2004
Volume 29, Issue 2
  • ISSN: 1384-5829
  • E-ISSN: 2352-118X

Abstract

Abstract

The democratic, progressive and emancipatory potential of the novel has been emphasized many times by literary theorists. But although it has become a commonplace to frame the medium of the novel in this way, there is hardly any empirical evidence that novels historically reflect or shape social progress. Comparing two large corpora of Dutch novels from the 1960s and the 2010s, this article hypothesizes that gender representation in modern novels transforms in light of the changing societal position of women. This hypothesis is rejected on four grounds. 1) Female characters do not become more visible in this period of approximately fifty years, neither in terms of how often they occur, nor in terms of the amount of words used for their characterization. 2) In terms of their social networks, female characters do not increasingly take up more central roles. 3) In terms of most distinctive words used for the characterization of men and women, the literary discourse on female gender remains highly stereotypical (more than for male gender). 4) There is no shift in the ‘distance’ between male and female gender, suggesting that these categories are not becoming more fluid and less restricted in this period. Based on these four arguments, the article concludes that gender representation is remarkably stable between the 1960s and the 2010s. More generally, these findings are used to reconsider the novel’s alleged democratic, progressive and emancipatory potential.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.5117/NEDLET.2024.2.003.SMEE
2024-12-01
2025-01-02
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Abrams, Meyer Howard, The Mirror and the Lamp. Romantic Theory and the Critical Tradition. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1953.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Albrecht, Milton, ‘Does Literature Reflect Common Values?’, in: American Sociological Review21, 6, 1956, 722-729.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Anderson, Benedict, Imagined Communities. Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London, Verso, 1983.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Aristoteles, Poetica. Groningen, Historische Uitgeverij, 2017.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Auerbach, Erich, Mimesis. The Representation of Reality in Western Literature. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2003.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Barnett, James H. & RhodaGruen, ‘Recent American Divorce Novels, 1938-1945. A Study in the Sociology of Literature’, in: Social Forces26, 3, 1948, 322-327.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Bell, Bill, Crusoe’s Books. Readers in the Empire of Print, 1800 – 1918. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2021.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Berelson, B. & P.Salter, ‘Majority and minority Americans. An Analysis of Magazine Fiction’, in: Public Opinion Quarterly10, 2, 1946, 168-190.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Boven, Erica van, ‘De middlebrow-roman schrijft terug. Visies op elite en “hoge literatuur” in enkele publieksromans rond 1930’, in: Tijdschrift voor Nederlandse Taal-en Letterkunde125, 3, 2011, 285-305.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Darnton, Robert, ‘Readers Respond to Rousseau. The Fabrication of Romantic Sensitivity’, in: The Great Cat Massacre and other Episodes in French Cultural History. New York, Basic Books, 1984, 215-256.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Deijl, Lucas van der, SaskiaPieterse, MarionPrinse & RoelSmeets, ‘Mapping the Demographic Landscape of Characters in Recent Dutch Prose. A Quantitative Approach to Literary Representation’, in: Journal of Dutch Literature7, 1, 2016, 20-42.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Deijl, Lucas van der & RoelSmeets, ‘Tussen close en distant. Personage-hiërarchieën in Peter Buewalda’s Bonita Avenue’, in: Tijdschrift voor Nederlandse Taal- en Letterkunde, 134, 2, 2018, 123-145.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Demeyer, Hans & SvenVitse, Affectieve crisis, literair herstel. De romans van de millennialgeneratie. Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press, 2021.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Demeyer, Hans & SvenVitse, ‘De affectieve dominant. Een ideologiekritische lezing van recent Nederlandstalig proza’, in: Tijdschrift voor Nederlandse taal-en letterkunde134, 3, 2018, 220-244.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Eisenstein, Elisabeth, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1980.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Greenblatt, Stephen Jay & MargaretHealy, ‘Introduction’, in: The Power of Forms in the English Renaissance. Norman, Okla, Pilgrim Books, 1982.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Hakemulder, Frank, The Moral Laboratory. Experiments Examining the Effects of Reading Literature on Social Perception and Moral Self-Knowledge. Amsterdam, John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2000.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Heijne, Bas, Echt zien. Literatuur in het mediatijdperk. Amsterdam, Polak & Van Gennep, 2011.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Hill Collins, Patricia, Black Feminist Thought. Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. Oxfordshire, Routledge, 2008.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Hunt, Lynn, Inventing Human Rights. A History. New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2007.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Inglis, Ruth A, ‘An Objective Approach to the Relationship between Fiction and Society’, in: American Sociological Review3, 4, 1938, 526-533.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Kidd, David Comer & EmanueleCastano, ‘Reading Literary Fiction Improves Theory of Mind’, in: Science, 342, 6156, 2013, 377-380.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Koolen, Corina, Dit is geen vrouwenboek. De waarheid achter man-vrouw-verschillen in de literatuur. Amsterdam, HarperCollins, 2020.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Koolen, Corina, Reading Beyond the Female. Dissertation, Universiteit van Amsterdam, 2018.
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Kraicer, Eve & AndrewPiper, ‘Social Characters. The Hierarchy of Gender in Contemporary English-Language Fiction’, in: Journal of Cultural Analytics, 1, 1, 2019, 1-28.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Laughlin, K., Gallagher, J., Cobble, D., Boris, E., Nadasen, P., Gilmore, S. & Zarnow, L., ‘Is It Time to Jump Ship? Historians Rethink the Waves Metaphor’, in: Feminist Formations22, 1, 2010, 76-135.
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Mar, Raymond & KeithOatley, ‘The Function of Fiction is the Abstraction and Simulation of Social Experience’, in: Perspectives on Psychological Science, 3, 3, 2008, 173-192.
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Meijer, Maaike, ‘Countering Textual Violence. On the Critique of Representation and the Importance of Teaching Its Method’, in: Women’s Studies International Forum, 16, 4, 1993, 367-378.
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Nussbaum, Martha, Not For Profit. Why Democracy Needs the Humanities. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2010.
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Olnon, Merlijn & Yravan Dijk, ‘Radicaal relationisme. Het andere engagement in de jongste Nederlandse literatuur’, in: De Gids, 3, 2015.
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Pieterse, Saskia, ‘Schaamte en gezichtsverlies bij Wolkers, Hermans en Mulisch’, in: Neerlandistiek.nl, 07.10g, 2007.
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Plato, Politeia. Amsterdam, Athenaeum, 2023.
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Potolsky, Matthew, Mimesis. The New Critical Idiom. New York/London, Routledge, 2006.
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Propp, Vladimir, Morphology of the Folktale. Austin, Texas, University of Texas Press, 1968.
    [Google Scholar]
  35. Showalter, Elaine, A Jury of her Peers. American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx. London, Virago Press, 2009.
    [Google Scholar]
  36. Showalter, Elaine, A Literature of Their Own. British Women Novelists from Bronte to Lessing. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1977.
    [Google Scholar]
  37. Smeets, Roel, Actual Fictions. Mimesis, Character Network Analysis. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2022.
    [Google Scholar]
  38. Smeets, Roel, EricSanders & Antalvan den Bosch, ‘Character Centrality in Present-Day Dutch Literary Fiction’, in: Digital Humanities Benelux Journal, 1, 1, 2019, 71-90.
    [Google Scholar]
  39. Smeets, Roel, Character Constellations. Representations of Social Groups in Present-Day Dutch Literary Fiction. Leuven, Leuven University Press, 2021.
    [Google Scholar]
  40. Smeets, Roel, ‘Discursive Boundaries. Characterization of Male and Female Characters in Dutch Novels, 1960s vs 2010s,’ in: DH Benelux 2023, Brussel, 2023.
    [Google Scholar]
  41. Streng, Toos, De roman in de negentiende eeuw. Hilversum, Uitgeverij Verloren, 2020.
    [Google Scholar]
  42. Underwood, Ted, DavidBamman & SabrinaLee, ‘The Transformation of Gender in English-Language Fiction’, in: Journal of Cultural Analytics, 3, 2, 2018.
    [Google Scholar]
  43. Volker, Beate & RoelSmeets, ‘Imagined Social Structures: Mirrors or Alternatives? A Comparison between Networks of Characters in Contemporary Dutch Literature and Networks of the Population in the Netherlands’, in: Poetics, 79, 2020.
    [Google Scholar]
  44. Watt, Ian, The Rise of the Novel. California, University of California Press, 1957.
    [Google Scholar]
  45. Wilde, Oscar, ‘The Decay of Lying. An Observation’, in: idem, Intentions. London, Methuen & Co, 1891.
    [Google Scholar]
  46. Wilkens, Matthew, ‘Genre, Computation, and the Varieties of Twentieth-Century U.S. Fiction’, in: Journal of Cultural Analytics, 2, 2, 2016.
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.5117/NEDLET.2024.2.003.SMEE
Loading
/content/journals/10.5117/NEDLET.2024.2.003.SMEE
Loading

Data & Media loading...

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error