Articles

'Re-minding Meneer Visser': Van een intemalistische naar een extemalistische benadering van fictioneel bewustzijn in Meneer Visser's hellevaart (1936) van Simon Vestdijk

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Abstract

This article focuses on fictional minds in the modernist novel Meneer Visser's Hellevaart
(1936) by Simon Vestdijk, more specifically on the mind of its protagonist: Meneer
Visser. The secondary literature about this novel so far tends to treat this character psychologically.
Critics study Visser's traumatic youth and his inner psychological depths.
Visser's mind is thereby seen as a passive monologue intérieur, isolated from the physical
and social environment of the storyworld. With Monika Fludemik's concept of typification,
l argue that the term monologue intérieur is deceptive. Using the cognitive narratology
of David Herman and Alan Palmer, I demonstrate that Visser's mind is not passive
and isolated, but active and in constant interaction with his physical and social
environment. Finally, I relate the patterns highlighted by the narratological analysis to an
interpretation of the novel. The dynamic of Visser's fictional mind is shown to be thematically
motivated.

How to Cite:

Goethals, E., (2017) “'Re-minding Meneer Visser': Van een intemalistische naar een extemalistische benadering van fictioneel bewustzijn in Meneer Visser's hellevaart (1936) van Simon Vestdijk”, Handelingen - Koninklijke Zuid-Nederlandse maatschappij voor taal- en letterkunde en geschiedenis 71, 117-129. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/kzm.v71i0.17547