Het voorspel van de revolutie van Tachtig. Albert Verweys beeld van de negentiende-eeuwse dichtkunst.

Abstract

From the very beginning of his career, Albert Verwey (1865-1937), Dutch critic and poet, showed a keen interest in literary history. He paid special attention to the poetry of the nineteenth century. Deliberately, Verwey tried to rewrite the history of the poetry of this period. It seems as if Verwey developed a more lenient view of famous poets like Willem Bilderdijk and Nicolaas Beets, but in the end he sticked to his belief that the Movement of the Eighties (a Dutch literary movement at the end of the nineteenth century) had been a literary 'revolution' and that it should be viewed as the beginning of modern poetry in the Netherlands. The poet Potgieter was given a central role in Verwey's literary history as a predecessor of Verwey's own generation.