Description
Book SynopsisThe Postcolonial Low Countries is the first book to bring together critical and comparative approaches to the emergent field of neerlandophone postcolonial studies. The collection of essays ranges across the cultures and literatures of the Netherlands and Belgium and establishes an encounter between postcolonial theoretical discourses from both within and without the region. Each one of the contributions puts under pressure the definitive concepts of postcolonial studies in its more conventional anglophone or francophone formation, as well as perceptions of the Low Countries, Belgium and the Netherlands, as lying outside or to the side of the postcolonial domain. In the Low Countries, local and regional issues concerning multiculturalism and colonial belatedness have raised important questions about the possible grounds on which postcolonial critical concepts might be not only translated but also generated afresh, to suit these paradoxically new contexts. As The Postcolonial Low Countr
Trade ReviewIn an era when many in the Netherlands and Belgium, in spite of their fiercely colonialist past, consider postcolonial thought 'outdated'—another word for the sigh of relief at escaping the need to engage an object of resistance—this book couldn’t be more timely. ‘Postcolonizing’ the Low Countries is more necessary than ever. Smart, witty, and brave, the essays, sometimes tongue-in-cheek, offer an incisive critique of the reiteration of colonial clichés, the refusal to rethink the remnants of injustice, and the attempts to justify neonationalism. -- Mieke Bal, University of Amsterdam
Finally, a postcolonial turn in Dutch literary criticism has taken place. The Postcolonial Low Countries is the first book to theorize and bring together approaches that can be called neerlandophone postcolonial studies. The need for such a perspective has been enormous, not only because of the colonial legacies of the Netherlands and Belgium but also because of the transnational formations through which the study of literatures in Dutch is currently being challenged. From now on, Dutch and Belgian literature can no longer be read the same. -- Ernst van Alphen, professor of literary studies at Leiden University
The Postcolonial Low Countries holds sparkling examples of boundary-pushing work. Intersecting postcolonial studies and multicultural critique this timely intervention is likely to unsettle neerlandophone literary establishments. -- Philomena Essed, Antioch University
Table of ContentsChapter 1. Introduction: Postcolonialism and the Low Countries, Elleke Boehmer and Sarah De Mul Part 1: Towards a Neerlandophone Postcolonial Studies Chapter 2. Postcolonial Studies in the context of the ‘diasporic’ Netherlands, Elleke Boehmer and Frances Gouda Chapter 3. Polderpoko: why it cannot exist, Isabel Hoving Chapter 4. The “Ends” of Postcolonialism, Theo D’haen Chapter 5. “Is the headscarf oppressive or emancipatory?” Field notes on the gendrification of the ‘multicultural debate’, Sarah Bracke and Nadia Fadil Part 2: Postcolonial Memory Chapter 6. (Un)happy Endings: Nostalgia in post-imperial and postmemory Dutch films, Pamela Pattynama Chapter 7. Transnational Contact-Narratives: Dutch Post-Coloniality from a Turkish-German Viewpoint, Liesbeth Minnaard Chapter 8. Representing post-apartheid South Africa: mothers, motherlands and mother tongues in the work of selected Afrikaans women writers, Louise Viljoen Chapter 9. The Holocaust as a Paradigm for the Congo Atrocities: Adam Hochschild's King Leopold’s Ghost, Sarah De Mul Part 3: Literature and Multiculturalism Chapter 10. Dutch Homonationalism and Intersectionality, Murat Aydemir Chapter 11. Becoming UnDutch: "Wil je dat? Kun je dat?", Mireille Rossello Chapter 12. Unlike(ly) Home(s). “Self-Orientalisation” and Irony in Moroccan Diasporic Literature, Ieme van der Poel Chapter 13. ‘Games of Deception’ in Hafid Bouazza’s Literary No Man’s Land, Henriette Louwerse
