Abstract
In a context in which various artistic groups resorted to periodicals to stage their public appearance, the editors of the Brussels-based magazine Hermès: Revue trimestrielle d'études mystiques et poétiques (1933–39) mobilized Middle Dutch mystical literature to carve out a space for themselves in the cultural scene of interwar Belgium. Drawing on methods and concepts of transfer studies and research into ethos construction, this article analyses the transfer strategies underpinning the publication of the French translation of the ‘First Vision’ of the Middle Dutch mystic Hadewijch (c. 1240), with which Hermès programmatically opened its inaugural volume. The analysis uncovers a complex histoire croisée which involved confrontations, both collaborative and conflictual, between Hermès and two very different groups of cultural actors: the circle of Brussels Surrealists, with whom the editors of Hermès shared a history, and the Catholic philologists of the Ruusbroecgenootschap [Ruusbroec Society], who equally sought to disseminate Middle Dutch mystical texts to a wider public, albeit with very different goals.
Highlights
Introduction à la mystique des PaysBas’, Hermès, 3.2 (1938), 3–22, ‘Pages de bibliographie’, Hermès, 1.2 (1933), 64–70, ‘Présentation de Sœur Hadewijch’, Hermès, 1.1 (1933), 3–6 Fraeters, Veerle, ‘The Mystic’s Sensorium: Modes of Perceiving and Knowing God in Hadewijch’s Visions’, in Mystical Anthropology: Authors from the Low Countries, ed. by John Arblaster and Rob Faesen (Londen and New York: Routledge, 2016), pp. 28–40 Fraeters, Veerle, and David Vermeiren, ‘“Een sombere viking die durfde spreken over Ruusbroec en Hadewich als voorlopers van het surrealisme”: schilder-dichter Marc
In a context in which various artistic groups resorted to periodicals to stage their public appearance, the editors of the Brussels-based magazine Hermès: Revue trimestrielle d’études mystiques et poétiques (1933–39) mobilized Middle Dutch mystical literature to carve out a space for themselves in the cultural scene of interwar Belgium
In one of our issues, we intend to return to this issue in more detail and perhaps we could listen to the defence and justification of those who are accused of syncretism.’67 It does not require much imagination to see that this last observation lashes out at Van Mierlo, who criticized the supposedly syncretic conception of mysticism underpinning Hermès’s endeavours
Summary
To cite this article: Tijl Nuyts and Veerle Fraeters, ‘Mediating Medieval Mystical Literature in Interwar Belgium: The Histoire Croisée of Hadewijch’s ‘First Vision’ in the Periodical Hermès (1933–39)’, Journal of European Periodical Studies, 6.2 (Winter 2021), 88–108
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