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Spectator-Type Periodicals in International Perspective Enlightened Moral Journalism in Europe and North America

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Spectator-Type Periodicals in International Perspective Enlightened Moral Journalism in Europe and North America STUDIES IN THE HISTORY Misia Sophia Doms (ed.) OF EUROPEAN PERIODICALS Edited by Misia Sophia Doms and lesko Reiling VOLUME 1 Spectator-Type Periodicals in International Perspective Enlightened Moral Journalism in Europe and North America PETER LANG PETER LANG Cornelis van der Haven (Ghent) The Spectatorial Press in Dutch Abstract: The present paper outlines the mainperiods and tendencies in Dutch moral weekly publishing. Although academie research has.for a long time, beenfocussed on Justus van Effen, who published spectatorial magazines in both French and Dutch, many other writers between 1718 and the 1790s also tookpart in the endeavour of moral weekly writing or reacted to it by producing ‘anti-spectators’. Keywords: Dutch Spectator-type periodicals, Dutch moral weekly publishing, anti-spectators 1 OverView The Spectator genre in the Low Countries has been an object of investigation for a very long time, mainly due to the work of Justus van Effen (1684-1735), who played a major role in the introduction of the genre outside of England with Le Misantrope,1 a moral weekly written in French that was published in the Netherlands in 1711-1712.2 As we can see in the contribution by Klaus-Dieter Ertler to this volume, William James Bennie Pienaar has already written an exten- sive monography about van Effen and English influences on Dutch literature.3 His book was recently reprinted (in 2014), and although it deals extensively with the work óf van Effen, its focus is mainly on his French spectatorial production. Only one of Pienaar s chapters discusses van Effens De Hollandsche Spectator (“The Dutch Spectator”), the moral weekly written in Dutch that appeared between 1731 and 1734.4 Pienaar was not the first to discuss van Effens influence on the development of the genre in Dutch literature, as van Effen’s journalistic work was already part of the Dutch literary canon from the first decades of the 19th century onwards, because of what was regarded in literary historiography as a superb imitation of the English Spectator-type publishings, namely his maga­ zine De Hollandsche Spectator.5 1 Cf. van Effen (1711-1712) . 2 Cf. van Effen (1986). 3 Cf. Pienaar (1929). 4 Cf van Effen (1999-2001). 5 See for instance De Clercq (1824: 268). 74 Cornelis van der Haven The Spectatorial Press in Dutch 75 With the exception of van Effens contribution, however, the spectatorial Nevertheless, the Dutch Spectator-type press of the 18* century should cer- magazines printed in the Low Countries that were written in Dutch only played tainly be regarded as a driving force of literary innovation. Old literary forms, a minor role in Dutch literary historiography for decades, until the important like the dream allegory, were very popular in the moral weeklies, as were short work done by the literary scholar Petrus (‘Piet’) Jacobus Buijnsters, who wrote sentimental portrayals of moral issues by way of a fictional story, as well as lit­ several pioneering articles and a monographic overview of the genre in Dutch erary experiments that already anticipated the novel of manners, a genre which literature that appeared in 1991.6 Buijnsters’ approach was clearly inspired by was introduced in Dutch literature in the late 18* century.12 literary sociology and one of his sources of inspiration was Wolfgang Martens’ On the other hand, hardly any of the well-known authors of Dutch literature famous study of the German spectatorial genre of 1968.7 Before Buijnsters, of the 18* century who wrote poetry, theatre plays, and novels also wrote spec­ van Effens Hollandsche Spectator was wrongly seen as the first moral weekly tatorial magazines. Only minor authors, literary dilettantes, or authors with an published in Dutch; therefore, it was one of Buijnsters’ first steps to provide an interest in a broader range of topics, decided to write moral magazines. It is true overview of its Dutch predecessors.8 Here, Buijnsters also refers to some earlier that established 18*-century Dutch authors like Elizabeth (‘Betje’) Wolff, Agatha van Effen-scholars, like Jan Hartog,9 who wrote a book about the Spectator-type Deken and Hieronymus van Alphen had their own spectatorial projects, but only periodicals that appeared after van Effen. To obtain an overview of the genre in the final decades of the 18* century, when the genre was already in decline.13 in the Northern and Southern Netherlands of the 18lh century, the work of In Buijnsters’ checklist, we find 118 titles of spectatorial magazines published Buijnsters is still crucial, not least because of the checklist he made of nearly all in the Low Countries during the 18* century. 78 of these magazines were moral weeklies published in the Dutch language throughout the 18th century.10 published in the Dutch language, whereas only a small amount (11 magazines) Before we discuss the basic information provided regarding the development was published in other languages, mainly in French. It is important to note, of the genre in the Low Countries based upon Buijnsters’ checklist, it is a good however, that . Buijnsters used a very strict genre definition of the spectatorial idea to first reflect on the question of why the spectatorial magazine remained magazine when compiling his list. As we know, the moral weekly was a very quite a neglected genre (apart from studies on van Effen and his work) in Dutch fluid genre, and the dividing lines between for instance the moral weeklies and literary historiography for such a long time. One of the reasons may have been learned, satirical, political and literary magazines of the time are not always that that the moral weekly was not seen as an important driving force of literary inno- clean At some point in this chapter, I will come back to these porous borders vation. Van Effen is often presented in literary historiography as the master of between the spectatorial magazines and genres like the satirical and political the vertoog, the Dutch word for essay, or better: an exposition on a wide range magazine in particular. The latter are not listed by.Buijnsters, but they neverthe­ of topics. Literary scholars did not immediately recognise this as a literary form, less contain spectatorial characteristics. since van Effen was not an adherent of vertellingen (stories), the fictional nar- The main publishing areas for the spectatorial press in the Low Countries rative genre that could more easily be linked to literary innovation. This is why were the urban centres of the Northern Netherlands, especially Amsterdam and Buijnsters, for instance, concludes that contributions to his spectatorial project The Hague. There are only very few examples of Spectator-type magazines that that were of more profound literary value played but a minor role in the whole were published in the Southern Netherlands, and almost all of them appeared in project of the Hollandsche Spectator.11 Ghent in the late 18* century. Over the past decades, several scholars have paved the way for new approaches towards the Dutch spectatorial genre. The most salient example is, without a doubt, Dorothée Sturkenboom’s ground-breaking book on how to read spec­ 6 Cf. Buijnsters (1991). tatorial magazines in ways that reflect on early modern gender issues and the 7 Cf. Martens (1968). emotional culture of the 18* century.14 But it is not only the particular genre 8 Cf. Buijnsters (1966). 9 Cf. Hartog (1890). 10 This list was published in several revised verslons, see e.g. the most recent one in 12 See Buijnsters (1984a: 43). Buijnsters (1991: 104-110). 13 Cf. Buijnsters (1984b: 60). 11 See Buijnsters (1984a: 43). 14 Cf. Sturkenboom (1998). 76 Cornelis van der Haven The Spectatorial Press in Dutch 77 of the Spectator-type periodical for women that Sturkenboom pays attention 2 Origins of the genre (1718-1730) to.15 Moreover, she also examines the regular spectatorial magazines, like the The first moral weekly to appear in Dutch was the anonymously published De one published by van Effen, against the background of how they reflect on is­ Mensch Ontmakserd (“Mankind Unmasked”),19 published between February sues of gender and emotion while using stereotypes of masculine and feminine and November 1718 in The Hague.20 The magazines main author may have been emotional behaviour. One of Sturkenbooms conclusions is that the authors of the jurist and bailiff Joan Duncan, together with two more established literary the moral weeklies tried to ‘sell’ their own emotional culture’ to their readers authors, Pieter Antoni de Huybert and Jan Jacob Mauricius.21 The first issue of by convincing them that certain forms of emotional behaviour can have a neg- the magazine explicitly refers to its sources of inspiration, mentioning the usual ative impact on Dutch society, whereas others should be propagated. Gendered suspects, such as Addisons and Steele’s Spectator and van Effens Le Misantrope. stereotypes, like for example the angry woman and the reasonable man, are ap- The fictitious editor of De Mensch Ontmakserd is wondering if Dutch is a suit- plied to exemplify these behavioural schemes and to teach the reader how to able language to express oneself in a more “leevendig” (“vivid”) way, in line with behave ih an emotionally appropriate mannen16 the “natüurlyke verbeeldingen” (“natural imaginations”) of the moral weeklies Another pioneer in the field of the Dutch history of the spectatorial press written in English and French.22 is André Hanou. Some of his scholarly contributions were combined in a col- Like most Dutch Spectator-type magazines that appeared later on, De Mensch lection of essays on 18^-century Dutch literature.17 Hanou discovered the work Ontmakserd was printed in octavo format and issues often opened with a motto of Jacob Campo Weyerman, a less prominent author who was, until then, fre- taken from classical authors.
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