Rudy Kousbroek
Encyclopedia
Herman Rudolf Kousbroek (Dutch East Indies
, 1 November 1929 – Netherlands
4 April 2010) was a Dutch
poet, 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 outspoken atheists in the Netherlands. In 1975 he was awarded the P.C. Hooft Prize
for his essays.
His principal work is the book Het 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 Dutch Indo-Eurasian authors like E.du Perron
, Tjalie Robinson
, Beb Vuyk
as well as Indonesian intellectual Sutan Sjahrir
.
, on the isle of Sumatra
, in the Dutch East Indies
. The first sixteen years of his life he lived there. During the Japanese occupation
he and his family were imprisoned in a Japanese concentration camp. After World War II
his family repatriated to The Netherlands.
He studied mathematics
and physics
in Amsterdam and Japanese
in Paris
. He never finished his studies, but he had thoroughly absorbed the culture of both the sciences and the humanities, what C. P. Snow
has called The Two Cultures
. Scientific thinking and empiricism
remained the core of his world view
.
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 of NRC 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 and Indo Eurasian 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 with Willem 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 of Friedrich Weinreb
's memoirs. The correspondence between Hermans, Kousbroek and Ethel Portnoy
, who was Kousbroek's wife at the time, has been published under the title Machines en emoties (2009) (Machines and emotions).
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 his rationalism
in his novel Het boek van violet en dood (1996) (The book of violet and death).
Kousbroek had been married to Ethel 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 in Leiden.
He sometimes used the pen name
s Leopold de Buch or Fred Coyett.
With Remco Campert
, a school friend, he founded the magazine Braak 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 annual Huizinga Lecture
and its subject was Ethology and the Philosophy of Culture. In 1975 he won the P.C. Hooft Award
, one of the most prestigious literary awards in the Netherlands. In 1994 he received an honorary degree
in philosophy from the University of Groningen
in the Netherlands.
Kousbroek's love for animals has inspired several of his books, from De aaibaarheidsfactor (1969) (Kousbroek coined the term, something like: 'caressing factor') to Medereizigers; over de liefde tussen mensen en dieren (2009) (Travel companions. On the love between humans and animals).
Kousbroek has translated Exercices de style
by Raymond Queneau
(Stijloefeningen, 1978) and wrote an introduction to the Dutch translation of Ombres chinoises by Simon Leys (Chinese schimmen, 1976; in English: Chinese shadows), a book that encouraged intellectuals in the Western world to revise their image of Mao Zedong
and the Cultural Revolution
.
Kousbroek's magnum opus is Het Oostindisch kampsyndroom (The East Indian Camp Syndrome). 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 them Jeroen Brouwers
, who holds the view, mistakenly and implicitly racist according to Kousbroek, that the hardships of the Japanese concentration camps in the East Indies during World War II
are 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.
Dutch East Indies
The Dutch East Indies was a Dutch colony that became modern Indonesia following World War II. It was formed from the nationalised colonies of the Dutch East India Company, which came under the administration of the Netherlands government in 1800....
, 1 November 1929 – Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
4 April 2010) was a Dutch
Dutch people
The Dutch people are an ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They share a common culture and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Suriname, Chile, Brazil, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and the United...
poet, 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 outspoken atheists in the Netherlands. In 1975 he was awarded the P.C. Hooft Prize
P. C. Hooft Award
The P.C. Hooft Award is a Dutch language literary oeuvre award, given annually. The award is alternately given for prose , essays and poetry....
for his essays.
His principal work is the book Het 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 Dutch Indo-Eurasian authors like E.du Perron
Edgar du Perron
Charles Edgar du Perron, more commonly known as E. du Perron, was a famous and influential Dutch poet and author of Indo-European descent. Best known for his literary acclaimed master piece ‘Land van herkomst’ of 1935...
, Tjalie Robinson
Tjalie Robinson
Tjalie Robinson is the main alias of the Indo intellectual and writer Jan Boon also known as Vincent Mahieu. His father Cornelis Boon, a KNIL sergeant, was Dutch and his Indo-European mother Fela Robinson was part English and Javanese...
, Beb Vuyk
Beb Vuyk
Elizabeth Vuyk was a Dutch writer of Indo descent. Her Indo father was born in the Dutch East Indies and had a mother from Madura, but was ‘repatriated’ to the Netherlands on a very young age. He married into a typically Calvinist Dutch family and lived in the port city of Rotterdam...
as well as Indonesian intellectual Sutan Sjahrir
Sutan Sjahrir
Sutan Sjahrir , an avant garde and idealistic Indonesian intellectual, was a revolutionary independence leader...
.
Life
Rudy Kousbroek was born in Pematang SiantarPematang Siantar
Pematangsiantar is an independent city in North Sumatera, Indonesia, surrounded by, but not part of, the Simalungun Regency...
, on the isle of Sumatra
Sumatra
Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...
, in the Dutch East Indies
Dutch East Indies
The Dutch East Indies was a Dutch colony that became modern Indonesia following World War II. It was formed from the nationalised colonies of the Dutch East India Company, which came under the administration of the Netherlands government in 1800....
. The first sixteen years of his life he lived there. During the Japanese occupation
Japanese Occupation of Indonesia
The Japanese Empire occupied Indonesia, known then as the Dutch East Indies, during World War II from March 1942 until after the end of War in 1945...
he and his family were imprisoned in a Japanese concentration camp. After World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
his family repatriated to The Netherlands.
He studied mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
and physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
in Amsterdam and Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. He never finished his studies, but he had thoroughly absorbed the culture of both the sciences and the humanities, what C. P. Snow
C. P. Snow
Charles Percy Snow, Baron Snow of the City of Leicester CBE was an English physicist and novelist who also served in several important positions with the UK government...
has called The Two Cultures
The Two Cultures
The Two Cultures is the title of an influential 1959 Rede Lecture by British scientist and novelist C. P. Snow. Its thesis was that "the intellectual life of the whole of western society" was split into the titular two cultures—namely the sciences and the humanities—and that this was a major...
. Scientific thinking and empiricism
Empiricism
Empiricism is a theory of knowledge that asserts that knowledge comes only or primarily via sensory experience. One of several views of epistemology, the study of human knowledge, along with rationalism, idealism and historicism, empiricism emphasizes the role of experience and evidence,...
remained the core of his world view
World view
A comprehensive world view is the fundamental cognitive orientation of an individual or society encompassing the entirety of the individual or society's knowledge and point-of-view, including natural philosophy; fundamental, existential, and normative postulates; or themes, values, emotions, and...
.
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 of NRC Handelsblad
NRC Handelsblad
NRC Handelsblad, often abbreviated to NRC, is a daily evening newspaper published in the Netherlands by NRC Media. The newspaper was created on October 1, 1970, from merger of the Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant and Algemeen Handelsblad . In 2006 a morning newspaper, nrc•next, was launched...
. 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 and Indo Eurasian 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 with Willem Frederik Hermans
Willem Frederik Hermans
Willem Frederik Hermans was a Dutch author. He is considered one of the three most important authors in the Netherlands in the postwar period, along with Harry Mulisch and Gerard Reve...
, 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
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein was an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He was professor in philosophy at the University of Cambridge from 1939 until 1947...
, Karl Popper
Karl Popper
Sir Karl Raimund Popper, CH FRS FBA was an Austro-British philosopher and a professor at the London School of Economics...
, surrealism
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
, atheism, literature. The friendship ended in the 1970s with a quarrel about the reliability of Friedrich Weinreb
Friedrich Weinreb
Friedrich Weinreb was a Jewish Hassidic and narrative author....
's memoirs. The correspondence between Hermans, Kousbroek and Ethel Portnoy
Ethel Portnoy
Ethel Portnoy was a Dutch Jewish writer. She wrote mainly essays, columns, short stories, travel stories and several novels.- Biography :...
, who was Kousbroek's wife at the time, has been published under the title Machines en emoties (2009) (Machines and emotions).
Another renowned Dutch writer, Gerard Reve
Gerard Reve
Gerard Kornelis van het Reve was a Dutch writer. He adopted a shortened version of his name, Gerard Reve in 1973, and that is how he is known today. Together with Willem Frederik Hermans and Harry Mulisch, he is considered one of the "Great Three" of Dutch post-war literature...
, 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 his rationalism
Rationalism
In epistemology and in its modern sense, rationalism is "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification" . In more technical terms, it is a method or a theory "in which the criterion of the truth is not sensory but intellectual and deductive"...
in his novel Het boek van violet en dood (1996) (The book of violet and death).
Kousbroek had been married to Ethel Portnoy
Ethel Portnoy
Ethel Portnoy was a Dutch Jewish writer. She wrote mainly essays, columns, short stories, travel stories and several novels.- Biography :...
. 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 in Leiden.
He sometimes used the pen name
Pen name
A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...
s Leopold de Buch or Fred Coyett.
Work
Kousbroek started his literary career with two books of poetry: Tien variaties op het bestiale (1951) (Ten variations on things bestial) and De begrafenis van een keerkring (1953) (The burial of a tropic). He soon decided that writing essays was his real métier.With Remco Campert
Remco Campert
Remco Campert is a Dutch author, poet and columnist.-Early years:Remco Wouter Campert was born in The Hague, son of writer and poet Jan Campert, author of the poem De achttien dooden, and actress Joekie Broedelet...
, a school friend, he founded the magazine Braak 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 annual Huizinga Lecture
Huizinga Lecture
The Huizinga Lecture is a prestigious annual lecture in the Netherlands about a subject in the domains of cultural history or philosophy. The lecture is in honour of Johan Huizinga, a distinguished Dutch historian who worked in the first half of the 20th century...
and its subject was Ethology and the Philosophy of Culture. In 1975 he won the P.C. Hooft Award
P. C. Hooft Award
The P.C. Hooft Award is a Dutch language literary oeuvre award, given annually. The award is alternately given for prose , essays and poetry....
, one of the most prestigious literary awards in the Netherlands. In 1994 he received an honorary degree
Honorary degree
An honorary degree or a degree honoris causa is an academic degree for which a university has waived the usual requirements, such as matriculation, residence, study, and the passing of examinations...
in philosophy from the University of Groningen
University of Groningen
The University of Groningen , located in the city of Groningen, was founded in 1614. It is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands as well as one of its largest. Since its inception more than 100,000 students have graduated...
in the Netherlands.
Kousbroek's love for animals has inspired several of his books, from De aaibaarheidsfactor (1969) (Kousbroek coined the term, something like: 'caressing factor') to Medereizigers; over de liefde tussen mensen en dieren (2009) (Travel companions. On the love between humans and animals).
Kousbroek has translated Exercices de style
Exercises in Style
Exercises in Style , written by Raymond Queneau, is a collection of 99 retellings of the same story, each in a different style. In each, the narrator gets on the "S" bus Exercises in Style , written by Raymond Queneau, is a collection of 99 retellings of the same story, each in a different style....
by Raymond Queneau
Raymond Queneau
Raymond Queneau was a French poet and novelist and the co-founder of Ouvroir de littérature potentielle .-Biography:Born in Le Havre, Seine-Maritime, Queneau was the only child of Auguste Queneau and Joséphine Mignot...
(Stijloefeningen, 1978) and wrote an introduction to the Dutch translation of Ombres chinoises by Simon Leys (Chinese schimmen, 1976; in English: Chinese shadows), a book that encouraged intellectuals in the Western world to revise their image of Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
and the Cultural Revolution
Cultural Revolution
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...
.
Kousbroek's magnum opus is Het Oostindisch kampsyndroom (The East Indian Camp Syndrome). 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 them Jeroen Brouwers
Jeroen Brouwers
Jeroen Godfried Marie Brouwers is a Dutch journalist and writer. From 1964 to 1976 Brouwers worked as an editor at Manteau publishers in Brussels...
, who holds the view, mistakenly and implicitly racist according to Kousbroek, that the hardships of the Japanese concentration camps in the East Indies during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
are 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
- 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 of Exercices de style by Raymond QueneauRaymond QueneauRaymond Queneau was a French poet and novelist and the co-founder of Ouvroir de littérature potentielle .-Biography:Born in Le Havre, Seine-Maritime, Queneau was the only child of Auguste Queneau and Joséphine Mignot...
) - 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 emoties correspondence Willem Frederik HermansWillem Frederik HermansWillem Frederik Hermans was a Dutch author. He is considered one of the three most important authors in the Netherlands in the postwar period, along with Harry Mulisch and Gerard Reve...
, Rudy Kousbroek and Ethel PortnoyEthel PortnoyEthel Portnoy was a Dutch Jewish writer. She wrote mainly essays, columns, short stories, travel stories and several novels.- Biography :...
between 1955 and 1978 - 2010 - Anathema's 9, Restjes