oa De mythe van de dichter - Willem Bilderdijks beroemdheidscultus

By Dutch literary scholars Willem Bilderdijk is often represented as an unhappy man with a miserable life, full of poverty, illness and underestimation. He is, indeed, famous for his endless complaining and his burning desire for death. There were good reasons for him to be unhappy: he was often ill, lived in exile, suffered the loss of children and had the constant feeling he couldn’t find his way in life. In spite of all this, the case of Bilderdijk’s poethood is more complicated. Because of the dominant biographical focus on Bilderdijk’s life and work, one aspect of his authorship has until now largely been neglected: the way in which he created a ‘branded identity’ and presented himself as a celebrity. This article focuses on the manners in which Bilderdijk created an image of himself as a poet of mythical proportions. In other words: it will examine the different ways in which Bilderdijk established his celebrity cult.