Telling Lists: A Dynamic Study of the Nature and Function of Lists in Dutch Literature

This project has a two-fold objective. First, it wants to come up with a hermeneutic tool to interpret lists found in modern novels, i.e. is novels written from the second half of the nineteenth century up till now. Second, it wants to use this tool to trace the development of literary listing from the first modern Dutch novel (Multatuli’s Max Havelaar 1860) to the present day (Grunberg 2010).

Though the first objective is practical and methodological rather than theoretical, it can only be obtained if it starts from a clear delineation of the topic under discussion, viz. the list. This delineation does not involve setting up an exhaustive classification of lists and its relations with archives, taxonomies, catalogues, and so on. The attempts in that direction (e.g. Mainberger 2003, 37-118; Eco 2009, 278-398; Goody 1977, 84-103) not only yield diverging results, but tend to become blurred in their usage. The project wants to look at the ways lists function, not at the ways in which they can be classified. Still, a practical definition of a list is needed and can only be found by scrutinizing the definitions in the studies on the topic.

Once the list has been defined, I aim to clarify its form and content. As to form, lists can be horizontal – typically as part of an enumerative description – or vertical. At their most general, lists“are frameworks that hold separate and disparate items together” (Belknap 2004, 2). The combination of unity and discontinuity is the first central characteristic of the list (Jullien 1990). It resonates in many comparable tensions (Veel 2009, 18-23). After the form and content of lists has been dealt with, we want to clarify the list’s function in the narrative that surrounds it. We will only decide on the precise nature of that function after the analysis of the literary texts. The aim of the analysis of various existing theories is to develop a toolbox that can be used in the interpretation of lists in novels. Existing studies not only draw attention to crucial and dual characteristics of lists such as order v. chaos and text v. object, but also provide worthwhile insights in the ways lists function in a narrative text, e.g. as advancing and/ or obstructing the story. These dualisms – or rather: gliding scales – will prove useful in developing a model of reading literary lists.

The second objective is to be found in the implementation of this reading model by analyzing a dozen Dutch novels from 1860 until 2010. This is not meant to produce an alternative literary history, but, more modestly, (1) to test the applicability and flexibility of the model for various literary periods, and (2) to indicate some aspects of the evolution of lists in the novel. The twelve novels that have been selected all contain lists – as any novel will – and can be linked with the various traditional literary phases typically used in historiography, such as naturalism and avantgarde. However, they are not meant to cover all historical movements and submovemens, nor are they particularly iconic of a movement.

This dynamic study of novelistic listing will show that the development of ‘fiction’ (the novel) is closely tied with the evolution of the ‘facts’ or knowledge structures contained within the novel, which is precisely what this project is all about.

In general, the methodology consists of delineating the lists and the novels, close reading the lists and their functions in the novels, and finally developing a historical comparison.