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Document Details :

Title: 'Volslagen onbekend'
Subtitle: Over de onderlinge complementariteit van Den Doolaard- en Macedoniëbeelden
Author(s): DE DOBBELEER, Michel
Journal: Spiegel der Letteren
Volume: 56    Issue: 1   Date: 2014   
Pages: 27-50
DOI: 10.2143/SDL.56.1.3011360

Abstract :
This contribution explores how traditional western images of the Balkans (as unspoiled, savage and romantic, but also politically unstable and dangerous, a powder keg) were differently constructed in the two Macedonia-based novels (Oriënt-Express, 1934; De bruiloft der zeven zigeuners [The wedding of the seven gypsies], 1939) by A. den Doolaard, the Dutch journalist-writer who has recently received much biographical attention in the Netherlands as well as in Macedonia. At the same time, it is demonstrated in which way these images can be rather easily connected with several posture-related aspects of Den Doolaard’s authorship and artistic (self-)representation. The contribution argues why the artificial splitting up, in Macedonia, of the image of the writer may have thwarted his popularity over there, regardless of the recent inauguration of a Den Doolaard monument in that country.

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