‘’t Sprookje is uit, the thrill is gone’. Hugo Claus als herschrijver van populaire narratieve sjablonen in 'Het jaar van de kreeft' (1972)

Samenvatting

In Claus-studies, scholars have limited research of Claus’s prose writing to its erudite intertextual interlacement (De Geest 2005: 280; cf. Claes 1984; Wildemeersch 2003) and the complex story composition. Consequently, the popular dimension of the novels has remained a blind spot. However, the novel Het jaar van de kreeft (1972) shows a constant hybridization of high and low culture, on a thematic as well as on a more structural level by integrating popular narrative patterns. This way, Claus creates a palimpsest of various popular narrative genres which are incorporated and transformed at the same time. To study this tension, I take my cue from a narratological analysis and from the concept of the rewriting of literary models.