Internationale Neerlandistiek - Volume 48, Issue 4, 2010

Modern philologies are intrinsically bound to the ‘Nation Project’, a concept of substantial influence on language, literature, and culture from the eighteenth to twentieth centuries in Europe. As a consequence, philologies are basically national philologies. The situation of the twentyfirst century is of a post-national situation and is, thus, a challenge to the nation-bound concepts of language, literature, and culture. A major task for philologies is the development of new concepts that maintain the positive effects of the nation-bound concepts, and, at the same time, transform them into a post-national context. The term ‘transnational’ is meant to cover these transformation processes. Philologies can offer important contributions to a multilingual linguistic qualification on a par with the demands of knowledge based societies of the twentyfirst century.

In the recent past, two medieval Dutch Reynaert-stories have been published in separate editions, each with a modern translation: Van den vos Reynaerde with an English translation, Reynaerts historie with a German translation. In this article these two editions are presented as the outcome of a transnational approach. Following a sketch of the medieval tradition of stories about the famous fox, it is substantiated that both Dutch Reynaert stories form an integral part of this European tradition. It is also shown that Reynaerts historie is a key text in this tradition. Furthermore it is described how these stories were rediscovered in the nineteenth century, the period in which the modern nations of Belgium and The Netherlands came into existence, and how during that time Van den vos Reynaerde became gradually seen as a unique masterpiece and a perfect expression of (aspects of) national identity. Against this background, it is shown how the recent bilingual editions reveal a new awareness of the needs of an international public – without completely breaking with the scholarly tradition – and thus transcend the boundaries of a nationalistic approach.

This article posits that language teaching methods which implicitly assume a direct link between one particular national culture and one particular language cannot address the changing needs of language learners in contemporary multicultural societies, which are characterized by increased mobility and cultural complexity. It further charts different views of intercultural communication and, along with Kumaravadivelu (2008), takes a view of language and culture pedagogy as leading to cultural ‘transformation’ rather than providing cultural information. An example of an approach in the field of teaching Dutch as a foreign language is provided. This cultuurtekst approach encourages learners to reflect on the multiplicity of discourses in texts – global as well as nationally articulated ones. It is the self-reflexivity of students in considering these discourses and relating them to their own experiences which sets a step towards the pedagogic aim of cultural transformation.

All too often researchers and teachers of literary texts assume that their audiences share a body of knowledge which they cannot possibly share because of its cultural specificity. In this article Great War poetry by Jacob Israel de Haan, Ber Horowitz, Edward Słoński, René de Clercq, Jozef Simons, Albert Verwey and Herman Gorter is used to illustrate how the authors' notions of nationhood and (inter)nationalism are determined by the way in which they are politically, linguistically and geographically situated. By making this explicit, it both facilitates and enriches our understanding of their work.

This paper discusses a new concept of multilingual communication in the Netherlands, i.e. receptive multilingualism or so-called lingua receptiva (LaRa). ‘LaRa is the ensemble of those linguistic, mental, interactional as well as intercultural competences which are creatively activated when listeners are receiving linguistic actions in their ‘passive’ language or variety. In order to monitor and process ‘passive knowledge activation in hearers’, speakers make use of subsidiary competences and control communicative asymmetries as soon as these become manifested in interaction (Rehbein et al., in preparation).’ The paper discusses studies concerning institutional practices of lingua receptiva in German-Dutch transnational communication. Subsequently, European traditions with regard to receptive multilingualism in Scandinavia, the Habsburg Empire and Switzerland are presented. Finally, the paper suggests further research concerning academic applications of Lingua Receptiva in transnational Dutch Studies.

This article discusses the position of Dutch as a Foreign Language within the curriculum of Translating/Interpreting and Germanic Studies at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Comenius University in Bratislava and within the context of national and European language politics. First, it analyzes the development of language and culture of language in Slovakia and the manner in which that development influenced communication in the area of former Czechoslovakia. The role of Czech and Slovak in communication between Czechs and Slovaks is presented as 'lingua receptiva'. Subsequently, an intercultural and a transnational model for foreign language teaching from the perspective of translatology are compared, and their application in foreign language teaching is illustrated with reference to the example of Dutch as part of the newly developed BA ‘Germanic Studies’ at Comenius.

This article pleads for a ‘transnational approach’ to modern Dutch literature, with proper consideration of the national and even local perspective. In fact, the tension between local, national and international tendencies is one of the factors constituting the literary system. In this respect, the study of Dutch literature has been based on the romantic idea of a ‘nation state’ and a monolingual culture, thereby neglecting the essential role of transnational factors in establishing an autonomous literary system. The authors elaborate on this argument and present two examples (i.e. the success of international regional literature and the ambivalent reception of international modernism in Flanders) to illustrate this theoretical and methodological stance.