TNTL 113

Olf Praamstra

De omstreden bloei van de Indisch-Nederlandse letterkunde. Een afbakening van het corpus

Abstract - When in 1972 Rob Nieuwenhuys published his work Oost-Indische Spiegel, he defined in essence what was to become a new literature: the literature of the Dutch East Indies. This literature was the product of Dutch writers who had lived in the Dutch East Indies, and was therefore limited in space and time. It was, also according to Nieuwenhuys, a literature that developed rather distinctive characteristics due to the complete absence of a literary tradition. These two characteristics which Nieuwenhuys uses to identify the literature of the Dutch East Indies have been severely criticized over the years. The criticism has given rise to a debate which challenges the very existence of this literarature. This article argues in defence of an independent approach to the literature of the Dutch East Indies. However, bearing in mind the criticism leveled against Nieuwenhuys, a considerable limitation of the corpus is proposed.