L'Île au rhum et Nuits irlandaises de S. Vestdijk : deux romans coloniaux sur la perte d'une illusion

Abstract

S. Vestdijk was a prolific writer of historical and contemporary novels. In all his novels themes characteristic of his writing come to the fore, such as the loyalty to one’s past, the longing for a beloved woman and the reversibility of loyalty and treason. We discuss two historical novels of Vestdijk which are situated in a colonial environment : Rumeiland (1940) and Iersche nachten (1944). Vestdijk’s Marxist colleague Theun de Vries opined that the colonial situation of Jamaica was insufficiently exposed in Rumeiland. He did, however, praise the image Vestdijk drew of the social effects of colonialism in nineteenth-century Ireland. We argue that Vestdijk did present a penetrative picture of colonial society in Rumeiland, both in his descriptions and in certain symbolical representations. Contemporary critics were so focused upon the central romantic story that they paid but little attention to the social aspects of the novel.