In Flemish literature on the Congo, Western civilization reigns supreme.
In the period before Congolese independence Flemish literature on the Congo was not of a very high literary quality.
The ultra-Flemish-sounding Stijn Streuvels was born Frank Lateur--a name which would not have helped him in these years when Flemish literature was still working to establish its identity.
Smits has done Flemish literature a great service by preparing this illuminating set of letters for publication.
The publisher Anton Kippenberg, who edited a military newspaper in Belgium, developed a taste for
Flemish literature there and began including it in translation in his famous Insel-Bucherei in early 1916.
It mingles essays on "Coming Out Stories," "Bloomsbury," "Dutch and
Flemish Literature," and "Sports Literature" with the more readily anticipated essays of a traditional critical/biographical/historical nature.
Buysse fostered the development of
Flemish literature and was one of the founders of the influential literary journal Van nu en straks ("Of Now and Later") in 1893.
He wrote a number of essays on the Flemish movement and published an important critical history of
Flemish literature, De Vlaamse letteren van Gezelle tot heden (4th ed, 1949).
Coppa's references are exhaustive, even for the
Flemish literature.
One of the leaders of the revival in
Flemish literature that developed in the late 1870s as a direct challenge to the growth of French influence in Belgian cultural life.
In the years after World War I, Expressionism was the dominant movement in
Flemish literature.
Van nu en straks gave
Flemish literature a greater significance in Europe as a whole.
