The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) has awarded a grant to the project “’Het is niet onopgemerkt gebleven’. An International Network Studying the Circulation of Dutch Literature (CODL)”.

In the course of the centuries, Dutch literature ‘hasn’t gone unnoticed’ (‘Het is niet onopgemerkt gebleven’), as Frits van Egters says in Gerard Reve’s famous novel De avonden (The Evenings). A convincing proof of this has been given by the pilot project Beatrijs Internationaal, initiated in 2009.

The new project, CODL (2012-2015), will deal with the question of how literary texts from a relatively small language area, such as Dutch, circulate internationally in different periods. At the same time it will look at the possibilities and difficulties of research on international cultural transfer. Modern research into Dutch literary culture of the past and the present requires a transnational approach. CODL will help to create favourable conditions for this approach.

Project coordinators are Professor Elke Brems (Hogeschool-Universiteit Brussel), dr Ton van Kalmthout (Huygens Institute for the History of the Netherlands) and dr Orsolya Réthelyi (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest). The project will be executed in collaboration with Comenius (association for Dutch studies in Central Europe) and other partner-institutions.