TNTL 119/1

Elke Brems

De Tijdstroom (1930-1934)
‘De opbouw ener persoonliker en menseliker kunst’

Abstract -- The catholic Flemish literary periodical De Tijdstroom (1930-1945) occupied a special place in the literary context of the interwar period in Flanders. It tried to form a new, post-expressionist generation of writers, focusing on form control and the personality of the artist. Those personalistic ideas, which were not given a coherent definition, were vehemently contested by expressionists and strict catholics. The poetry of the ‘Dertigers’ was especially concerned with the position of the speaking subject and ranged from traditional to modernist. The aesthetic and personalistic goals of the Tijdstroom-generation contrasted with the spirit of the thirties, when collectivism and ethics were propagated by totalitarian ideologies. Because of that incompatibility and due to internal heterogeneity, the Tijdstroom was never really viable and after WWII turned out to be a lost generation.

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