Cultural Criticism in the Netherlands, 1933-1940: The Newspaper Columns of Menno Ter Braak

286 Pages·2020·13.419 MB·English

by  Jacob Boas

Cultural Criticism in the Netherlands, 1933– 1940
Literary Modernism

Series Editor
Gernot Wimmer (University of Vienna, Austria)
Editorial Board
William Egginton (Johns Hopkins Krieger School of Arts & Sciences, usa)
Patrick Fortmann (University of Illinois, usa)
Roland Innerhofer (University of Vienna, Austria)
Cindy K. Renker (University of North Texas, usa)
Simonetta Sanna (Università degli Studi di Sassari, Italy)
Andrew J. Webber (Churchill College, University of Cambridge, UK)
volume 8
The titles published in this series are listed at brillcom/ limo
Cultural Criticism in the

Netherlands, 1933– 1940
The Newspaper Columns of Menno ter Braak
Introduced, Edited and Translated by
Jacob Boas
LEIDEN | BOSTON
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Braak, Menno ter, 1902-1940, author. | Boas, Jacob, author of
introduction editor translator.
Title: Cultural critcism in the Netherlands, 1933-1940 : the newspaper columns
of Menno ter Braak / introduced, edited and translated by Jacob Boas.
Other titles: Newspaper columns. Selections. English
Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill Rodopi, 2020. | Series: Literary modernism,
2405-9315 ; volume 8 | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020026818 (print) | LCCN 2020026819 (ebook) |
ISBN 9789004426597 (hardback) | ISBN 9789004426627 (ebook)
Classification: LCC PT5820.B65 A2 2020 (print) | LCC PT5820.B65 (ebook) |
DDC 079.492–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020026818
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020026819
Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/b rill- typeface.
issn 2405-9 315
isbn 978-9 0-0 4-4 2659-7 (hardback)
isbn 978-9 0-0 4-4 2662-7 (e- book)
Copyright 2020 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi,
Brill Sense, Hotei Publishing, mentis Verlag, Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh and Wilhelm Fink Verlag.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without prior written permission from the publisher. Requests for re-use and/or translations must be
addressed to Koninklijke Brill NV via brill.com or copyright.com.
This book is printed on acid- free paper and produced in a sustainable manner.
To things other than books I have no attachment whatsoever. I have
long had the feeling that they crossed my path accidentally. My
books are me.
menno ter braak, September 17, 1939
Why do I feel so bitter about Ter Braak’s passing? Because I knew
him personally? Not only that, but more so because the creative
critic may be even rarer at times like these than the writer as such.
thomas mann, 1940
∵

Contents

Acknowledgments xv
Introducing Menno ter Braak (1902– 1940) 1
A Note on Translation, Selections, Etc. 19
part 1
1933
1 Morgenstern’s Enchanted World 23
The Spirit of Hieronymus Bosch 23
2 A People and Its Myth 28
Emigrants about Germany 28
3 André Malraux: La Condition Humaine 33
part 2
1934
4 Jakob Wassermann 37
5 The Place of the Newspaper Critic 40
A New Year’s Meditation 40
6 Hitler’s Mein Kampf 43
7 The German Writer Heinz Liepmann Under Arrest 44
A Worrisome Precedent 44
8 Literary Awards 45
The Nobel Prize in Particular 45
Objective and Subjective 45
Prizewinners 46
Ivan Bunin 47
Lyrical Decay 48
viii Contents
9 The Novel as Document 50
The Significance of Max Havelaar 50
10 Art and the Art of Storytelling 52
11 Hero Worship 54
Carlyle’s “Living Rock” 54
No Recipe for Heroes 55
The Book and the Newspaper 56
12 Races 57
Race as Self- glorification 57
Horizontal- Vertical 58
Apologia for Jewry, Lack of Self- criticism 58
13 Writing as Enchantment 61
Literature and Advertising 61
Persuasion and Poverty of Ideas 62
14 Conversation with Erika Mann 64
15 The Simple Style 65
16 Le Chemin des Dames 66
The Writing Woman and Her Genre 66
“Woman” and “Lady” 67
17 The European Spirit 69
A Gathering of Intellectuals in Paris 69
Thinking European: a Concern of Intellectuals 69
Politics Non Grata 71
Pros and Cons 71
18 The Simple Task 73
Weekly Masterpieces in the Haagsche Post 73
Disadvantages of the Reviewing Patent 74
19 Objective Criticism 76
Dr. Ritter’s Case for Mediocrity 76
What Is “Description”? 76
45% Subjectivity 77
Contents ix
20 Temporary Illiteracy 80
The Benefit of Not Reading 80
A Monster of Civilization: Homo Lector 80
When Reading becomes Dangerous 81
One Book, One Person! 83
21 Friedrich Nietzsche, 1844–1 934 84
Misconstruing His Personality 84
Nietzsche’s Race Problem 85
Nietzsche and the Antisemites 86
The Appropriation 86
part 3
1935
22 Ethics of the Weapons Industry 91
Nations Will Always Misuse Their Weapons 93
The Benefits of War 93
23 The War Film Okraina (a film by Boris Barnet) 95
24 Dames 97
25 Othello 99
26 Popular History (i) 101
Good and Bad Popularization 102
27 Popular History (ii) 103
Historical Materialism 103
28 Max Havelaar: Multatuli’s Timeless Book, 1869– 1935 105
The Meaning of Max Havelaar’s Readability 105
29 Writers’ Congress in Paris (i) 107
Paris, June 24 107
30 Writers’ Congress in Paris (ii) 111
Paris, 25 June 111
x Contents
31 Russian Literature 113
Where Does Literature Belong? 113
32 Our Humanity 115
Humanity “Close to Home” 116
The Individual and the Meaning of Life 118
33 Huizinga’s Defense of Culture 120
34 Helping Writers! 122
35 Aphorisms (i) 123
Between Flaubert and Nietzsche 123
36 André Gide’s The Immoralist 124
Synopsis (Provided by Ter Braak) 124
The Autobiography 124
part 4
1936
37 Eros as Rebel 129
Lawrence as Author of “Shocking Words” 129
38 Thomas Mann under Fire 132
An Attack on His Position by Schwarzschild 132
39 Thomas Mann Speaks 135
Declares His Opposition to Hitler’s Germany 135
40 About Franz Kafka (i) 138
A First- rate Jewish Writer 138
A World of His Own 139
Gate, Gatekeeper, Man of the Country 141
41 Emigration Embraced 144
Falling from Germany, Love of Germany 144
The Surprise of the Unknown 145
Falling into the Netherlands 146