Het verlangen om te vallen. De dissociatieve houding van bewerkers in Beatrijs-bewerkingen voor de jeugd (1907-207)

This article studies rewriters’ attitudes towards the Middle-Dutch story Beatrijs as a story for children. Five rewritings, either meant both for children and adults, or specifically aimed at children, that were published between 1907 and 2007, are analysed. The focus is on stylistic adaptation, structural adaptation and adaptation regarding the content of the story in four key passages: (1) Beatrijs’ initiative to meet her lover and run away with him, (2) Beatrijs’ decision to prostitute herself, (3) Beatrijs’ choice to leave her children behind and return to the convent, and (4) Beatrijs’ decision to confess. The transformations are explained from the perspective of evolving ideas about the function of Beatrijs as a story for children and changing literary-aesthetic and pedagogic-didactical norms. It becomes clear that the rewriters’ attitudes shift from a primarily ethic-religious approach towards a more historical and literary-historical one. However, Beatrijs as a character gets attributed the features of a present-day adolescent more and more.

Jaar van publicatie:2012