'Want hij was een van hen'
Oorlog en mannelijkheid in enkele Nederlandse romans uit de eerste naoorlogse jaren
This contribution expands on Meijer’s study of the representation of masculinity in Dutch Second World War fiction. Analyzing four Dutch novels
set during WWII and published in the early postwar period, it examines
the construction of masculine gender identities in a wartime situation in
both occupied and non-occupied areas, comparing male-authored novels
(Maurits Dekker, W. F. Hermans) to female-authored novels (Josepha
Mendels, Dola de Jong). In Dekker’s novel the hierarchical relation between
different masculinities is overdetermined by the antagonism between
resistance masculinity and Nazi masculinity. In Hermans’ novel the war
context produces a frustrated, subordinated masculinity as identification
with normative resistance masculinity fails. The female-authored novels,
set in non-occupied areas, afford more opportunities for an inclusive,
non-hierarchical constellation of masculinities. The emancipatory impulses,
however, remain tentative in light of the consolidation of hierarchical
gender relations in the wartime context.
