Dutch-language literature
But in 1974, the German philologist Willy Sanders proved in his study Der Leidener Willeram that the text actually represents an imperfect attempt by a scribe from the northwestern coastal area of the Low Countries to translate the East Franconian original into his local vernacular.
The oldest known poetry was written by a West-Flemish monk in a convent in Rochester, England, around 1100: hebban olla vogala nestas hagunnan hinase hic enda thu wat unbidan we nu ("All birds have started making nests, except me and you, what are we waiting for").
The Brussels friar Jan van Ruusbroec (better known in English as the Blessed John of Ruysbroeck, 1293/4–1381) followed Beatrice in taking prose out of the economic and political realms and using it for literary purposes.
Until the 13th century, the Middle Dutch language output mainly serviced the aristocratic and monastic orders, recording the traditions of chivalry and of religion, but scarcely addressed the bulk of the population.
The Flemish and Hollandic towns began to prosper and to assert their commercial supremacy over the North Sea, and these cities won privileges amounting almost to political independence.
His key works are Der Naturen Bloeme ("The Flower of Nature", c. 1263), a collection of moral and satirical addresses to all classes of society, and De Spieghel Historiael ("The Mirror of History", c. 1284).
Philips van Marnix, lord of Sint-Aldegonde (1538–1598) was one of the leading spirits in the war of Dutch independence and an intimate friend of William I, Prince of Orange.
Marnix occupied the last years of his life in preparing a Dutch version of the Bible, translated directly from the original; at his death only Genesis was completed.
By this time, the religious and political upheaval in the Low Countries had resulted in the 1581 Act of Abjuration, deposing their king, Philip II of Spain and the subsequent eighty years' struggle to confirm that declaration.
The greatest of all Dutch writers is widely considered to be the playwright and poet Joost van den Vondel (1587–1679), who mainly wrote historical and biblical tragedies.
Vondel became in a week the most famous writer in the Netherlands and for the next twelve years, until the accession of stadtholder Frederick Henry, had to maintain a hand-to-hand combat with the Calvinists of Dordrecht.
In 1637 Vondel wrote of his most popular works on the occasion of the opening of a new Amsterdam theatre: Gijsbrecht van Aemstel, a play on a local historical figure loosely modeled on material from the Aeneid that is still staged to this day.
During early middle life he produced the most important of his writings, his didactic poems, the Maechdenplicht ("Duty of Maidens") and the Sinne- en Minnebeelden ("Images of Allegory and Love").
It happened, however, that three men of particularly commanding talent survived to an extreme old age, and under the shadow of Vondel, Cats and Huygens sprang up a new generation which sustained the great tradition until around 1670, when decline set in sharply.
It was in that year that Elizabeth “Betje” Wolff (1738–1804), a widow lady in Amsterdam, persuaded her friend Agatha “Aagje” Deken (1741–1804), a poor but intelligent governess, to throw up her situation and live with her.
It had little influence in literature, and in the new state of Belgium, the status of the Dutch language remained largely unchanged as all governmental and educational affairs were conducted in French.
Against this backdrop, the most prominent writer was Willem Bilderdijk (1756–1831), a highly intellectual and intelligent but also eccentric man who lived a busy, eventful life, writing great quantities of verse.
Bilderdijk had no time for the emerging new romantic style of poetry, but its fervour found its way into the Netherlands nevertheless, first of all in the person of Hiëronymus van Alphen (1746–1803), who today is best remembered for the verses he wrote for children.
The Dutch language of the north resisted the pressure of German from the outside and from within broke through its long stagnation and enriched itself, as a medium for literary expression, with a multitude of fresh and colloquial forms.
Charles De Coster laid the foundations for a native Belgian literature by recounting the Flemish past in historic romances but wrote his works in French.
of Eduard Douwes Dekker, 1820–1887), whose Max Havelaar (1860) is a scathing indictment of colonial mismanagement and one of the few nineteenth-century prose works still widely considered readable today.
The principles of the 1830–1880 period were summed up in Conrad Busken-Huet (1826–1886), leading critic of the day; he had been during all those years the fearless and trusty watch-dog of Dutch letters as he understood them.
He lived just long enough to become aware that a revolution was approaching, not to comprehend its character; but his accomplished fidelity to literary principle and his wide knowledge have been honoured even by the most bitter of the younger school.
The leading dramatist at the close of the century was Herman Heijermans (1864–1924), a writer of strong realistic and socialistic tendencies who single-handedly brought Dutch theatre into the modern time.
Belgium was invaded by the German Empire; the Netherlands faced severe economic difficulties owing to its policy of neutrality and consequent political isolation, wedged as it was between the two warring sides.
Both the Belgian and Dutch societies emerged from the war pillarised, meaning that each of the main religious and ideological movements (Protestant, Catholic, Socialist and Liberal) stood independent of the rest, each operating its own newspapers, magazines, schools, broadcasting organizations and so on in a form of self-imposed, non-racial segregation.
An offshoot of the New Objectivity movement centered on the Forum magazine, which appeared in the years 1932–1935 and was edited by the leading Dutch literary critic Menno ter Braak (1902–1940) and the novelist Edgar du Perron (1899–1940).
Casualties of the start of the German occupation included Du Perron (heart attack), Ter Braak (suicide) and Marsman (drowned while trying to escape to the United Kingdom); many other writers were forced into hiding or rounded up in Nazi concentration camps, such as Vestdijk.
His poem De achttien dooden ("The eighteen dead"), written from the point of view of a captured resistance member awaiting his execution, has become the most famous example of war-related Dutch literature.
An obvious example is "De Avonden" (The evenings) of Gerard Reve, analysing the disillusionment of an adolescent during the "wederopbouw", the period of rebuilding after the destruction of World War II.
