Dutch and Flemish literature, literary works written in the standard language of the Low Countries since the Middle Ages. It is conventional to use the term Dutch when referring to the language spoken by the people of the modern Netherlands, and Flemish when referring to that spoken by the Belgians who use the same language. This is inaccurate and many scholars would argue that Dutch and Flemish are dialects of a single language.
Flourishing from the 12th century onward, the earliest literature of the Low Countries displays a strong French and somewhat weaker German influence in its vocabulary and literary style. Middle Dutch literature shows the same general characteristics as the contemporary vernacular literatures; thus the bourgeois spirit was expressed in the works of Jacob van Maerlant and in the Dutch versions of Reynard the Fox. Hadewijch, John Ruysbroeck, and Gerard Groote spoke the language of mysticism. By the 14th cent., chivalry and scholasticism had waned, and by the 15th cent. Mysticism was transformed as moral piety. Among the best-known of Dutch medieval dramas are Mary of Nimmegen and the morality play Elckerlijk, closely related to Everyman.
After the 17th century, Flemish and Dutch literature declined. Pieter Langendijk and Joseph Addison's imitator Justus van Effen, the novelists Elisabeth Wolff and Agatha Deken, were the chief Dutch writers in the 18th cent. In the 19th century, Dutch and Flemish literature expanded on European lines, with the novelists Jacob van Lennep, Anna Bosboom-Toussaint, Eduard Dekker, and the Belgian Hendrik Conscience, and the poets Isaäc Da Costa, Hendrik Tollens, Everhardus Potgieter, and the Belgians Guido Gezelle, Albrecht Rodenbach, Pol de Mont, and Nicolaas Beets.
After the 1940s, the psychological novel came to typify Flemish literature. The physician Simon Vestdijk, perhaps the greatest Dutch writer of the 20th cent., wrote psychological novels that revealed the influence of existentialism. His contemporary Gerrit Achterberg explored similar themes of life and death in his powerful poems. The diary of Anne Frank is only the best known of a vast number of works that concern the Dutch experience during World War II. The character of Dutch poetry was altered after the war when Lucebert (Lubertus Swaanswijk), whose work was related to the internationalist CoBrA group, rejected rhyme and meter and introduced surrealist elements into his verse.
A few keywords as an outline for those that like to write the history of the Dutch language.
Earliest stages (1000-1500)
Wachtendonkse psalmen, Vogalas, Abele spelen, Reinaerde, Karel ende Elegast, mystery plays, rederijkers, Bijns
The "Golden Age" (1500-1650)
Vondel, P.C. Hooft (also his Histories), Bredero, Jacob Cats, Muiderkring, Statenvertaling, Vonderslag
Decline (1650-1800)
Van Alphen, Wolff en Deken
The Old Guard (1800-1880)
French era -> spelling reform of Siegenbeek and counter-reaction by Bilderdyk Dominees, Beets/Hildebrand, Potgieter, Piet Paaltjens, Schoolmeester, Bilderdyk, Conscience, Gezelle, Multatuli
achtigers (1880-1920)
Tachtigers/Perk/Kloos, Couperus, Van Eeden, Van Deyssel
Interbellum and the Second World War (1920-1945)
Marsman
Roland Holst
Slauerhoff
Hendrik de Vries
Vestdijk
Ter Braak
Du Perron
Jan Campert
Paul Van Ostaijen
Modern Times (1945-present)
Vijftigers, Lodeizen, Lucebert, Deelder, Brusselmans, Bernlef, Remco Campert, Grunberg, Mulisch, WFH, Reve, Lanoye
