Inger Leemans, born in Leende, the Netherlands, in 1971. Ph.D. from Utrecht University. Professor of Cultural History at VU University Amsterdam.
VNC Fellow (1 September 2010 – 30 June 2011)
TWO OPPOSITE SHORES. THE HISTORY OF DUTCH AND FLEMISH LITERATURE IN THE 18TH CENTURY
Together with NIAS Fellow Gert-Jan Johannes and my fellow VNC Fellow Tom Verschaffel I have been working on the preparation and composition of “A History of Dutch Literature in the Eighteenth Century”. This volume will be part of an eight volume series, forming a complete Geschiedenis van de Nederlandse Literatuur, commissioned by the Nederlandse Taalunie. This specific commission and its context determine, among other things, the language in which the volume is written (Dutch) and the size of the book (ca. 500 pages, or more). The project had been started before, but as it could not be completed by its original author, we were asked to take over.
Our stay at NIAS provided us with the possibility to work together intensely. This was necessary, as we needed to set it up as a common project of three authors. We could not (and did not) want to cut it up in three parts, and put it together afterwards. The aim is one coherent and readable text, in which the competences of all three contributors have merged as much as possible. We could not finish this project within ten months but we succeeded in writing a substantial part of it.