch Literature (Ghent University) and publishing house De Arbeiderspers. The Collected Works are published in a popular edition.

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  • Research Project

The Work of L.P. Boon. 01/01/2005 - 31/12/2012

Abstract

This project aims at presenting the Collected Works of the Flemish writer and Nobel Prize for Literature candidate Louis Paul Boon. Twenty-four volumes are planned in what will be a fitting memorial to one of the major writers of the Low Countries.

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  • Research Project

Needs to literary publishers in the field of literary translation. 01/01/2005 - 01/11/2005

Abstract

Research into the needs and expectations of literary translators in Flanders and Holland.

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  • Research Project

The Documentation Center for the study of the work of L.P. Boon. 15/06/2004 - 31/03/2005

Abstract

This project aims at presenting the Collected Works of the Flemish writer and Nobel Prize for Literature candidate Louis Paul Boon. Twenty-four volumes are planned in what will be a fitting memorial to one of the major writers of the Low Countries.

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  • Research Project

Literature, the Flemish Movement and Society (1914-1950). 01/01/2004 - 31/12/2008

Abstract

The project aims at a systematic description and analysis of the complex interaction between Flemish society (1914-1950) and the literature in that period; literature is seen as a medium for the distribution of political-institutional ideas by the Flemish Movement. Starting from a radically rhetorical conception of historical reality, we will carefully point out how 'Flanders' was conceived under the influence of, amongst other things, public appearences of writers forming a series of specifically coded performances (from political manifestoes and essays via explicitly 'literary' texts to literary evenings and speeches, parades, pageants,and marches).

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The Publishing House A. Manteau and the Literary Field in Dutch-Speaking Belgium (1945-1970). 01/01/2004 - 31/12/2007

Abstract

Sequel to project 3181 - The Publishing House A. Manteau and the Literary Field in Dutch-Speaking Belgium (1945-1970). The first part of this new project focusses on Hugo Claus, the second part highlights the generation Vandeloo/Ruyslinck. Special attention is paid to translations of foreign literature (Malaparte, Sagan) put into the market by the publishing house A. Manteau.

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The Low Countries and 'Der Sturm'. A contribution to the description and analysis of the Dutch-Flemish participation in the European Historical Avant Garde. 01/01/2004 - 31/12/2007

Abstract

This project is conducted by a team of researchers from the universities of Antwerp and Groningen. The Antwerp researchers focus on the question how literary and artistic Expressionism in Flanders was shaped through contacts and exchanges with representatives of the international avant-garde in general and members of the 'concern' Der Sturm in particular. Special attention is paid to the question why Expressionism did not flourish in Flanders/Belgium before the Great War, what the impact of the Flemish Movement on the introduction and further development of Expressionism in Flanders was and to what extent the notion of 'a typically Flemish Expressionism' can be maintained.

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  • Research Project

The electronic edition of the complete correspondence of Louis Paul Boon. 01/01/2003 - 31/12/2006

Abstract

This projects, using the most advanced editorial methods and principles, examines the structures and hyperstructures of the correspondence of Louis Paul Boon. The electronic edition of the correspondence of Louis Paul Boon offers not only crucial (auto)biographical and poetical information about the Flemish author L.P. Boon and his (literary) correspondents, it also provides a wide perspective on Dutch post-war literature and the general-cultural and social-historical context.

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Historical-Critical Edition of L.P. Boon's novel 'Mijn Kleine Oorlog' (1947/1960). 01/09/2001 - 31/08/2003

Abstract

The project aims at i. a systematic and profound research of L.P. Boon's novel 'Mijn kleine oorlog' (1947/1960), leading to an accurate reconstruction of the genesis and critical reception of the text, and ii. the presentation of these research results in a historical-critical edition of Boon' s novel.

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    01/01/2000 - 31/12/2003

    Abstract

    This research project aims at explaining how A. Manteau in a literary field marked by ideological segregation gained quite a a reputation as a publisher of 'literary quality'. Special attention is paid to Manteau's publishing politics during World War II. A key figure in this story is Louis Paul Boon, whose first novel was published by Manteau in 1943 and who left Manteau for the Dutch publishing house De Arbeiderspers in the early fifties.

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    Possibilities and limitations of contemporary feminist literary theory for a theoretically based reading of three canonized male authors. 01/10/1999 - 29/02/2000

    Abstract

    A feminist reading based on the relation between play and femininity of the works of H. Claus, S. Beckett and R. Queneau will enable the exploration of the possibilities and limitations of contemporary feminist literary theory for the re-evaluation of canonized (post)modern authors.

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      01/11/1998 - 31/10/2000

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        The issue of the subject in the later works of L.P. Boon and H. Claus : situating the postwar Flemish novel in an international context. 01/10/1998 - 30/09/2000

        Abstract

        This research project starts from the assumption that, philosophically speaking, modernism can be considered as a legacy of western metaphysics, which - as a metaphysics of the subject - is founded in a sovereign subject, that gives meaning to the world around him. In Dutch literature, the Flemish author LP Boon was probably the first to explore the fringes of modernism, feeling that the modernist novel had come to a critical stage. His novels of manners Het nieuwe onkruid and Als het onkruid bloeit, in which Boon leaves behind the modernist art of novel writing, serve as a prelude to the postmodernist novel. The latter is characterised by the fact that the writing subject holds a rather problematical position, as in the later works of Hugo Claus. His magnum opus Het verdriet van België, the bible of postmodernism in our literature, certainly deserves particular attention.

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          • Research Project

          Possibilities and limitations of contemporary feminist literary theory for a theoretically based reading of three canonized male authors. 01/10/1997 - 30/09/1999

          Abstract

          A feminist reading based on the relation between play and femininity of the works of H. Claus, S. Beckett and R. Queneau will enable the exploration of the possibilities and limitations of contemporary feminist literary theory for the re-evaluation of canonized (post)modern authors.

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            • Research Project

            LP. Boon's poetics of the novel : reconstruction, interpretation and literary and historical contextualization. 01/01/1997 - 31/12/2000

            Abstract

            Objective is to write a conmprehensive study of LP. Boon's poetics in relation to (post)modernism. Like Boon's critical reviews in De Roode vaan and Front his literary and art criticism in de Vlaamse Gids and Vooruit comes about in an complex interaction with the vast work in progress, De Kapellekensbaan/Zomer te Ter-Muren. In this context the project will thoroughly investigate the relation between Boon's 'novel-external' and 'novel-internal' poetics as a radical departure from the implicit poetics of his earlier, far more conventional works.

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              • Research Project

              The Life and Works of L.P. Boon. 01/01/1997 - 31/12/1997

              Abstract

              In 1999, the L.P. Boon - centre will finish its series of publications, "Boon-studies", with an overall study containing the contextualisation and interpretation of the writings by Boon. Complementary to this last issue of "Boon-studies", the centre has planned the publication of Boon's biography, Gelijk een vis zwemt, moet ik schrijven, in the same year. In the preparatory stage of this biography, the L.P. Boon - centre is busy collecting and studying published and unpublished source material by - but even more so about - L.P. Boon.

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                Books on genetic theory. 01/01/1997 - 31/12/1997

                Abstract

                This project allows the Universitaire Instelling Antwerpen library to buy books on genetic theory that would be too expensive otherwise.

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                  01/10/1996 - 30/09/1998

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                    01/10/1996 - 31/12/1996

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                      L.P. Boon and postwar literature III. 01/01/1996 - 31/12/1996

                      Abstract

                      The Documentation Center for the Study of the Work of L.P. Boon aims at i) collecting and describing bibliographically a) Boon's collected literary and art criticism, published in the newspaper Vooruit and a few other (literary) reviews and b) collecting the contemporary literary criticism on the novels by Boon ii) annotating and interpreting Boon's critical reviews as well as presenting the contextualization of these texts against the background of the contemporary literary and socio-historical system iii) presenting the first results of this project in a scholarly edition of Boon's literary and art criticism in Vooruit as required by the standards of modern editorial methods.

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                        • Research Project

                        The 'death of the subject' in the works of Boon and Claus against the background of international postmodernism. 30/09/1995 - 30/09/1996

                        Abstract

                        This research project starts from the assumption that, philosophically speaking, modernism can be considered as a legacy of western metaphysics, which - as a metaphysics of the subject - is founded in a sovereign subject, that gives meaning to the world around him. In Dutch literature the Flemish author Louis Paul Boon (1912-1979) was probably the first to explore the fringes of modernism, feeling that the (modernist) novel had come to a critical stage. His novels of manners Het nieuwe onkruid (1964) and Als het onkruid bloeit (1972), in which Boon leaves behind the modernist art of novel-writing, serve as a prelude to the postmodernist novel. The latter is characterised by the fact that the (writing) subject holds a rather problematical position, as in the later work of Hugo Claus. His magnum opus Het verdriet van België (1983) the 'Bible' of postmodernism in our literature, certainly deserves particular attention.

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                          • Research Project

                          The Frontiers of Modernism. 01/01/1995 - 31/12/1998

                          Abstract

                          Terminological and methodological elaboration of the notion Modernism, consisting in a series of case studies of modernist authors and in comparative approaches, with special attention for the relation between literature and other arts, included film; special focus on the development of literary theory and on the emerging sciences of the humanities.

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                            Philological edition of the art and literary criticism by L.P. Boon. 30/09/1994 - 31/12/1995

                            Abstract

                            This project will demonstrate to what extent L.P. Boon's poetics - which can be reconstructed on the basis of the author's literary and art criticism in De Vlaamse Gids and Vooruit - radically differs from contemporary literary conventions (which among other things reflected in the critical reception of Boon's novels) and will situate this particular confrontation within the context of the avantgarde and innovative movements of post-war European literature.

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                              LP Boon and postwar literature. 01/01/1993 - 31/12/1994

                              Abstract

                              This project aims at the reconstruction of 1) LP Boon's poetics, as expressed in the author's critical work 2) the confrontation of Boon's poetics with the rules and conventions of the postwar Dutch Literary system and 3) the way in which the novelist Boon, by making his poetics of transgression one of his major literary themes, explores the limits of postmodernism.

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                                L.P. Boon and post-war literature; a clash with the institutionalized criticism. 01/01/1993 - 31/12/1993

                                Abstract

                                This project includes the study of L.P. Boon's poetics and its confrontation with the contemporary literary standards. It contributes to the historiography of Flemish literature in the context of the avant-garde and renewal-movement in European literature after World War II.

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