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Document Details :

Title: Een magische terugblik
Subtitle: The King's Two Bodies en Tom Lanoyes monstertrilogie
Author(s): ROUSSEAU, Valerie
Journal: Spiegel der Letteren
Volume: 50    Issue: 4   Date: 2008   
Pages: 487-506
DOI: 10.2143/SDL.50.4.2033504

Abstract :
Within a time range of five years Tom Lanoye, former enfant terrible of Flemish literature, published three novels, Het goddelijke monster (1997), Zwarte tranen (1999) and Boze tongen (2002), also known as his ‘Monster’-trilogy. Almost immediately critics categorized the novels as ‘romans à clef’, a label which highlights the direct historical references to actual persons and events but suppresses the more complex contextual, textual and intertextual references within the texts. As an important consequence the insistent mythical dimension of the trilogy is completely ignored. In an attempt to both illuminate these mythical elements and adjust the unilateral classification of the ‘Monster’-cycle as romans à clef, this article will analyse some of the more complex cross-references.

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