Siri Driessen, ‘Lezers! Ik bemin de waarheid.’ Het leven van de Nederlandse kleine burgerij verbeeld in midden-negentiende-eeuwse schetsen uit het leven
In the middle of the nineteenth century important developments took place in the culture of reading. Along with the emergence of new social groups, a specific literature for these groups developed, with its own literary style and conventions. In this article, Siri Driessen looks at a corpus of mid to late 19th century short novels written specifically by and for the upcoming petit bourgeoisie. These short novels function as guidebooks towards a specific system of values present within the petit bourgeoisie and offer at the same time various reflections on the prevailing mentality of the social group trying to distinguish itself from other classes with the help of fiction
Peter van den Hooff, Levenslessen van een zeevarend heilige. Enige christelijk-theologische achtergronden van de Navigatio sancti Brendani abbatis
The story of the imaginative nautical voyage of Saint Brendan in Navigatio sancti Brendani abbatis is a symbol of the walk of life of a Christian: the purpose of the voyage is beautiful, but he encounters many problems on his journey. Brendan stands face to face with danger and has to endure the trials of faith and asceticism, but arrives at the Promised Land of Saints in the end. The anonymous author explains the analogy of a voyage and the life journey by using ancient narrative elements from different cultures, including the Celtic, like the paradise island and the water barrier. The author also utilizes concepts from his own time, like the notion of pilgrimage and the Benedictine ideal of stabilitas. In this article some of these elements and patterns are closely examined.
Pepijn van Eeden, ‘De Grootinquisiteur van Sevilla’. De constructie van de vrijheid in het denken van Dostojevski, Hobbes, Nietzsche en Derrida
The chapter “The grandinquisitor of Sevilla” is known as the peak of Dostoevsky´s masterpiece The brothers Karamazov (1880). In this article, Pepijn van Eeden explores Dostoevsky’s concept of freedom and its inevitable limits, in comparison with Hobbes, Nietzsche and Derrida. As Hobbes, Dostoevsky’s inquisitor envisages a corrupt human being that needs a sovereign to give him peace. But as Nietzsche, Dostoevsky sees that the social contract was never based on human rationality. However the many concordances between Dostoevsky and Nietzsche, the former disagrees with the latter on the possibility of developing individual freedom and a societal moral order without unconditional ‘faith in Christ’. Derrida’s later work is used to show how Dostoevsky’s ‘doubt of doubt’ and his always quite complex emphasis on the human possibility of faith is highly relevant for Derrida’s undeconstructible ‘promesse émancipatoire’ and therewith for progressive thought in contemporary society.
