Herman Rudolf"Rudy"Kousbroek(1 November 1929 – 4 April 2010) was aDutchpoet, translator, writer and first of all essayist. He was a prominent figure in Dutch cultural life between 1950 and 2010 and one of the most outspokenatheistsin the Netherlands. In 1975 he was awarded theP.C. Hooft Prizefor his essays.
Rudy Kousbroek | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Herman Rudolf Kousbroek 1 November 1929 Pematang Siantar,Sumatra,Dutch East Indies |
| Died | 4 April 2010(aged 80) Leiden,Netherlands |
| Occupation | Poet, translator, writer, essayist |
| Nationality | Dutch |
His principal work is the bookHet Oostindisch kampsyndroom(The East Indian Camp Syndrome), a compilation of critical essays that are in one way or the other related to the Dutch East Indies and clearly show his admiration for DutchIndo-Eurasian authors likeE. du Perron,Tjalie Robinson,Beb Vuykas well as Indonesian intellectualSutan Sjahrir.[1]
Life
editRudy Kousbroek was born inPematang Siantar,on the isle ofSumatra,in theDutch East Indies.The first sixteen years of his life he lived there. During theJapanese occupationhe and his family were imprisoned in a Japanese concentration camp. AfterWorld War IIhis family repatriated to theNetherlands.
He studied mathematics andphysicsin Amsterdam and Japanese in Paris. He never finished his studies, but he had thoroughly absorbed the culture of both the sciences and the humanities, whatC. P. Snowhas calledThe Two Cultures.Scientific thinking andempiricismremained the core of hisworld view.[2]
He lived in France for many years but returned to the Netherlands in the early 1970s. He became for some time the moving spirit of the Cultural Supplement ofNRC Handelsblad.His range of interests was very broad: he wrote poetry for children, analysed with subtlety human emotions, such as: longing, nostalgia, sexuality, love for cars, love for animals. Indonesian andIndoEurasian culture and literature as well as the aftermath of colonialism remained a lifelong interest. He has written quite a lot about the visual arts and photography. He advocated a more prominent role of the natural sciences in intellectual discourse and education.
In the 1950s Kousbroek became friends withWillem Frederik Hermans,a Dutch writer who is considered one of the best Dutch writers of the 20th century. They had many interests in common: the scientific worldview, cars, typewriters,Ludwig Wittgenstein,Karl Popper,surrealism,atheism, literature. The friendship ended in the 1970s with a quarrel about the reliability ofFriedrich Weinreb's memoirs. The correspondence between Hermans, Kousbroek andEthel Portnoy,who was Kousbroek's wife at the time, has been published under the titleMachines en emoties(2009) (Machines and emotions).[3]
Another renowned Dutch writer,Gerard Reve,has also been on friendly terms with Kousbroek. But there remained a gap between the rationalist Kousbroek and the Roman Catholic convert Reve. The latter mocked Kousbroek and hisrationalismin his novelHet boek van violet en dood(1996) (The book of violet and death).
Kousbroek had been married toEthel Portnoy.He later married the Irish writer Sarah Hart. He had three children, two with Ethel Portnoy and one with Sarah Hart. His daughter, Hepzibah Kousbroek (1954–2009) became a writer. His son Gabriël Kousbroek became a professional illustrator. Rudy Kousbroek died aged 80 inLeiden.
He sometimes used the pen namesLeopold de BuchorFred Coyett.
Work
editKousbroek started his literary career with two books of poetry:Tien variaties op het bestiale(1951) (Ten variations on things bestial) andDe begrafenis van een keerkring(1953) (The burial of a tropic). He soon decided that writing essays was his real métier.
WithRemco Campert,a school friend, he founded the magazineBraak[4]in May 1950. The magazine lasted only for two years, but was important for the development of the 'Vijftigers' (Dutch poets of the fifties). In 1972 he was the first to deliver the annualHuizinga Lectureand its subject was Ethology and the Philosophy of Culture. In 1975 he won theP.C. Hooft Award,one of the most prestigious literary awards in the Netherlands. In 1994 he received an honorary degree in philosophy from theUniversity of Groningenin the Netherlands.
Kousbroek's love for animals has inspired several of his books, fromDe aaibaarheidsfactor(1969) (Kousbroek coined the term, something like: 'caressability factor') toMedereizigers; over de liefde tussen mensen en dieren(2009) (Travel companions. On the love between humans and animals).
Kousbroek has translatedExercices de stylebyRaymond Queneau(Stijloefeningen,1978) and wrote an introduction to the Dutch translation ofOmbres chinoisesbySimon Leys(Chinese schimmen,1976; in English:Chinese shadows), a book that encouraged intellectuals in the Western world to revise their image ofMao Zedongand theCultural Revolution.
Kousbroek's magnum opus isHet Oostindisch kampsyndroom(The East Indian Camp Syndrome).[5]The book is primarily a polemic with the spokesmen of the (r)emigrated people from the Dutch East Indies after the end of the Dutch colonial period, most notably among themJeroen Brouwers,who holds the view, mistakenly and implicitly racist according to Kousbroek, that the hardships of the Japanese concentration camps in the East Indies duringWorld War IIare of the same order of atrocity as the hardships of the German concentration camps in Europe. The book contains also reminiscences of Kousbroek's youth in the Dutch East Indies, essays on related literature, and reviews.
Publications
edit- 1951 –Tien variaties op het bestiale(poetry)
- 1953 –De begrafenis van een keerkring(poetry)
- 1968 –Revolutie in een industriestaat(alias: Leopold de Buch)
- 1969 –de aaibaarheidsfactor
- 1969 –Anathema's 1
- 1970 –Het avondrood der magiërs
- 1970 –Anathema's 2
- 1970 –Het gemaskerde woord. Anathema's 1, 2 en 3
- 1971 –Een kuil om snikkend in te vallen
- 1971 –Anathema's 3
- 1973 –Ethologie en cultuurfilosofie
- 1978 –Een passage naar Indië
- 1978 –Stijloefeningen(translation ofExercices de stylebyRaymond Queneau)
- 1978 –De Aaibaarheidsfactor, gevolgd door Die Wacht am IJskast(extended re-issue of 1969)
- 1979 –Anathema's 4, De waanzin aan de macht
- 1981 –Vincent en het geheim van zijn vaders lichaam(alias: Fred Coyett)
- 1983 –Wat en Hoe in het Kats
- 1984 –De logologische ruimte
- 1984 –Anathema's 5. Het meer der herinnering
- 1985 –Het rijk van Jabeer. Getransformeerde sprookjes
- 1987 –Lief Java
- 1987 –Nederland: een bewoond gordijn
- 1988 –Een zuivere schim in een vervuilde schepping
- 1988 –Dagelijkse wonderen
- 1988 –Anathema's 7, De onmogelijke liefde
- 1989 –Morgen spelen wij verder
- 1989 –De archeologie van de auto
- 1990 –Einsteins poppenhuis, Essays over filosofie 1
- 1990 –Het Paleis in de verbeelding
- 1990 –Lieve kinderen hoor mijn lied
- 1992 –Anathema's 6, Het Oostindisch kampsyndroom
- 1993 –Anathema's 8, De vrolijke wanhoop
- 1993 –Varkensliedjes
- 1995 –Terug naar Negri Pan Erkoms
- 1997 –Hoger honing
- 1998 –Verloren goeling
- 2000 –In de tijdmachine door Japan
- 2003 –Opgespoorde wonderen: fotosynthese
- 2003 –Die Winterreise(audio-book)
- 2003 –Dierentalen en andere gedichten(poetry)
- 2005 –Verborgen verwantschappen: fotosynthese
- 2005 –Het Oostindisch kampsyndroom(extended re-issue)
- 2006 –De archeologie van de auto(extended re-issue)
- 2007 –Het raadsel der herkenning: fotosynthese 3
- 2009 –Medereizigers; over de liefde tussen mensen en dieren
- 2009 –Machines en emotiescorrespondenceWillem Frederik Hermans,Rudy Kousbroek andEthel Portnoybetween 1955 and 1978
- 2010 –Anathema's 9, Restjes
Sources
editNotes
edit- ^Topics covered include chapters on colonial mentality, Japanese occupation, post colonial trauma, nostalgia, Dutch and Indonesian literature (Sutan Sjahrir,E. du Perron,Beb Vuyk) and many more. See: Kousbroek, RudyHet Oostindisch kampsyndroom.(Publisher: Olympus, 2005)ISBN978-90-467-0203-1OCLC66435443
- ^See:Kousbroek, Rudy,Digitale bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse letteren(DBNL).
- ^Machines en emoties. Briefwisseling tussen Willem Frederik Hermans, Rudy Kousbroek en Ethel Portnoy tussen 1955 en 1978, becommentarieerd en ingeleid door Willem Otterspeer,Amsterdam: De Bezige Bij 2009.
- ^The magazine titleBraakrefers to many things, among them (i) the early 20th century essayistMenno ter Braak,(ii) fallow/waste, (iii) to vomit and (iv) to demolish.
- ^The first edition was published in 1992. The fifth edition of 2005 is extended and more elaborate. The subject is the colonial history of the East Indies and its consequences, but the title alludes also to another meaning of the adjectiveEast Indian.The Dutch saying 'He is East Indian deaf' means: He pretends not to hear.