Poetics of Transition — Africa and Dutch Literary Space

Abstract

This essay discusses current trends and debates on ‘migrant literature’ in the light of historical intersections in Dutch literary space and with particular attention to contemporary publication /reception by writers from Africa. Dutch writing is not monolithic; stratifications and interactions date back well into the past. The position of African writers in contemporary Dutch literature is discussed, particularly writers from the Maghreb (Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia). These ‘new Dutch’ writings have created a literary phenomenon since the mid-1990s and have affected – and reacted to – the sociological debate on migrancy, ‘allochtonous’, ‘Dutch Moroccan’, and associated definitional discussions. Strategies connected with growing interest in media and public interest in these new writers are illustrated by the ‘dutchification’ of anglophone manuscripts and the literary case of ‘Yusef El Halal’. The essay concludes by indicating the difficulty involved in naming and positioning writers, via the works of Hafid Bouazza, a writer who adopts an antagonistic attitude towards any definitions that threaten to limit the creative activity of writing by valorizing ‘origins’ and ‘ethnic’ attributes.