Title: Literature as Resistance: Dutch Clandestine Literature during the Nazi Occupation (1940-1945)

Time: Dec. 04, 2020, 14:00-16:00

Offline address: Jingyuan Room 201, Peking University

Online address: Tencent Meeting, ID: 9287644002; Password: 191174

Speaker: Jeroen Dewulf

Abstract:

Clandestine literature was published in all countries under Nazi occupation, but nowhere else did it flourish as it did in the Netherlands. This raises important questions: what were the risks of writing, printing, selling, and buying clandestine literature during the Second World War? What was the content of this literature? And why the Netherlands in particular? International studies on the Netherlands under Nazi rule have focused mainly on the political situation, and paid little attention to the local underground press other than considering its political message. This omission of cultural perspective led to an incomplete and sometimes distorted image of the Dutch wartime attitude vis-à-vis the German occupiers. It also hindered the understanding of postwar Dutch society. In this lecture, Jeroen Dewulf shows that, in all its complexity, clandestine literature offers a unique perspective on Dutch society under German occupation and on the postwar debates about heroism, resistance, collaboration, and victimization.