NIJHOFF'8 SY>IBQLISM Thesis submitted towards the degree of Ph.D. by William James Woods Bedford College, University of London. Acknowledgements are owed to all those people who, over the years that this thesis has been in preparation, have contributed help and advice, and in particular to Professor Emeritus Th.Weevers, formerly Professor of Dutch at Bedford College, for his M.A. course 'The Dutch Post- Symbolists' held in 1970-1, to the University of Ghent, Belgium, for the finance and wealth of material opened up under the provisions of a scholarship for foreign students of Dutch, 'Studiebeurs Neerlandistiek', I972-3 , and above all to my supervisor. Professor R.P.Meijer, current Professor of Dutch at Bedford College, for his thorough attention and kind and constant guidance. July 1978 ProQuest Number: 10098353 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest. ProQuest 10098353 Published by ProQuest LLC(2016). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Abstract of Thesis ¥.J.Woods: Ni.jhoff's Symbolism Nijhoff's symbolism develops from a close orientation to the fringe world of the French Symbolists, with Christian culture and contemporary Dutch Post-Symbolists providing further sources of influence. A study of psychological and literary background and of Nijhoff's own poetic theories helps to determine what his symbols mean. A change of attitude which Nijhoff underwent between the publication of the volumes ' Vormen'(192^) and 'Nieuwe Gedichten'(193^) ? as a result of which he starts to express a belief in and liking for the real world, though retaining an amount of counteraction between real and ideal, brings his symbolism to an orientation in the real world and makes it more complex and extensive, while maintaining its function of conveying correspondences with another life, another world, a distant universe or imaginary ideals. He abandons a mood of reluctant withdrawal and drops former imitations in order to deal with his own personality and situations directly, to expand the narrative element and make poems symbolic for their story, and to give figures a more independent characterisation. Definite patterns of consis­ tency throughout his poetry are found in recurrent major symbols such as mother, child, martyr, street, journey, bird and boat, and themes of death, dualism and religion. Basic wish impulses are continued, but become transposed to new surroundings, and eventually no longer related to an 'I-figure', but to other people. With the extension of symbolism into common surroundings, it becomes less monolithic and less comparative in type, not so predomi­ nantly a projection of the poet's own mental state, but more ambiguous and suggestive, relying more on inducing ideas in the reader, whose own capacity for symbolic determination is given increased scope. Table of Contents Chapter 1 - Principles of Symbolism ........... p.l. Chapter 2 - Symbolist and Post-Symbolist Poetry . p.l]. Chapter 3 - Dutch Post-Symbolists and Nijhoff ... p.32. Chapter ^ - Nijhoff's Early Poetry ('De Wandelaar', 'Pierrot aan de Lantaarn' & 'Vormen') p.^6. Chapter 5 - New Poems and a New Attitude .......p. 10]. Chapter 6 - 'Awater' .......................... p.l6]. Chapter 7 - 'Het Uur U' ....................... p.232, Chapter 8 - Conclusion ........................ p.29^. Page Index to Symbols .......................... p.2 9 8 . Appendix of Definitions ........................ p.301. Bibliography............. P-303- ERRATA p.23, line h - channelled p.50, line 23 - "la part ... p.6 6, line 12 - averse to p.6 7, line 30 - ... world" p. P« I, line 1 - (1912) p.130, line 27 - hegeerd had p.1 5 5, line 23 ... stuck on a bridge): p.2 20, line 37 - too heavy P.28M-, line 15 - bad and not p.3 01 , line 32 ends - reference line 33 begins - to p.306, line 13 - 289-293). p.309, line 5 • 'Poesies Complètes' Chapter 1 PRINCIPLES OF SYMBOLISM " - Een beeld deelt mee wat het meedeelt in minder tijd dan een woord. - " ('Het Uur U ' , 1937 text) In a discussion of symbolism in poetry, the main consideration is a literary one; the poetry is the basis on which the symbolism is assessed. Poetic symbolism is a literary device governing the meaning and effect of the poetry in which it is used, and instances of this symbolism have to be identified and explained. Individual images can be identified as symbols, but combinations of images, actions, and whole poems can also be symbolic in their ovm right. Certain images and certain poems stand out as examples of what the poet is trying to convey via this literary device of symbolism, but every image contributes to an overall picture. Small parts of the jigsaw may fall into place without the poet himself being conscious of any symbolic function that they fulfill. It is an impossible matter to draw a dividing line between supporting imagery and deliberate symbolism. Even the poet himself does not afterwards know how much he consciously intended at the time of writing a poem. Explanation of symbolism falls into two parts: what and how. What symbolism is all about is still a literary question, because the meaning or impression conveyed is the primary concern of both writer and reader. How symbolism performs this function is more of a scientific matter, but a technical analysis of the development of symbolic meaning in the mind helps to give an idea of what sort of meaning can be derived from poetic imagery. Symbols are instrumental to the communication of ideas, and anything to which the mind attaches meaning generates a symbol in the mind. Objects and conditions exist outside the mind, and the images of them that are recorded in the mind are thus technically symbols. Nijhoff's remark (above) that an image communicates its message more quickly than a word is accounted for by the mental processes that govern the communication of meaning. An image perceived by the mind is a symbol that stands directly for something, whilst a word stands for a mental image and so ranks at a second stage of symbolism with a fractionally less immediate effect. The term symbol has its derivation in the Greek word 'sumbolon*, meaning a mark or token; its precise definition is a broad one, and might be stated as: 'something which stands for something else through a process of mental association*. The term symbolism splits formally into three segments, with * symbol * as its noun root, and two suffixes, *-ise* andf*-m*] These suffixes modify the root of the word to al specific area of meaning, namely through the verb suffix *-ise* (symbolise) to; * to use symbols or to act as a symbol', and through the noun suffix *-m* (symbolism) to;^ -VJVT" 'the use of symbols or the process of acting as a symbol' A symbol is formed purely as a mental interpretation of something; it may be visual, but can also be an image formed in the mind from any of the physical senses, as, for example, a sound symbol. With a wide field of reference, the word ' symbol ' may be used as a blanket term to cover other terms such as 'sign*, 'emblem*,*badge*, * simile*, 'metaphor* and 'allegory*; it has broad areas of synonymy with the terms'image', 'concept* and 'idea', which are forms of symbol in so far as they stand for something. More commonly, the term * symbol * is applied in a narrower sense, within its general definition, to refer to a representative image with meaning extending beyond \riiat it directly repre­ sents, one with a quality of suggestion, (v. Appendix for definitions). The meaning that is attached to a symbol may either be essentially a creation of the individual mind or substan­ tially imposed upon it from outside; the mind is both l— receptive foè given symbolic meaning and capable of applying its own meaning to an image. From a viewpoint of psycho­ logical science, meaning is either purely the product of perceived stimuli from a person's environment, as is argued by the behaviourist school of psychology, or else meaning is in part this and in part an innate faculty which uses external forms as symbols for its expression, as argued by cognitive psychologists. Commentators on symbolism tend to adopt equally differ­ ent approaches. From the point of view of a symbol dictating semantic connotations: "a symbol is more than a mark, a sound, a gesture, or an image; it is any of these together with the effect it has in a mind, that is, together with the psychical attitude to which it gives birth" (R.M.Eaton, * Symbolism and Truth*,p.1^9) • Seen in this way, a symbol acts as a stimulus causing a reaction on the mind. From the other point of view, meaning precedes a symbol, which is not the stimulus but the result of a thought process; "a symbol is an outwardly projected image of the inward feelings and thoughts of man" (Jana Garai,"The Book of Symbols",p.8). These two ways of looking at the relationship between symbol and mind reflect the two-way process in which thinking operates and have a bearing on the use of symbols in poetry. A poetic symbol may function deductively to convey the poet's state of mind (as is witnessed in Nij­ hoff's early poetry), or inductively as the source of ideas or inspiration (as witnessed in Nijhoff's later poetry).