Newsletter
Volume 6, Number 8, June 2005

Adult learners, educational change and public libraries in the Netherlands, 1969-1991

Thesis presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Education and Language Studies, Centre for Education Policy and Management, Open Univers-ity by Sheila M. Dale, BA, DipTrans, IoL, AIL, MCLIP, 30 June 2003.

'This study examines the extent to which the educational potential of public libraries was recognized by the educationalists and politicians attempting to open up educational opportunities in the Netherlands in the period 1969-1991, and by the library profession itself in its reaction and responses, and demonstrates that the full realization of the educ-ational potential of public libraries depends not on the vision and will of the library pro-fession alone, nor entirely on the attitudes of adult educators. The governmental struct-ure within which libraries are situated, the relation of this to the structure for the educ-ation of adults and political and economic circumstances are also crucial factors. The study is thus concerned with the history of an idea (the concept of continuing education) and the reaction of a profession to this idea and its implementation. The latter is traced in terms of the profession's views on its own role and contribution to the introduction of educational change, and the extent to which it failed or succeeded in its response. The emphasis is on libraries in relation to educational change rather than on educational change per se, and principally on non-traditional students. The study is both descriptive and analytical, operating at the societal as well as the institut-ional level. Although the period under review is 1969-1991, from time to time earlier periods are touched on, as necessary background. Similarly, although the study is situated in the Netherlands, occasional comparisons (direct or implicit) are made with Great Britain.

The method used is that of systematic literature review. A strong secondary aim of the study was to open up the literature on the topic, which is mainly in the Dutch language. This has been done by detailed summarizing and quoting (in translation) of the relevant documents. [top of page...]

Aphra Behn's contacts with the Low Countries

Rebecca S. Wolsk, 'Muddy allegiance and shiny booty: Aphra Behn's Anglo-Dutch politics,' Eighteenth-century fiction (Vol. 17, No. 1, Oct. 2004): 1-33.

'Over the past twenty-five years revisionist studies of the seventeenth-century author, Aphra Behn, have illuminated the political subtexts and endeavours in her work. Several scholars have reconciled her Toryism with her feminism on behalf of modern readers who find that political juxtaposition harder to comprehend than Behn's con-temporaries might have. In the 1990s Ros Ballaster and Toni Bowers drew on the work of Susan Staves to illuminate how Behn's amatory fictions register her period's anxiety about the credibility and endurance of oaths of allegiance. More recently sur-veys by Janet Todd and Derek Hughes have further contextualized Behn within key Restoration moments (the Popish Plot, the emergence of Whig and Tory partisanship during the Exclusion crisis, and the Glorious Revolution). As efforts to understand Behn's beliefs and constraints move forward, Behn scholarship must acknowledge better the significance of the Low Countries in her life and work, and the importance of that region to the murky political waters that she and her contemporaries navigated. Anglo-Dutch enmity directly affected Behn's life. During the Second Anglo-Dutch War in 1666 she travelled to Antwerp at the request of Charles II's intelligence office-ials, who had asked her to question the dissident and spy, William Scot, about the community of exiled conspirators who had found refuge in the United Provinces. My essay, 'Muddy allegiance and shiny booty: Aphra Behn's Anglo-Dutch politics', hig-lights the significance of the Low Countries in several of her works (Love letters be-tween a nobleman and his sister, The fair jilt, The history of the nun, Oroonoko, The Dutch lover, and her posthumously published memoirs). I argue that Behn's complex deployment of anti-Dutch tropes (or 'Hollandophobia', to use Simon Schama's phrase) supported Behn's overarching effort to titillate and Toryify her readers. [top of page...]

Survey of pre-1801 Low Countries imprints

The Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland has made an award to Dr. W.A. Kelly, a Research Fellow in the Scottish Centre for the Book at Napier University, Edinburgh, to cover the travel and accommodation costs which will be incurred in a survey of the pre-1801 Low Countries imprints in Scottish research libraries. The locations will include Edinburgh, Glasgow, St Andrews and Aberdeen. [top of page...]

The Ledge

The Ledge is a literary website, based in the Netherlands but aimed at an international audience. On the site, which can be viewed in both English and Dutch, visitors can read in-depth interviews with writers from around the world and hear them reading from their latest work, while reading along from 'a book'. There is also a built-in, ever-expanding reading guide: books to read 'before' and 'after'. The idea is in time to construct a worldwide-web of literature and a library/archive of international, literary interviews.Visitors to the site can contribute to the database: comments, ideas for new 'before' and 'after' books, corrections. All suggestions are reviewed by the editors and, wherever possible, added to the site. New, interested readers can sign up for the mailing list. Just go to www.the-ledge.com and click the envelope on the left-hand side of your screen. For more information please contact Stacey Knecht at: info@the-ledge.com. [top of page...]

H-Low-Countries

H-Low-Countries: H-Net Network on the History of the Low Countries, Society for Netherlandic History (SNH) and Koninklijk Nederlands Historisch Genootschap (KNHG or Royal Dutch Historical Society). H-Low Countries strives to create an international community of scholars with diverse methodological approaches, archival experiences, teaching styles, and intellectual traditions. The primary purpose is to promote international discussions of issues and ideas relevant to the study of the Low Countries as a whole and to the different national histories in particular. Like all H-Net lists H-Low-Countries is moderated to edit out material which, in the editors' opinion, is not germane to the list, involves technical matters (such as sub-scription management requests), is inflammatory, or violates evolving, yet common, standards of Internet etiquette. H-Net's procedure for resolving disputes over list edit-orial practices is Article II, Section 2.20 of our bylaws, located at http://www.h-net.org/about/by-laws.php. Logs and more information can also be located at http://www.h-net.org/~lowc . To join H-Low-Countries, please send a message from the account where you wish to receive mail to listserv@h-net.msu.edu. [top of page...]

6th biennial ALCS conference
Trading cultures, 5 - 7 January 2006, University College London

The 6th biennial ALCS conference will be held at University College London (UCL) from lunchtime on Thursday, 5 January 2006 until lunchtime on Saturday, 7 January 2006. The theme of the conference will be Trading Cultures. With the stress on 'Trading', the central issue for this theme is the relation between socio-cultural and political-economic values (art and money, beauty and power, culture and commerce, language and politics). With the stress on 'Cultures', the central issue becomes the interchange between the Low Countries' culture(s) and other cultures. As in previous years it is envisaged that a selection of the papers given at the confer-ence will be published in Dutch Crossing: a journal of Low Countries studies later in 2006. You can now register for the 6th biennial conference using the attached registration form. Please provide all information requested. ALCS members may benefit from financial support which we are hoping to get from the Nederlandse Taalunie. How-ever London in the Christmas, New Year period is busy and expensive. The organ-isers at UCL can make good deals with hotels in the surrounding area. In order for them to make the best advance arrangements with hotels, please return the form before 9 September 2005. Late returns cannot be guaranteed hotel room at the best available rate.

Please return the form (cf. below) to:

ALCS
Department of Germanic Studies
University of Sheffield
Sheffield S10 2TN
United Kingdom
Email: alcs@sheffield.ac.uk

Money

The following financial arrangements will apply for ALCS members:

• There will be no conference fee (whereas non-members will pay £50).
• Delegates who need overnight accommodation will be put up in hotels near UCL. We have investigated the possibility of student accommodation, but this is not available over the Christmas period. Provided there is enough financial as-sistance, ALCS members will have their hotel bills paid for up to two nights. Additional nights will be charged. We expect rooms to cost around £60. Non-members will be charged the hotel rate.
• There may be enough financial assistance to reimburse some travelling expenses for ALCS members. This may not be clear until after the conference. Please travel by the cheapest possible means and retain all tickets for your claim.
• There are two dinners included in the conference. Lunches are not provided, but the area around UCL hosts plenty of eating establishments.

List of speakers and topics:

• Nele Bemong (Leuven) The 19th century Flemish historical novel and Bakhtin's 'chronotope'
• Elke Brems (Leuven) A Flemish tale: Flemish roots-literature and the dismantling of Flemish identity
• Mirela Ciutacu (Timisoara) Per speculum alteritatis: imagology of the Dutchmen under Romanian Eyes
• Sorin Ciutacu (Timisoara) The "Loisirs" of the Republic of Letters. John Locke in the Dutch-Romanian/Greek connection
• Anne Decelle (Leuven) Stefan Hertmans's Muziek voor de overtocht (1994) and the poet's quest for a voice of his own
• Esther ten Dolle (UCL Dutch) Under the guise of a lie (or: Multatuli's sales trick)
• Yra van Dijk (Amsterdam/Parijs) Houellebecq and Grunberg as the literary form of globalisation
• Elizabeth Edwards (Univers-ity of Canterbury, Kent) The commemorative poems and other pamphlets on the political activities of Gaspar Fagel
• Katie Featherstone (UCL Dutch) Cultural diasporas: a comparison between Joseph Conrad and Multatuli's self-imposed exile
• Jane Fenoulhet (UCL Dutch) A Dutch suffragette: Jo van Ammers-Küller's Anglo-Dutch feminist fantasy
• Maartje van Gelder (Amsterdam) Changing tack: the conflicting allegiances of a Flemish international art-dealer, merchant and information broker
• Sofie Gielis (Brussels) The thin grey line: from narrative to essayistic and back
• Michiel van Groesen (Amsterdam) Interchanging representations: Dutch travel accounts and the De Bry collection of voyages
• Camiel Hamans (Poznan) Language of inheritance or language of guilt: the case of Yiddish in the Netherlands
• Donald J. Harreld (Brigham Young Univ) Trading nails for coconuts: Dutch encounters with Pacific islanders in the early seventeenth century
• Theo Hermans (UCL Dutch) Irony's echo
• Ph. Hiligsmann & Chr. Meurs (Leuven) The use of compound adjectives with a specific intensifier in Dutch
• Alice van Kalsbeek (Amsterdam) Intercultural competence of teachers of Dutch as a foreign language
• Joy Kearney (Rotterdam) A taste for the exotic: Melchior de Hondecoeter and the trade in exotic fauna in the 17th century
• William A Kelly (Edinburgh) Pre-1801 Low Countries imprints in Scotland
• Christophe Madelein (Leuven) Feeling the world beyond: the 'sublime' in Kinker and Bilderdijk
• Samuel Mareel (Ghent) Princely ethics in Dutch rhetorician literature (1450-155)
• Jaap van Marle (Open University, Heerlen) Is Dutch in danger? On the effects of globalization on Dutch
• Anneke Neijt (Nijmegen) The relation between form and meaning: linking schwa in Dutch
• Natasja Peeters (Brussels) Spanish art collections in Antwerp around 1530-1570
• Laurent Rasier (Leuven) Forms and functions of accentuation in Dutch, French and English
• Michael Rigelsford (Liverpool) Breaking a lance for Franz de Backer's 'Longinus': the case for a/the? classic Flemish Great War novel
• Gijs Rommelse (Leyden) Friends and arch rivals. the public discourse on international relations in England and the Dutch Republic during the 1660s
• Koen Rymenants (Leuven/Cambridge) Willem Elsschot and the concept of 'cynicism' in Dutch fiction (1933-1946)
• Miranda van Rossum/ Roel Vismans (Hull/Sheffield) Trading culture, teaching culture. The role of the language tutor in the acquisition of intercultural skills at beginners level
• Ute Schuerings (Oldenburg) Paradoxical style? Metaphor and metonymy in Paul van Ostayen's 'Bankruptcy jazz'
• Thomas F. Shannon (Berkeley) On the order of subject and object in Afrikaans: drift over the past one hundred years
• Jill Stern (UCL Dutch) Religion and the Orangists 1650-1675
• Anne Stiles (Los Angeles) Harry Mulisch's De aanslag and contemporary trauma theory
• Dorothee Sturkenboom (Amsterdam VU) Shifting sexual differences, or: how the Dutch mercantile spirit subverted gender patterns in the 17th and 18th century
• Eddy Verbaan (Sheffield) The influence of Guicciardini on Dutch chorography
• Hanny Vermaas (Nijmegen) New system in Dutch forms of address
• Julien Vermeulen (Lille) Flemish (Africa-oriented) colonial literature
• Catherine Wright (IHR London) The Dutch Church at Austin Friars and its Community in the 17th century
• Lies Wijnants (Leuven) Dealing with cultural bias in the Certificate of Dutch as a Foreign Language

Registration form

6th biennial conference
Trading Cultures
5 - 7 January 2006
University College London

Registration Form

Name:

Correspondence address:

Email:

Are you a member of ALCS? (Delete as applicable) Yes / No

Are you giving a paper at the forthcoming conference? (Delete as applicable) Yes / No

Do you require overnight accommodation? Yes / No

If Yes, for how many nights? (please specify)

Would you object to sharing a room with another conference participant? Yes / No Will you be present at either or both of the conference dinners? (Delete as applicable) Thursday 5th January?Friday 6th January? Yes / No Yes / No

Do you have any special dietary requirements about which we need to be informed? Yes / No

If Yes, please specify: [top of page...]

TLC: The Low Countries

Vol. 13 (2005) of this journal has been published. The first section, 'What's cooking', contains various pieces on the history and sociology of eating habits, while the rest of the volume covers numerous topics on history, art, language learning and literature. [top of page...]

In memoriam: Walter Lagerwey (1918-2005)

Prof. Walter Lagerwey passed away on June 2, 2005, just nine days short of his eighty seventh birthday. For thirty years, until his retirement in 1983, Dr. Lagerwey taught Dutch at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Lagerwey was the first holder of the Calvin College Queen Juliana Chair of the Language, Literature and Culture of the Netherlands. Walter Lagerwey was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he lived until the age of fourteen. His family then spent four years in the Netherlands, at which time his love for Dutch language and culture blossomed. During World War II he worked as a monitor and translator of Dutch radio broadcasts for the United States Foreign Broad-cast and Intelligence Service and then as a member of the United States Army Signal Corps, including service on a team of Dutch language specialists assigned to General Eisenhower's European headquarters. After the war's end Walter pursued university degrees at Calvin College (B.A.) and Columbia University (M.A.). He then earned a Ph.D. in 1958 from the University of Michigan. Lagerwey's many publications and translations include Neen Nederland, 'k vergeet u niet (1982), Letters written in good faith (1996), and most recently Iowa letters (by J. Stellingwerff and R. Swierenga, 2005), for which he translated over two hundred letters. Lagerwey was best known in the world of Netherlandic studies for his groundbreak-ing Speak Dutch (1968), a textbook in Dutch language instruction used by colleges and universities around the world. Speak Dutch remained long in print and sold tens of thousands of copies. Walter Lagerwey's academic contributions also included service as president of the Netherlandic section of the Modern Language Association and of the American As-sociation of Netherlandic Studies. In 1978 Lagerwey was named an Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau in recognition of his many years of service on behalf of Dutch language, literature, and culture. Walter Lagerwey epitomized the life of a scholar, not only through his tireless work as professor at Calvin College, but also through his restless intellectual curiosity which kept him professionally busy right up until his death. During this past year his 86th, Walter travelled to Europe, completed the abovementioned translations for Iowa letters, and wrote a history of the deaconry of West Leonard Christian Reformed Church. Walter is survived by his wife of sixty two years, Wilma, their five children, and many grand- and great-grandchildren. He will be held in fond memory by his many former students and the colleagues around the world who knew and cherished him.

Herman De Vries
Calvin College, June 2005 [top of page...]

Next issue

Contributions for the next issue of the Newsletter should be sent to the editor by 1 December 2005. [top of page...]

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