This thesis makes a case for literature as a legitimate historical source and argues that literature provides a historical snapshot of social change. The Dutch bakvisroman, a girls’ book about...Show moreThis thesis makes a case for literature as a legitimate historical source and argues that literature provides a historical snapshot of social change. The Dutch bakvisroman, a girls’ book about rebellious girls who are partially tamed at the end of the story, is selected as a case study. The research question therefore is: How does the Dutch bakvisroman negotiate social change from 1894-1921? First, it is analysed via close reading how five such books deal with accepted, controversial and unaccepted gender and class norms - Tine van Berken’s Een Klaverblad van Vier (1894) and De Dochters van den Generaal (1897); Top Naeff’s Schoolidyllen (1900); and Cissy van Marxveldt’s De H.B.S.-Tijd van Joop ter Heul (1919) and Joop ter Heul’s Problemen (1921). How the books are a product of social change is explored by looking into the lives of the women writers, analysing their gender and class attitudes. Lastly, how the books are an agent of social change is explained by discussing the readers’ experience, delving into its reception by pedagogues, but also its reception by girls and boys via memoirs and diaries. By historicising the books, it becomes clear why the bakvisromans perpetuate class norms while being ambivalent towards gender norms, as well as what readers actually internalised from the books.Show less
This thesis asks whether and how changes in cultural-historical circumstances have affected the Jamaican and Surinamese Anansi stories between 1890 and 2020. Surprisingly - given the major...Show moreThis thesis asks whether and how changes in cultural-historical circumstances have affected the Jamaican and Surinamese Anansi stories between 1890 and 2020. Surprisingly - given the major upheavals that occured during that time period - the substance of the Anansi tales was essentially stable. What did change were the attitudes towards the spider. While colonial ideas dominated Anansi discourse around 1900, decolonization caused the emergence of a postolonial Anansi tradition that celebrated the character's Afro-Caribbean cultural heritage. Hence, Anansi was ultimately recognized as an indigenous icon of Afro-Caribbean culture not just in Jamaica and Suriname, but in Anglo-European societies too.Show less
