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Dutch-language literature

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Through Literature, Belgium and Speech

Until the end of the 11th century, Dutch literature, like literature elsewhere in Europe, was almost entirely oral and in the form of poetry. In the 12th and 13th century, writers starting writing chivalric romances and hagiographies for noblemen. From the 13th century, literature became more didactic and developed a proto-national character, as it was written for the bourgeoisie. With the close of the 13th century a change appeared in Dutch literature. The Flemish and Hollandic towns began to prosper and a new sort of literary expression began. Around 1440, literary guilds called rederijkerskamers ("Chambers of Rhetoric") arose which were usually middle-class in tone. Of these chambers, the earliest were almost entirely engaged in preparing mysteries and miracle plays for the people. Anna Bijns (c. 1494–1575) is an important figure who wrote in modern Dutch. The Reformation appeared in Dutch literature in a collection of Psalm translations in 1540 and in a 1566 New Testament translation in Dutch. The greatest of all Dutch writers is widely considered to be the playwright and poet Joost van den Vondel (1587–1679).

During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, the Low Countries had gone through major political upheaval. The most prominent writers of this era were Willem Bilderdijk (1756–1831), Hiëronymus van Alphen (1746–1803), and Rhijnvis Feith (1753–1824). Piet Paaltjens (ps. of François Haverschmidt, 1835–1894) represents in Dutch the Romantic vein exemplified by Heine. A new movement developed called Tachtigers or "Movement of (Eighteen-)Eighty", after the decade in which it arose. One of the most important historical writers of the 20th century was Johan Huizinga, who is known abroad and translated in different languages and included in several great books lists. During the 1920s, a new group of writers who distanced themselves from the ornate style of the Movement of 1880 arose, led by Nescio (J.H.F. Grönloh, 1882–1961). During WW II, influential writers included Anne Frank (whose diary was published posthumously), who died in a German concentration camp, as did crime fiction writer, journalist and poet Jan Campert. Writers who had lived through the atrocities of the Second World War reflected in their works on the changed perception of reality. Obviously many looked back on their experiences the way Anne Frank had done in her Diary, this was the case with Het bittere kruid (The bitter herb) of Marga Minco, and Kinderjaren (Childhood) of Jona Oberski. The renewal, which in literary history would be described as "ontluisterend realisme" (shocking realism), is mainly associated with three authors: Gerard Reve, W.F. Hermans and Anna Blaman. Reve and Hermans are often cited together with Harry Mulisch as the "Big Three" of Dutch postwar literature.

Old Dutch texts (500–1150)

Around 500 AD, Old Frankish evolved to Old Dutch, a West Germanic language that was spoken by the Franks and to a lesser extent by people living in the regions conquered by the Franks. Until the end of the 11th century, Dutch literature - like literature elsewhere in Europe - was almost entirely oral and in the form of poetry, as this helped troubadours remembering and reciting their texts. Scientific and religious texts were written in Latin and as a consequence most texts written in the Netherlands were written in Latin rather than Old Dutch. Extant Dutch texts from this period are rare.

In the earliest stages of the Dutch language, a considerable degree of mutual intelligibility with most other West Germanic dialects was present, and some fragments and authors can be claimed by both Dutch and German literature. Examples include the 10th-century Wachtendonck Psalms, a West Low Franconian translation of some of the Psalms on the threshold of what is considered Dutch, and the 12th-century County of Loon poet Henric van Veldeke (1150 – after 1184).

The Leiden Willeram

The Leiden Willeram is the name given to a manuscript containing a Low Franconian version of the Old High German commentary on Song of Solomon by the German abbot Williram of Ebersberg (ultimately by Isidore of Seville). Until recently, based on its orthography and phonology the text of this manuscript was believed by most scholars to be Middle Franconian, that is Old High German, with some Limburgic or otherwise Franconian admixtures. But in 1974, the German philologist Willy Sanders proved in his study Der Leidener Willeram that the text actually represents an imperfect attempt by a scribe from the northwestern coastal area of the Low Countries to translate the East Franconian original into his local vernacular. The text contains many Old Dutch words not known in Old High German, as well as mistranslated words caused by the scribe's unfamiliarity with some Old High German words in the original he translated, and a confused orthography heavily influenced by the Old High German original. For instance, the grapheme <z> is used after the High German tradition where it represents Germanic t shifted to . Sanders also proved that the manuscript, now in the University Library of Leiden University, was written at the end of the 11th century in the Abbey of Egmond in modern North Holland, whence the manuscript's other name Egmond Willeram.

Hebban olla vogala

The oldest known poetry was written by a West-Flemish monk in a convent in Rochester, England, around 1100: hebban olla vogala nestas hagunnan hinase hic enda thu wat unbidan we nu ("All birds have started making nests, except me and you, what are we waiting for"). According to professor Luc de Grauwe the text could equally well be Old English, more specifically Old Kentish, though there is no consensus on this hypothesis. At that time, Old (West) Dutch and Old English were very similar.

The Rhinelandic Rhyming Bible

Another important source for Old Dutch is the so-called Rhinelandic Rhyming Bible (Dutch: Rijnlandse Rijmbijbel and German: Rheinische Reimbibel). This is a verse translation of biblical histories, attested only in a series of fragments, which was composed in a mixed dialect containing Low German, Old Dutch and High German (Rhine-Franconian) elements. It was likely composed in north-west Germany in the early 12th century, possibly in Werden Abbey, near Essen.

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