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“Modernism Has Regaled Us with Jazz Bands, Saxophones, Not to Men- Tion, Banjos”, Writes the Dutch Novelist E

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“Modernism Has Regaled Us with Jazz Bands, Saxophones, Not to Men- Tion, Banjos”, Writes the Dutch Novelist E INTELLECTUAL SCEPTICISM VERSUS AVANT-GARDE BRAGGING: MODERNISM IN DUTCH LITERATURE JACQUELINE BEL “Modernism has regaled us with jazz bands, saxophones, not to men- tion, banjos”, writes the Dutch novelist E. du Perron in his first Cahier van een Lezer (1928-1929) in response to the collection of poetry Piano by the Flemish poet Gaston Burssens. He appreciates the fact that in the twenty poems “no signage, no movie poster, no Negro or Eiffel Tower” enter the spotlight, apparently attributes of the afore- mentioned Modernism.1 He continues his argument by claiming that “Burssens dares to be modern with a minimum of avant-garde- bragging”, and du Perron appreciates that. Thus, “Modernism” seems to be used as a negative, fashionable concept, linked to avant-garde, as applied to poetry.2 The contemporary avant-garde notion that du Perron has in mind seems to be inconsistent with the definition of Modernism given by D.W. Fokkema and E. Ibsch in their study Modernism in European Literature of 1984. According to them, it is an intellectualized trend in prose between 1910 and 1940, which clearly distinguishes itself from the avant-garde movements. Their Modernists do not follow pro- grammes but operate as individuals – with authors such as James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Thomas Mann, Italo Svevo, E. du Perron, Car- ry van Bruggen and M. ter Braak and books such as Ulysses, To the Lighthouse, The Magic Mountain (Der Zauberberg), Zeno’s Con- science (La Coscienza di Zeno), Het Land van Herkomst (Country of Origin), Eva and Politicus zonder Partij (Politician without Political Party). 1 Edouard du Perron, Verzameld Werk, Amsterdam: Van Oorschot, 1958, I, 7-8. 2 Elsewhere he compares the Modernist with a “windbag” (ibid, II, 175). All transla- tions from the Dutch texts, unless otherwise stated, are by Eric Vermeulen, to whom I am grateful. 60 Jacqueline Bel Roughly speaking, Modernist prose is characterized by intellectual scepticism. Ibsch and Fokkema see two elements as essential charac- teristics of Modernism: incertitude about the knowability of the world and language scepticism. There is reflection on writing in the work, genre boundaries merge (essay and novel often assimilate), con- sciousness and reason play a central role. Also, there is a critical atti- tude towards political or social solutions. Modernism as formulated by Fokkema and Ibsch is thus at odds with the contemporary use of the term by du Perron in 1929. For him it is poetry of the avant-garde, which is not to say that he does not also apply the term to prose. He actually wrote both Modernist poetry un- der the pseudonym Duco Perkens, whom he lets die in 1926, and a work that can be labelled as Modernist (read Surreal), Manuscrit trou- vé dans une poche (1922), from which he later distanced himself again. In 1929, he considered his Modernism as a beneficial disease, which particularly improved his style.3 But apart from du Perron, other writers and poets of the interwar period also use the term “Modernism”. The Dutch poet H. Marsman, for one, uses the word a few times when focusing on Expressionism in his reflections dealing with various movements, for example in De Vrije Bladen (November 1925), for instance, where he mentions “Modernism-à tort et à travers ...”. He goes on to note that: In being uncritically modern, and remaining fanatically modern ..., one might be able to recognize laudable qualities such as strength, en- durance, spontaneity. I doubt whether poetry really benefits from these qualities, but I deny that a poem could come into being when it has to be born out of the pursuit of the temporal, of the temporary- current reality (i.e. at all times: modern). Even here the term has negative connotations and it relates to poetry. Elsewhere Marsman fits the term to Eighty,4 characterizing the “criti- 5 cal prose” of van Ostaijen as “an apology for Modernism”. 3 See Francis Bulhof in Forum der Letteren, 36 (1995), 236-46. For the early work of du Perron, see in Manu van der Aa, E. du Perron en de avant-garde: kroniek van een heilzame ziekte, Amsterdam: B. Lubberhuizen, 1994, which does mention Fokkema and Ibsch, but refrains from contributing to the theoretical debate about Modernism. 4 Du Perron, Verzameld Werk, 650. 5 Ibid., 510. .
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