Het begrip burgerschap speelt al eeuwenlang een sleutelrol in de (veranderlijke) relatie tussen burger en de staat en tussen burgers onderling. Verbondenheid komt tot stand in alledaagse culturele... Show moreHet begrip burgerschap speelt al eeuwenlang een sleutelrol in de (veranderlijke) relatie tussen burger en de staat en tussen burgers onderling. Verbondenheid komt tot stand in alledaagse culturele praktijken en gesprekken. In dit onderzoek wordt cultureel burgerschap benaderd vanuit het perspectief van de mensen zelf en niet vanuit instituties. Het onderzoek richt zich op de alledaagse culturele burgerschapsvorming met ondersteuning van Cultureel Ondernemende Professionals. Daarin worden de beroepscompetenties van deze professionals in kaart gebracht op basis van drie casestudies. Het publiek van deze casestudies bestaat uit drie generaties Nederlanders met een Turkse of Marokkaanse achtergrond waarbij binnen de publieksgroep van de derde generatie een nieuwe stedelijke elite aan het ontstaan is met een pluriforme culturele habitus. Show less
As a curator, in museum Beelden aan Zee, I exhibited the Gorille enlevant une Femme, by Emmanuel Fremiet dated 1887, in an exhibition of French and Belgian animal sculptors in 2011. The... Show moreAs a curator, in museum Beelden aan Zee, I exhibited the Gorille enlevant une Femme, by Emmanuel Fremiet dated 1887, in an exhibition of French and Belgian animal sculptors in 2011. The confrontation with, and my great surprise about this sculpture (a gorilla abducting a woman) led to this research. Just imagine: you walk into a living room in an appartment on the Boulevard des Capucines in Paris around 1890, and on a side table, one discovers a bronze sculpture: a gorilla abducting a woman. Such a sculpture does not suit our sense of taste. I suspected that this sculpture would represent more than just 'a curious piece of kitsch'. The resulting research in my dissertation led to many things: it turned out that the artist was world-famous in his time, it turned out that the gorilla had only been discovered in 1847, and it turned out that a few more gorilla sculptures had been made by Fremiet, the first as early as 1859. Furthermore, I discuss the entrance of the gorilla into zoology, the theme of the abduction of women in art and the use of the image for nationalistic and anti-Semitic purposes. The relevance of this research lies in the use of all kinds of other disciplines, which results in a new art-historical image of nineteenth century art and sculpture. The study also addresses nineteenth century issues: colonialism, the poor position of women, antisemitism, nationalism and our relationship to the animal kingdom are related to technical and iconographical interpretations of the Fremiet gorillas. Show less
This study investigates the meaning of divine forgiveness in the thought of Philo of Alexandria. Did Philo share in the common philosophical disregard for seeking divine pardon? Could he still... Show moreThis study investigates the meaning of divine forgiveness in the thought of Philo of Alexandria. Did Philo share in the common philosophical disregard for seeking divine pardon? Could he still encourage his readers to seek God’s pardon when they have done evil, while he at the same time explained to them that God cannot be hurt nor angered by human evil or made to change his mind? Can divine pardon have a meaningful place within the well-considered thought of a Hellenistic intellectual at all? This study shows that in the case of Philo of Alexandria the answer to this question is affirmative. Yes, divine amnesty has a meaningful place within Philo’s thought, while he managed to avoid implications he and other contemporary intellectuals considered inappropriate. He saw divine pardon as a vital manifestation of God’s goodness, allowing humans to purge their minds from the evil thoughts that have overwhelmed them and caused them to commit evil, to re-establish the control of good reason and welcome God’s wisdom to form their thoughts, words and acts, so that they think, speak and act rationally, as their Creator intended them when he created humans in his own image. Show less
This dissertation discusses the concept of the inverted world as a philosophical commonplace and as a belated baroque aesthetic principle in modernity. The inverted world is at once a response to... Show moreThis dissertation discusses the concept of the inverted world as a philosophical commonplace and as a belated baroque aesthetic principle in modernity. The inverted world is at once a response to the critique of capitalist modernity as well as a consequence of its essential social relations. Show less
This thesis explores the memory culture of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). More specifically, it considers representations of traumatic events in the recent history of this region in the... Show moreThis thesis explores the memory culture of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). More specifically, it considers representations of traumatic events in the recent history of this region in the context of Saddam Hussein’s counter-insurgency campaign, code-named Anfal, and the chemical attacks on Halabja, which both targeted the Kurdistani population. Embedded in the field of Memory Studies, the thesis mainly analyzes how these events are remembered, commemorated, imagined and represented in the present, with the word “present” referring to the era that roughly spans the last twenty years, beginning with the US-led invasion of Iraq, which resulted in the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.To analyze the KRI’s memory culture, the thesis develops interpretations of four very different objects of study. Two of these are museums in the region: Amna Suraka: In Order Not to Forget, in the city of Sulaymaniyah, and the Halabja Monument and Peace Museum. Thirdly, the thesis focuses on textbooks used at Kurdistani primary and secondary schools, produced by the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) with help of UNESCO. Fourthly, the thesis develops close-readings of Kurdistani writer Bachtyar Ali’s 2010 novella My Uncle Jamshid Khan whom the Wind always Carried with Itself and his 2005 novel The City of White Musicians, which are embedded in critical analyses of approaches to Kurdistani literature and of the relationship between literature and memory culture.The thesis combines analyses of these four very different objects and in that way presents a unique multi-faceted, multi-disciplinary, and hitherto undeveloped perspective on the region’s memory culture. This perspective also results in the introduction of interpretations that contribute more generally to the fields of Memory Studies, Museum Studies and Trauma Studies. The concepts are introduced in this thesis to describe the specific way in which representations of the KRI’s past (1) apostrophically address a non-existing independent and national Kurdistan and (2) are haunted by traumatic memories of victims who, under Saddam’s regime, disappeared and have never been found.Following a concise summary of what has been argued in the four chapters, the brief conclusion embeds the thesis in the field of Peace Studies by reflecting on Aleida Assmann and Linda Shortt’s claim that memory can be an agent of change. This thesis, it is concluded, can be understood as a humble attempt at designing such exploration for a specific area in this region. Show less
Roger Martin du Gard (1881-1958) (Nobel Prize for Literature in 1937 for the novel cycle Les Thibault in 8 parts, included in the Pléiade edition, Oeuvres complètes, 1955) put, between 1941 and... Show moreRoger Martin du Gard (1881-1958) (Nobel Prize for Literature in 1937 for the novel cycle Les Thibault in 8 parts, included in the Pléiade edition, Oeuvres complètes, 1955) put, between 1941 and 1955, the novel Le Lieutenant-Colonel de Maumort (or: Maumort) on paper, his latest work, which remaines unfunished. It was released posthumously in 1983.The thesis covers in seven chapters a number of aspects of Maumort. In Section I the septuagenarian Bertrand de Maumort looks back on his life (the story is in the first person). His childhood spent in a castle in Normandy (Le Saillant) and his studies in Paris, were given the most space. Instead of ‘Mémoires’, the basic form of Maumort could also have been that of letters (Section II). Maumort corresponds with his friend, the doctor Gévresin (by whom he was given shelter for a large part of the war) about everything he experiences after his return to Le Saillant. There are now (only) nine letters (december 1944-January 1945). After that, the correspondence stops. In the Boîte Noire (Black Box)(Section III), about 40 files appear (= folders in which Martin du Gard stored thoughts on specific subjects that he had written); some of them mention Les Thibault, especially regarding the character Antoine Thibault. Show less
The Spanish comedia nueva was one of the most popular theatrical genres in the seventeenth-century Low Countries. The adaptations of these plays were performed in Dutch and Flemish theatres. This... Show moreThe Spanish comedia nueva was one of the most popular theatrical genres in the seventeenth-century Low Countries. The adaptations of these plays were performed in Dutch and Flemish theatres. This study aimed to explain the popularity of this genre. The conclusion is that the emotional effects were responsible for the popularity of these plays that were translated from Spanish. These tragicomedies by Félix Lope de Vega y Carpio and Pedro Calderón de la Barca offered a drastic alternative for the emotional prescriptions found in the oeuvre of Jacob Cats, Joost van den Vondel, and Pieter Cornelisz Hooft. This way, comedia nueva offered Dutch and Flemish spectators a refuge from emotional and social expectations. Show less
The reputation of the statesman M. Tullius Cicero in the Roman imperial period (ca. 31 BC – 300 AD) is often approached from a rhetorical perspective. After all, Cicero was most influential as an... Show moreThe reputation of the statesman M. Tullius Cicero in the Roman imperial period (ca. 31 BC – 300 AD) is often approached from a rhetorical perspective. After all, Cicero was most influential as an orator and rhetorician — or was he? This dissertation discusses four important episodes in the reception of Cicero’s political achievements, which together demonstrate that the orator’s career is fruitfully applied by imperial historical writers to symbolize the crisis of the first-century Roman Republic. As Sallust testifies, already in the late Republic, Cicero’s skills as political leader are critically evaluated (and found wanting). In the early empire, under the influence of the Roman discourse of exemplarity, which amplifies civic virtue at the cost of anything else, Cicero’s public achievements are often overshadowed by a focus on his intellectualism. Readings of Seneca, Plutarch, Appian, and Cassius Dio show further how in the course of the first three centuries AD, Cicero’s life exemplifies the conflict between intellectual ideals and political interests. This dissertation explores step by step how Cicero became a universal icon for the problem of political morality, which, according to ancient authors, lay at the basis of the fall of the Republic. Show less
This thesis compares the uses of the classical underworld descent, or katabasis, in three contemporary English-language authors, women and/or Black writers, as an instrument to express their... Show moreThis thesis compares the uses of the classical underworld descent, or katabasis, in three contemporary English-language authors, women and/or Black writers, as an instrument to express their poetics. It focuses on one central text from each author, contextualizing its use of katabasis within the author's larger oeuvre. For this analysis, use has been made of Conceptual Metaphor Theory and cognitive theory of allegory, theories of metaliterature and intertextuality, and transgeneric narratology. Katabasis has proven to hold a central position in the oeuvre of all three authors, albeit in very different ways. In the work of Boland and Naylor, the motif is omni-present. Boland maps katabasis onto the moment of poetic creativity, in which access to the female underworld is attempted, but nevertheless remains barred. Naylor's work combines the various regions of Dante's afterlife with western esotericism, offering a somewhat happier prospect for women and writing. For Walcott, on the other hand, katabasis is omni-present in his magnum opus Omeros only, and is applied as a final reckoning with his literary critics. Thus, for all three authors katabasis has proven to be used as an instrument to appropriate the western literary canon and to define their poetics. Show less
