marieke winkler – letterkundige, criticus en onderzoeker

Categorie: conference

  • Achter de Verhalen 2026

    Van woensdag 15 t/m vrijdag 17 april vindt in Gent het 20e Achter de Verhalen-congres plaats. Het congres verwelkomt bijdragen van onderzoekers op het brede gebied van de moderne Nederlandse letterkunde uit de hele wereld. Het verbindende thema van de 2026-editie is ‘vormen van lezen’. Het programma is vanaf heden te raadplegen via de website.

    Op de eerste congresdag (15 april) delen Marjolein van Herten en ik ervaringen rond onze ‘Klimaatleesclub’-pilot voor studenten milieu- en klimaatwetenschappen van de Open Universiteit. In het collegejaar 2024-2025 lazen we achtereenvolgens Ian McEwans Solar (2010), Amitav Ghosh’ Gun Island (2019), Eva Meijers Zee Nu (2022) en Rachel Carsons Silent Spring (1962, of de nieuwe Nederlandse vertaling door Nico Groen, Verstild voorjaar 2022). Hoe leggen studenten de relatie tussen het gelezen werk en hun klimaatwetenschappelijke kennis, en welke rol speelt het samen discussiëren c.q. dialogisch leren daarin?

    Aan de hand van een online enquête hebben we o.a. onderzocht:

    • 1. hoe studenten het lezen van klimaatfictie als klimaatexpert hebben ervaren;
    • 2. of zij een verschillende houding bemerkten ten aanzien van fictie of non-fictie;
    • 3. of het lezen van klimaatliteratuur hun houding t.a.v. klimaatverandering beïnvloedde;
    • 4. of het lezen en bespreken van boeken invloed heeft gehad buiten de leesclub (gedrag, gesprekken, …).

    Naar aanleiding van onze ervaringen met de leesclubdiscussies en de uitkomsten van het onderzoek wisselen we graag van gedachten over de didactische aanpak van de pilot en, in het algemeen, over didactische vormen die kennisintegratie kunnen vergroten in een multidisciplinaire omgeving.

  • Verschenen: Utopia, Equity and Ideology in Urban Texts – Fair and Unfair Cities

    Deze zomer verscheen Utopia, Equity and Ideology in Urban Texts. Fair and Unfair Cities, het nieuwste deel in de Literary Urban Studies (LIURS)-serie van Palgrave MacMillan. Het boek volgt op het congres (Un)Fair Cities. Equity, Ideology and Utopia in Urban Texts dat in december 2019 in Limerick georganiseerd werd door de Association for Literary Urban Studies en het Ralahine Centre for Utopian Studies.

    In ‘Imaginaries of the Future City: Envisioning Climate Change and Technological Cityscapes through Dutch Contemporary Speculative Fiction’ dat als hoofdstuk is opgenomen in dit boek, beschrijven Marjolein van Herten en ik de opkomst en ontwikkeling van de toekomstliteratuur (future novel) en speculatieve fictie in Nederland, en de recente opleving daarvan in boekhandel én academische literatuurstudie.

    In het hoofdstuk bespreken we acht Nederlandse teksten die verschenen tussen 2014 en 2021: Weerwater (2015) van Renate Dorrestein; Kop uit het zand (2016) van Jan Terlouw; In alle steden (2017) van Aukelien Weverling; Klont (2017) van Maxim Februari; De goede zoon (2018) van Rob van Essen; Concept M. (2018) van Aafke Romeijn; Het boek van alle angsten (2020) van Emy Koopman; en KliFi. Woede in de Republiek Nederland (2021) van Adriaan van Dis.

    De focus ligt daarbij enerzijds op de manier waarop de stedelijke en natuurlijke leefomgeving wordt verbeeld. In hoeverre wagen Nederlandse auteurs zich aan de verbeelding van fantastische nieuwe werelden of blijven zij toch liever ‘dicht bij huis’ (en waarom dan)?

    Anderzijds zijn we benieuwd hoe de nieuwe interesse in extrapolatie (het verlengen, intensiveren of uitbreiden van elementen uit het heden naar een toekomst of alternatief heden) wordt verbonden aan het recente debat over Nederlandse klimaatfictie. Daarin gaan we, thematisch en formeel, op zoek naar elementen van ‘utopian hope’. Welke elementen van ‘utopian hope’ vallen te herkennen naast de duidelijke dystopische impuls in Nederlandse speculatieve (kilmaat)fictie?

    Benieuwd naar onze bevindingen? Lees dan het hoofdstuk:

    Marieke Winkler and Marjolein van Herten (2023). ‘Imaginaries of the Future City: Envisioning Climate Change and Technological Cityscapes through Dutch Contemporary Speculative Fiction’, in: Michael G. Kelly and Mariano Paz (eds.) Utopia, Equity and Ideology in Urban Texts. Fair and Unfair Cities. Palgrave Macmillan Cham. ISBN 978-3-031-25854-1. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25855-8

    In this chapter, we address the flourishing and fast-growing production of future novels within contemporary Dutch literature since 2014. We analyse the ways in which Dutch authors use the technique of extrapolation to envision the urban/natural environment of the future, focused on a corpus of eight future novels from the period 2015–2021. First, we argue that, by indicating and comparing both spatial and temporal ‘reality markers’, speculation in contemporary Dutch literature tends to stay ‘close to home’. Second, we demonstrate that, overall, the themes of climate change and technologization are represented as highly intertwined in diverse constellations. In addition, we try to determine in what way the stories under investigation give both formally and thematically expression to a utopian impulse: Overall, do they show utopian elements or is the urban experience predominantly dystopian?

  • the public circulation of knowledge

    Exactly one week ago, the 9th Making of the Humanities conference kicked off. What followed were three days of excellent panels and lectures under the theme ‘Unfolding Disciplines’.

    Scholars of the Lund Center for the History of Knowledge invited me to join their panel on ‘The humanities and the public sphere in post-war Western Europe’. While the history of the modern humanities traditionally focuses on the university and academic disciplines – and, increasingly, on interdisciplinary constellations – this panel set out to investigate the public circulation of knowledge, that is: the way humanistic knowledge functions outside the university and in interaction with press, radio, television and the wider book market.

    Anton Jansson spoke about the way humanistic knowledge was shaped in educational initiatives of the Swedish Labour Movement in the postwar years, Ragni Svensson took us to several independent Scandinavian socialist book cafes from the 1970’s and high lightened these places as ‘alternative knowledge sites’, and in my own lecture I took the opportunity to look at the literary magazine Merlyn (1962-1966) which was an important mediator for New Critics’ insights into Dutch literary studies and in a way illustrates the process of knowledge transfer from the public to the university (stimulated in that time by the rise of paperbacks). Finally, Johan Östling introduced the concept of a ‘public arena of knowledge’ and analyzed the broadcasting show ‘Ask Lund’ arguing that in the newest form of media (in this case: television) classical humanistic knowledge could thrive.

    Studying these examples of public knowledge circulation poses important questions on the way the societal relevance of the humanities can be studied. To mention just a few of the questions that came up during the panel: What are the public spheres of relevance in the postwar years and how did they develop? What are its gatekeepers, both visible and invisible? What is the role of alternative sites of knowledge (then and now), how do they interact with academic disciplines and vica versa? And… when does humanistic knowledge actually stop to be part of the humanities?

    I’m looking forward reading more on the public circulation of knowledge and the concept of ‘knowledge arena’s’ in the upcoming issue of History of Humanities guest edited by Östling and colleagues!

  • In press:

    It was exactly 3 years ago, on the 25th of January 2018, that the international conference ‘The Icon as Cultural Model’ kicked off with a wonderful key note lecture by prof. Ann Rigney (Utrecht University). What followed were two inspiring days, during which a diversity of speakers presented many interesting examples of, and approaches to, the modelling function of the icon as an artistic, religious, political and commercial symbol.

    The Icons-conference feels like yesterday and at the same time half a lifetime away, because in 2018 we could not imagine that a global pandemic would inflict the world as it does now, nor would we even think about organizing such an event wholly online – as was the case last week, with the Open University’s follow-up conference ‘Cultural Perceptions of Safety’.

    Today, I am more than happy to announce that the conference proceedings, entitled The Construction and Dynamics of Cultural Icons, are to be published by Amsterdam University Press very soon.

    The volume offers a comprehensive overview of the existing conceptualizations of the icon and demonstrates how the concept can be fruitfully applied in cultural studies’ research. It includes chapters on, in the Western world, well-known media icons such as Brigitte Bardot, on political icons such as Lenin and on iconic national objects such as the Japanese tea bowl. There is a chapter on ‘iconic city cinema’ and how to use movies to encode geopolitics, and another one on what we can call a ‘subsequent icon’, the chest-nut tree in the garden of Anne Frank, that became an icon on its own, thus renewing the memory of the icon Anne Frank itself. But also chapters that focus more on processes of iconization: such as the role of museum exhibits in the construction of the ‘narrative’ accompanying the image and the complex question how, within the rather fixed, static iconic representation, there can be made room for new perspectives and meanings.

    The volume is part of AUP’s Heritage and Memory Series and can be pre-ordered via their website.   

  • Imaginaries of the Future City

    Amsterdam onder water

    In september is het onderzoeksproject ‘Imaginaries of the Future City: Envisioning Climate Change and Technological Cityscapes through Contemporary Speculative Fiction’ van start gegaan. Speculatieve fictie vormt hierin het uitgangspunt om samen met milieuwetenschappers en psychologen na te denken over de verschillende manieren waarop fictieve verhalen de verbeelding van de toekomstige stad vormgeven.

    Op 13 december presenteerden Marjolein van Herten en ik de eerste bevindingen tijdens het congres ‘(Un)Fair Cities: Equity, Ideology, Utopia in Urban Texts‘ (Limerick).

    Abstract

    How does narrative fiction function as an integrating discourse in constructing and shaping (collective) imaginations of a safe future city? This is the departing question of the interdisciplinary research project ‘Imaginaries of the Future City. Envisioning Climate Change and Technological Cityscapes Through Contemporary Speculative Fiction’ of the Open University of the Netherlands. In this project, researchers of different fields of study – literary studies, environmental studies and psychology – cooperate to investigate their use of narratives in thinking about and conceptualizing the future city. Our focus lies with the impact of climate change and technological developments on future city-life. In this paper we would like to share the first findings of our interdisciplinary research group, focusing in particular on the field of literary studies. The notion of ‘speculative fiction’ links to literary narratives that shape and constitute imaginations of the future city and society. In these narratives, cityscapes play a central role: they represent nodal points in which the anxiety surrounding contemporary urban problems and their impact on individuals, societal groups and their environment, are projected. For example, in the Dutch speculative novel De goede zoon (2018) the predominantly grey cityscape has infiltrated ruthlessly into rural areas; even when the protagonist finds himself ‘in nature’ the landscape is highly artificial (the dears in the forest turn out to be robots). Hence, the author confronts the reader with the question of the impact of urban planning in a globalizing world just by imaginatively ‘extrapolating’ present day developments. Even when not explicitly moralizing, the narratives produced within the framework of contemporary speculative fiction show a profound dystopian point of view raising the question to what extend they contribute to productive awareness. By analysing the way speculative fiction represents the future city this paper addresses the question to what extent speculative fiction can contribute to productive awareness of the impact of climate change and technology. Also, it offers reflection on the importance of narrative analysis in contemplating and conceptualizing the future safe city in other fields of study such as environmental studies and psychology.

     

    Het project ‘Imaginaries of the Future City’ wordt gefinancierd door het universiteitsbrede onderzoeksprogramma De Veilige Stad van de Open Universiteit.

     

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    Afbeelding: Waterlicht, installatie door Daan Roosegaarde.

  • NorLit 2019

    This picture was taken at Copenhagen University where, on August 14th until August 16th the Nordic Association for Literary Research (NorLit) held its 2019 conference. This year’s edition was dedicated to the theme: ‘Money and Literature: Wealth, Finance, Aesthetics’ and explored the complex relations between literature, culture and economics in both a contemporary and a historical perspective. During NorLit 2019, Lina Samuelsson (Mälardalen University) and I took the opportunity to present the first findings of our project ‘The Crisis of Criticism Compared: Journalistic Literary Criticism in Sweden and the Netherlands (2007-2017)’. See the abstract of our presentation below or visit the website of Copenhagen University for a full description of the conference.

    How much does good criticism cost? – Economic and Aesthetic Statements in Journalistic Literary Criticism in the Netherlands and Sweden (2007–2017)

    Traditionally, in modern culture artistic and commercial values have a troubled relationship. For example, in regard to the literary field Pierre Bourdieu has pointed out that in order to gain ‘symbolic capital’ (artistic prestige) participants structurally conceal the economic dimension of literary production. In the case of literary criticism the tension between artistic and economic value becomes visible in the way critics reflect upon their profession, namely as either part of the artistic domain (‘criticism as an art form’) or the commercial domain (‘criticism as consumer information’). At the same time, due to digitalization (changed material conditions, amateur book bloggers, unpaid consumer reviews online) economic factors also seem to gain symbolic value, for example when payment as a demarcating criteria for professional criticism becomes a nodal point of discussion.

    In this paper we will reflect on the above mentioned tensions in relation to the outcomes of our project ‘The Crisis of Criticism: A Comparative Perspective’ in which we have analyzed meta-critical statements on book reviewing in public print media from Sweden and the Netherlands for the period of 2007-2017. It is striking that, while in Sweden the economic and material conditions of literary criticism are a recurring topic, this reflection is less explicit in the debate on Dutch journalistic criticism. Why is money such an important topic of reflection for the Swedish critic and less so for the Dutch? This question is analyzed in the light of the different views on the nature of criticism and the reviewing traditions in Sweden and the Netherlands.

    The Nordic Association for Literary research is a Nordic organization for literary research in all relevant disciplines such as comparative literature, the disciplines of language and cultural studies. Every second year the organization holds a conference devoted to the interdisciplinary research of literature.

     

     

     

     

     

  • Criticism in the Modern Humanities

    fullsizerender-6In het najaar van 2014 vond in Rome het vierde ‘The Making of the Humanities’ congres plaats. Tijdens dat congres sprak ik over ‘Criticism as a Connecting Principle’. Na talloze herschrijf en schaafrondes en een straffe peer-review procedure verscheen – precies vier jaar later – het artikel ‘Criticism in the History of the Modern Humanities: the Case of Literary Studies in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth-Century Netherlands’ in de derde jaargang van History of Humanities. Het artikel herpakt en denkt door op de belangrijkste bevindingen van mijn proefschrift Geleerd of niet. Literatuurkritiek en literatuurwetenschap in Nederland, sinds 1876 (2017) en plaatst die in het internationale debat over de waarde en maatschappelijke functie van de moderne geesteswetenschappen.

    Ontzettend blij met deze mooie afsluiter van 2018!

    Iedereen een prachtig nieuw jaar gewenst.

     

    Abstract

    Critical thinking and delivering criticism of cultural products, practices, and events are traditionally considered a distinctive asset of humanities research and education. Today, the notion of critical thinking is still highly prevalent in humanities’ self-description. At the same time, the question of whether criticism should have an intrinsic role within humanities practice remains highly disputed, especially within disciplines such as literary studies and art history. This article traces the development of the debate surrounding criticism and scholarship in order to historically contextualize the contemporary discussion on the presumed critical task of the humanities scholar. It focuses on the history of literary studies in the Netherlands in order to investigate the specific ways literary scholars in the past have articulated and shaped criticism through their academic practice. Two case studies are analyzed in depth: the practice of W. J. A. Jonckbloet (1817–85) in the formation period at the end of the nineteenth century, and the practice of N. A. Donkersloot (1902–65) in the first half of the twentieth century. The analysis shows the profound fluidity of the term criticism and sheds light on the constant negotiation of the boundaries of scientific objectivity (when critical judgment is understood in terms of textual editing or as part of the quest for aesthetic laws) and artistic subjectivity (when critical judgment is understood in terms of artistic interpretation and evaluation of the object of study).

    Marieke Winkler, “Criticism in the History of the Modern Humanities: The Case of Literary Studies in the Late Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Netherlands,” History of Humanities 3, no. 2 (Fall 2018): 303-325. Zie ook History of Humanities.

    10648572_10100978128345362_9041435302781154850_ofoto: The Making of the Humanities IV, KNIR, Rome, 16-18 oktober 2014. 

     

     

  • Present in Reality

    Volgende week start het congres ‘Picturing Reality‘ georganizeerd door de Association of Low Countries Studies (ALCS) in Sheffield. Ik heb er enorm veel zin in. Het thema vormt aanleiding om mijn favoriete beweging in de Nederlandse literatuur, het neo-realisme uit de jaren zestig, te behandelen en verder na te denken over de betekenis van het werk van auteurs als Schippers en Armando die de poëzie willen terugbrengen tot ‘een ogenblik in de gebeurtenissen van de dag’ (Leo Vroman, Ars Poetica 1959). Het wordt bovendien een feestelijke editie; het congres staat stil bij 70 jaar Nederlands aan de Universiteit van Sheffield.

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    uit: David Shields, Reality Hunger. A Manifesto (2010), p.46.

  • neo-realisme: just a joke?

    Duchamp en wheel

    Onder de titel ‘Picturing Reality‘ stelt het aankomende ALCS Congres (zomer 2018) de relatie tussen kunst en werkelijkheid centraal. Vertrekpunt is de aanname dat kunst – ook als zij geen nadrukkelijke band met de vertrouwde realiteit aangaat – ons iets kan leren over de werkelijkheid. Deze aanname impliceert voor de congresorganisatie dat er vooral gekeken wordt naar zogenaamde ‘contact zones’, het literaire werk als ontmoetingsplaats van feit en fictie bijvoorbeeld, of van leven en kunst, van waarheid en verbeelding. Ik neem het thema ‘Picturing Reality’ te baat om door te denken op het onderwerp waar ik al sinds mijn studie door gefascineerd ben: de manier waarop Nederlandse auteurs zich vanaf het einde van de jaren ’50 laten inspireren door de moderne beeldende kunst om de literatuur te vernieuwen en hoe dit type literatuur – door literatuurhistorici ‘neo-realisme’ gedoopt – als minder literair, en zelfs als onartistiek wordt gewaardeerd.

    Recente literaire ontwikkelingen, zoals de grote populariteit van ‘waar gebeurde’ persoonlijke verhalen en de wens van schrijvers om met hun werk expliciet ‘in de wereld’ te willen staan als ook het bijbehorende engagement-debat, maken bestudering van het neo-realistische werk uit de (late) jaren ’50 en jaren ’60 opnieuw relevant. Waar kwam de behoefte van auteurs als K. Schippers en Armando vandaan om de realiteit als een ready made in de literatuur te brengen? In hoeverre verschilt het neo-realistische gebaar, of komt het overeen, met de beweging richting de werkelijkheid in de literatuur van nu, zoals die bijvoorbeeld wordt gesignaleerd door David Shields in zijn pamflet Reality Hunger (2010)?

     

    Hieronder het Engelstalig abstract van mijn bijdrage aan ‘Picturing Reality’ dat plaatsvindt van 28 tot en met 30 juni 2018 aan de University of Sheffield. Zie de website van the Association for Low Countries Studies voor het volledige programma en aanmelding. 

     

    Abstract

    When in the 60s neo-realistic Dutch writers such as K. Schippers, J. Bernlef, Armando and Hans Sleutelaar started to adopt the ready made-principle the literary establishment was shocked. Although these writers took inspiration from international artists, such as Marcel Duchamp and Robert Rauschenberg, the application of the ‘ready made’ within (Dutch) literature was evaluated as ‘easy’, ‘lazy’, ‘just a joke’ and moreover ‘non artistic’ (see Mourits 2001).

    Until today this reaction to the neo-realistic gesture pops up. Recently, critic Arjan Peters for example stated that Schippers was fooling his readers (de Volkskrant, 16/09/2017). Underneath this evaluation lies a strong believe in literature being different from reality; the idea that the artist – by means of his exceptional talent – can offer us an alternative reality. At the same time, this view is much contested by those who argue that literature should not be approached as something different from reality, but as a means to (critically) break into reality (see Vaessens 2009 and Van Rooden 2015).

    Still, within this debate which in the Netherlands circles strongly around the notion of ‘engagement’, the neo-realistic gesture of the ‘ready made’ is much neglected. In my contribution I like to revisit the work of K. Schippers and Armando, two writers who are still active, and propose a different interpretation of their work within the current debate on literary engagement. As a guideline I like to take David Shields thought-provoking manifesto Reality Hunger (2010) in which Shields argues that a new literary model has arrived, one that builds heavily upon the ‘ready made’-principle and hence meets our deep need for reality in a high-tech, mediated world.

     

    Afbeelding: Marcel Duchamp met Bicycle wheel (1913)   

  • Registration open!

    Registration is now open for the Open University’s conference ‘The Icon as Cultural Model: Past, Present and Future‘ (25-26 January, 2018). See the website for more information on the program, speakers and how to register. Hope to see you there!

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