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Title
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'Vous êtes un fanatique, oui – j’en suis un aussi.’ The position of Flanders within the context of internationalism in post-war Belgium: the case of L’Art libre (1919-1922)
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Author
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Abstract
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| The shock of the First World War resulted in a range of initiatives that, on the artistic level, radically called into question a number of fundamental concepts. While the function of new art was a topic that was discussed in different European countries, the international orientation of each national art differed from country to country. In Belgium, this was a complex issue. Notions such as ‘literature’ and especially ‘internationalism’ became the subject of a harsh battle for definition that was carried out in several literary and artistic magazines. In this article, I look at how these terms were defined within the artistic group surrounding the Brussels magazine L’Art libre (1919–22). I will give a general definition of internationalism in order to then elaborate the extent to which it may come into conflict with a focus on local, Flemish reality. As a social entity, Flanders did indeed fit into the internationalist program to recognize suppressed nations. Yet as an artistic entity, its existence was more problematically situated within a tendency for ever-increasing artistic internationalization. My analysis will show a number of discursive and argumentative strategies used by writers and critics in order to legitimate the idea of ‘Flanders’, both as a literary and as a social entity. |
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Language
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English
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Source (journal)
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Journal of European Periodical Studies. - [S.l.]
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Publication
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[S.l.]
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Ghent university
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2018
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ISSN
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2506-6587
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Volume/pages
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3
:2
(2018)
, p. 38-51
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