scholarly journals Grief and Emotional Suffering in the Elegiac Poems by Jeremias de Decker and Michiel de Swaen, c. 1650-1700

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cornelis Van der Haven

Both Protestantism and Catholicism of the seventeenth century experienced the influence of theology that stressed the importance of inner devotion, which went hand in hand with a strong emphasis on the emotional experience of faith. In dealing with death, however, the discourse of comfort was still dominant, designed to suppress the pain of loss rather than bringing that feeling to the fore. This ‘emotional regime’ also affected funeral elegiac poems in which feelings of joy and delight about the deceased’s heavenly destination dominate the initial period of grief. This article aims to understand whether these emotional regimes induced a form of emotional suffering and, if so, to what extent this was visible in contemporary funerary poetry: did, for example, it stick to grief and the inner pain of loss instead of suppressing it?  The essay focuses on the elegiac poems by Jeremias de Decker (1609-1660) in the Dutch Republic and by Michiel de Swaen (1654-1707) in French Flanders. It examines the striking differences between the elegies written after the passing away of a public person, such as befriended priests and preachers, and the poems about a death in the private sphere in which poetry functioned more as a means of emotional refuge.

Author(s):  
Jetze Touber

Spinoza’s time was rife with conflicts. Historians tend to structure these by grouping two opposing forces: progressive Cartesio-Cocceian-liberals versus conservative Aristotelian-Voetian-Orangists. Moderately enlightened progressives, so the story goes, endorsed notions such as human dignity, toleration, freedom of opinion, but shied away from radicalism, held back by the conservative counterforce. Yet the drift was supposed to be inevitably towards the Enlightenment. This chapter tries to capture theological conflicts in the Dutch Republic of the Early Enlightenment in a triangular scheme, that covers a wider range of conflicting interests. Its corners are constituted by ‘dogmatism’ (Dordrecht orthodoxy), ‘scripturalism’ (Cocceianism), and ‘rationalism’ (theology inspired by Cartesianism, Spinozism, or any other brand of new philosophy). Dogmatics and rationalists battled in terms of philosophy, whereas the scripturalists and their respective opponents fought each other rather in the field of biblical scholarship. This multilateral conflict within Dutch Calvinism made the ideal of a unified church untenable.


2021 ◽  
Vol 57 ◽  
pp. 163-184
Author(s):  
Elise Watson

The institutional Catholic Church in seventeenth-century Amsterdam relied on the work of inspired women who lived under an informal religious rule and called themselves ‘spiritual daughters’. Once the States of Holland banned all public exercise of Catholicism, spiritual daughters leveraged the ambiguity of their religious status to pursue unique roles in their communities as catechists, booksellers and enthusiastic consumers of print. However, their lack of a formal order caused consternation among their Catholic confessors. It also disturbed Reformed authorities in their communities, who branded them ‘Jesuitesses’. Whilst many scholars have documented this tension between inspired daughter and institutional critique, it has yet to be contextualized fully within the literary culture of the Dutch Republic. This article suggests that due to the de-institutionalized status of the spiritual daughters and the discursive print culture that surrounded them, public criticism replaced direct censure by Catholic and Reformed authorities as the primary impediment to their inspired work.


History ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 91 (304) ◽  
pp. 630-631
Author(s):  
ELIZABETH EDWARDS

Author(s):  
Mike Keirsbilck

The Amsterdam Schouwburg festively opened in January 1638 with the performance ofVondel’s Gijsbreght van Aemstel. The play was situated in medieval Amsterdam, butaddressed nonetheless the seventeenth-century audience explicitly. In Gijsbreght vanAemstel political and moral instructions that related to the Amsterdam of Vondel’s agewere given. To approach these political and moral instructions, I will make use of MichelFoucault’s notion of ‘governmentality’. Foucault’s theoretical concept deals with theconstruction of power structures. Governmentality allows me to place Vondel’s text in acontemporary debate about how the state should be ordered, and in this way opens up aninterpretation of the instructions of the play accordingly. I will argue that the play condemned violentstruggles, and that the text presented an opposing stand on how the stateshould be ordered.To indicate how the play voiced an opinion about contemporary political debates, Iwill confront Gijsbreght van Aemstel with Hugo de Groots De Republica Enendanda.This early tract, by one of the most important scholars of the Dutch Republic, also playeda part in Vondel’s play. This way Vondel's text can be read as an exploration of politicalideas in a literary practice, in which the character of Gijsbreght van Aemstel is presentedas an ideal.


2002 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 161-172
Author(s):  
Joke Spaans

One shall rise at five in the morning and go to communal prayers at six. After prayer and meditation one shall read the first three canonical hours: matins, lauds and prime – but those who do not have the leisure can also do this over their work.This is how the Rule of a community of seventeenth-century Dutch Catholic lay-sisters started. Theirs was a very flexible rule, designed to accommodate both wealthy sisters, who could spend much of their time in their devotions, and poorer ones, who had to work for their living. Their Rule provides a good illustration of attitudes towards the use of time among pious Christians in the seventeenth century.


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