Survival of the fittest? De Gids en het overleven van de arrière-garde op het literaire veld van 1885-1890

Abstract

This article investigates how De Gids reacted to the appearance of De Nieuwe Gids during the years 1885 to 1890 by analyzing explicit reflections on De Nieuwe Gids and the authors surrounding this magazine. One would expect that De Gids acted defensively towards the newcomers at first and then gradually accepted them. De Gids clearly shows its disapproval of De Nieuwe Gids in the researched material. But besides this rejection of the avant-garde, appreciation for some of the new authors can also be found. This underlines the gradual acceptance of De Nieuwe Gids and its poetics and qualifies the redemption model which assu-mes that literary movements vanish rapidly and are replaced by others. After a period of resistance, De Gids adjusts its own ideas to the ideas of the new authors. By doing this De Gids can survive as a postponed avant-garde.