De zang van de sirene. De Nederlandse literatuur van de zestiende eeuw en de grenzen van een vakgebied

Samenvatting

Starting from a small emblematic artwork made by the Netherlandish poet and visual artist Lucas d’Heere for his friend and colleague Joris Hoefnagel, this essay questions the usefulness of the concept of Dutch literary studies for our understanding of sixteenth-century literature. How valuable is a field built on the study of literary texts in one particular language to analyse the cultural production of an era that was particularly international, multilingual and aimed at the interaction between different art forms? I advocate an approach to literary texts that is both broad and specific: at the same time interdisciplinary and attentive to the unique character of the literary text. This approach, I believe, is not only useful in research but in teaching as well. It can also inspire us to consider the career of individuals with a degree in Dutch literature in a different way.