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Document Details : Title: Een half weggevaagd gezicht Subtitle: Het thema van de Tweede Wereldoorlog in Marcel (1999) van Erwin Mortier Author(s): LENSEN, Jan Journal: Spiegel der Letteren Volume: 49 Issue: 1 Date: 2007 Pages: 23-52 DOI: 10.2143/SDL.49.1.2023432 Abstract : In this paper, I wish to investigate the theme of the Second World War in Marcel by Erwin Mortier, a novel that was published nearly sixty years after the ending of this historic event. This long time span does raise questions about the status, the value, and the role this historic event still plays in recent Flemish prose fiction. How and how much does this prose concern itself with the past? Which literary means are herefore applied? With this paper, I want to make clear that the novel holds a highly ambiguous position towards the war, balancing between distance and involvement. It foregrounds this event as something which must be considered as belonging to the past, but even so as something which should not be forgotten. |
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