A Flemish tale: Flemish roots-literature and the dismantling of Flemish identity

Abstract

The federalisation of Belgium has been gaining momentum since 1970. Flanders in particular has presented itself as a self-confident area claiming autonomy and a coherent identity. On the one hand the difference between Flanders and its neighbours is stressed and on the other hand an internal cohesion is proclaimed. Flanders seems to be obsessed with the concept and the reality of'border’ and has an intense awareness of ‘space’. Flemish identity is narrativized into a Flemish tale, or rather the Flemish tale. It is a Bildungsgeschichte in which the main character is a ‘we’ (as opposed to ‘the others’) and the motifs are language, history, peculiarity, struggle etc. Together with this political discourse (narrative), a particular literary genre has boomed in Flemish literature: so called roots-literature in which a search is undertaken towards one's descent and/or origin. In Flemish and especially in Dutch literary criticism this genre is considered to be ‘typically Flemish’, which suggests that the genre contributes to the construction of a Flemish identity. Yet, the confrontation with about a hundred novels from a very heterogeneous group of authors (from Hugo Claus, to Walter van den Broeck, Leo Pleysier and Stefan Hertmans) shows us a very different picture. A closer look reveals indeed that Flemish roots-literature deconstructs the ideas of cohesion, autonomy and origin. Flemish identity is exposed and dismantled, the concept of space is criticized (be it Belgium, Flanders or a specific region or village) and the ‘borders’ are questioned. The literary narrative undermines the political narrative instead of being a docile illustration of it. This shows an important discrepancy between political and literary discourse. It also shows how a quest for roots leads to the pursuit of rootlessness. Flemish literature resists the ideas of cohesion and harmony that is being forced upon it. A typically Flemish trait perhaps?