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Document Details :

Title: Cultuurdebat in Nederland
Subtitle: De gemiddelde lezer contra 'intellectualisme' in de late jaren dertig
Author(s): VAN BOVEN, Erica
Journal: Spiegel der Letteren
Volume: 54    Issue: 3   Date: 2012   
Pages: 353-368
DOI: 10.2143/SDL.54.3.2175913

Abstract :
In this article, the concept ‘middlebrow’ is used as an instrument to analyse a polemic from 1939 between the critic Menno ter Braak and the journalist Doe Hans. Hans enters a protest against the authority of a small group of intellectuals in cultural matters, and demands space for the common reader. An analysis of this paper war in terms of a ‘battle of the brows’ offers a deeper understanding of the cultural and social frictions of the late 1930s. The middlebrow culture that took shape is not a homogeneous field; Doe Hans represents a nationalistic, völkisch variant.

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