Zwarte Piet Contested: Tolerance and the (re)production of the Zwarte Piet tradition in the Netherlands

Abstract

The aim of this research is to gain insight in how the discourse surrounding the Zwarte Piet tradition in the Netherlands has been produced and consumed through Dutch media in correlation with Dutch national identity. Initially it seems that the discourse surrounding Zwarte Piet contrasts the idea of the Netherlands as a nation being commonly associated in the public discourse with tolerance as one of its core values. Therefore this thesis investigates this apparent contradiction. It becomes clear that different forms of knowledge about this tradition exist. These different forms of knowledge lead to heavy debates between challengers and defenders of Zwarte Piet, which in turn leads to the cementing of the boundaries of two imagined communities. Celebrating Sinterklaas including Zwarte Piet is no longer as self-evident as it was before because of the discursive resistance of challengers. The objections to a reformulation of Zwarte Piet are mainly produced as a reaction to the discursive resistance of opponents of Zwarte Piet in its current form and the clashing of two different forms of knowledge. Critiquing tolerance and employing intertextuality are main strategies of discursive resistance to attack Zwarte Piet. It turns out that cultural politics of emotion play an important role in the defence of the figure of Zwarte Piet. Media plays an important role in the framing of the debate. This research contributes to the development of a better understanding of the role of the media in discourse analysis, and how we should research production and consumption, regarding discursive media analysis. Journalists are not outside the discourse. In this thesis we will see that the production and consumption processes are dialectical processes, in which the media plays an important role as the main channel of communication of discourse.