Farewell to Organised Religion — Contemporary Dutch Prose, a Few Texts, Paratexts, and Contexts
Prace Kulturoznawcze 21, nr 1 | Wrocław 2017 DOI 10.19195/0860-6668.21.7 Ewa Tak-Ignaczak University College Roosevelt, a liberal arts college of Utrecht University Farewell to Organised Religion — Contemporary Dutch Prose, a Few Texts, Paratexts, and Contexts Abstract: The article outlines the phenomenon of a literary success of three contemporary Dutch authors (Maarten ‘t Hart, Franca Treur and Jan Siebelink) whose prose works, while representing various genres (e.g., essay, short story, novel) are united thematically by their preoccupation with the waning socio-cultural regime known as pillarization. All the three authors, raised in the strict Calvinist traditions typical of the northern Netherlands, give voice to disappearing communities and emancipated groups and individuals nowadays characteristic of this highly secularised soci- ety. Their texts ridicule Calvinist biblical literalism (‘t Hart), paint inward-looking niches (‘t Hart and Treur), and contemplate the mystique of grace (Siebelink). Following T. S. Eliot’s reflection from ‘Religion and Literature’ that secularising culture produces literature in which religion passes from omnipresence, through contestation to virtual irrelevance and anachronism, we see that in his essays, memoirs and stories, ‘t Hart approaches Calvinism (and Christianity at large) still as a fierce ideological enemy and favours derision as an instrument of confrontation, while Treur and Siebelink, in their slightly nostalgic tone and ambiguity, seem better equipped to act as agents of conventionally conceived heritage. Keywords: secularism, Dutch literature, religion, atheism, pillarization, Netherlands, Calvinism When I mention religion I mean the Christian re- ligion; and not only the Christian religion, but the Protestant religion; and not only the Protestant religion, but the Church of England.
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