Cosmopolitan Shakespeares in fin-de-siècle Belgian literature

Abstract

ABSTRACT Among the many signs of Anglophilia in fin-de-siècle Belgian francophone fin-de-siècle literature, Shakespeare and Elizabethan theatre occupy a special place. They play a fundamental role in defining the aesthetics and identity of many writers and artists. Over and above the adoption of Shakespearean themes by Fernand Khnopff and Maurice Maeterlinck (the 'Belgian Shakespeare'), there is a whole series of translations that link Belgian authors to Shakespeare's century: Georges Eekhoud, Célestin Demblon and Maurice Maeterlinck translated works by Shakespeare or other Elizabethan playwrights; the decadent poet Arthur Symons transposed Émile Verhaeren's 'Les Aubes', which alternates verse and prose, into an 'Elizabethan' form in English. Taken together, these individual examples reveal that the Shakespeare reference functioned as a springboard for literary cosmopolitanism and as an opportunity for these writers to redefine themselves in the interplay between local and global identities.