Historical research on Dutch nationalism has mainly been focused on the nineteenth century. However, the growth of national thought "the idea that the Dutch belonged to the same community" can be traced back to earlier stages of Dutch history. This project will do so, by studying the role of war and propaganda literature in the period 1648-1815. The diachronical approach will enable us to investigate developments and changes in the rise of Dutch national thought. By focusing on the pre-modern period, it will also challenge current international scholarly views on the formation of national identities. 1648 and 1815 are considered as land mark years in Dutch history. With the signing of the Peace of Münster in 1648 the Dutch Republic became an independent state; 1815 is considered as the beginning of a new era, because of the installation of William I as the sovereign of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. On these occassions, and at intervening political highlights and times of crisis, writers made much effort to symbolise the unity of the Dutch Republic. Texts written at the occasion of war and peace treaties, therefore present us with unique material to study the growth of national awareness in pre-modern times. This research consists of three interrelated subprojects. The first project focuses on propaganda literature written during the four Anglo-Dutch wars (1652-1654, 1665-1667, 1672-1674, 1780-1784) and investigates to what extent authors attempted to create a unified imagined community. The second project scrutinizes resistance literature during the French regime (1806-1813). In this period literature was being used as the main resistance tool by explicitly articulating "Dutchness" and the nations identity. The third project analyses the shaping of national unifying images at the occasions of peace treaties, starting with the Treaty of Münster (1648), and ending with the Treaty of Paris (1814/1815).

The term Young Adult literature, introduced from the US in 2010 and intended to describe the category of books written for young adults between 15 and 25 years old, is gaining ground in the Dutch literary system. Several individuals and organizations are involved in creating, producing and consuming Young Adult literature. By using the methods of French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu to research the actors that play a role in the distribution and material and symbolic production of this literature (e.g. publishers, booksellers, librarians, critics, reading promoters, teachers), this research project aims to determine the position that Young Adult literature takes within the literary polysystem.

De vraag naar de rol van het komische binnen het intellectuele debat van de zestiende eeuw is zelden beantwoord. De komische theaterteksten van de belangrijkste rederijkersfestivals in 1561 (Rotterdam en Antwerpen) bieden een uitstekende casus voor dit onderzoek. Ik wil deze teksten onderzoeken via verschillende analysemodellen (argumentatie, performativiteit, close reading).

Het project bestudeert de import van moderne (Engelse) sporten als cricket, voetbal, honkbal, hockey en lawntennis in Nederland vanuit cultuurhistorische en lexicologische invalshoek. Centrale vraag is hoe onder invloed van een Angelsaksische hegemonie het negentiende-eeuwse Nederlandse spel (fysieke - en soms mentale - inspanning zonder competitief element) transformeerde naar sport (fysieke - en soms mentale - inspanning met competitief element). De onderzoeksfocus ligt op de beschrijving en analyse van dit sociaal-culturele sportificatieproces, de stijl en taal op het niveau van sportorganisaties en sporters. Casus is het jongensinstituut Noorthey (1820-1882), waarvan oprichter Petrus de Raadt en de successievelijke oud-leerlingen een rol speelden als cultuurmakelaars.

This project explores how the value of literature is negotiated in upper-secondary literature classrooms. It argues that to fully understand this process in L1-education, teachers’ legitimations of literature must be confronted with both their didactic practices and their students’ views on literature. Hence, the key objectives of this project are to (1) analyse how L1-teachers conceptualise the value(s) and use(s) of literature in upper-secondary contexts; (2) to examine how these legitimations are reflected in their literary-educational practices; and (3) to evaluate whether L1-teachers’ conceptualisations of the uses of literature are shared by their students. By studying (a) teacher ideologies in relation to (b) concrete pedagogies and (c) students’ beliefs about literature, Uses of Literature in the Classroom integrates three perspectives that are often studied in isolation. The project is comprised of three interrelated studies that combine survey questionnaires with in-depth explorations of the literary-educational ideologies and practices of a panel of 20 teachers of Dutch Language and Literature. The first study will focus on L1-teachers’ conceptualisations and legitimations of literature through a national survey and a series of semi-structured interviews that elicit their beliefs about what literature is and why it should be taught in upper-secondary education. In the second study, the actual literary-didactic practices of the 20 panel teachers will be analysed by combining a discourse analysis of classroom materials with in-class observations and an institutional analysis of teachers’ text selections. The student perspective is central to the third study, which examines adolescents’ (15-18 years) conceptions of literature and its uses through a large-scale survey. Thus, the project provides an empirical account of the uses of literature in an educational context. To impact the literary-educational field in the Netherlands, the research results will be used to design new didactic materials in collaboration with teachers and other educational stakeholders.