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Document Details :

Title: 'Als een steen in oprimpelend water'
Subtitle: Regionaliteit en Jef Lasts Zuiderzee (1934)
Author(s): SINTOBIN, Tom , KUSTERS, Wiel
Journal: Spiegel der Letteren
Volume: 47    Issue: 2   Date: 2005   
Pages: 99-146
DOI: 10.2143/SDL.47.2.2004948

Abstract :
This article takes a closer look at what happens if one tries to read Jef Last’s novel Zuiderzee (1934) as if it were a regional novel. This might seem odd, for Zuiderzee, a novel on the construction of the ‘Afsluitdijk’, is usually catalogued as a sample of ‘Nieuwe zakelijkheid’ or as a social novel. Questions under consideration have to do with the way typical markers of regionality (toponymy, dialect, folklore) function in a novel aiming at a ‘supra-regional’ reader, with the construction of national/regional identities, with the novel’s apparent refusal to take position when regional and national or even international interests are contrasted, and with the relation all this holds with the sharp criticism on the genre at the time of publication.

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