TNTL 117/4

Wiel Kusters

Poëzie, fysica en theodicee bij Jan Hanlo (1912-1969)

Abstract -- In the works of the poet and prose writer Jan Hanlo, we observe a conceptual relation between physical theory and theological thinking. To St Augustine’s theodicy he adds in a metaphorical way elements of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, thus defining absolute ‘nothingness’. In connection with this, this article shows the various ways in which ‘time’s cycle’ and ‘time’s arrow’, and elements of chaos and order are fundamental to the imagery in Hanlo’s poems. In his thinking of good and evil, Hanlo does not necessarily conceive of ‘cycle’ and ‘arrow’, and ‘chaos’ and ‘order’ as being antagonistic categories, which renders him an interesting case in the interdisciplinary field known as the science of chaos.

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