Belgian literature: References & Edit History

Among works useful to the general reader are Suzanne Lilar, The Belgian Theater Since 1890, 3rd ed. (1962; originally published in French, 1952); Vernon Mallinson, Modern Belgian Literature, 1830–1960 (1966); Jean Weisgerber (ed.), Les Avant-Gardes Littéraires en Belgique: au confluent des arts et des langues, 1880–1950 (1991); and David Willinger (ed.), An Anthology of Contemporary Belgian Plays, 1970–1982 (1984).

Studies of Flemish literature include Jan A. Goris, Belgian Letters, 3rd ed. (1950); R.F. Lissens, De Vlaamse letterkunde van 1780 tot heden, 4th rev. ed. (1967, reissued 1974); Theodore Weevers, Poetry of the Netherlands in Its European Context: 1170–1930 (1960); Jean Weisgerber, Formes et domaines du roman flamand, 1927–1960 (1963), also available in a Dutch version, Aspecten van de Vlaamse roman, 1927–1960, 3rd, supplemented ed. (1973); Reinder P. Meijer, Literature of the Low Countries, 2nd ed. (1978); M. Rutten and Jean Weisgerber (eds.), Van arm Vlaanderen tot de voorstad groeit: de opbloei van de Vlaamse literatuur van Teirlinck-Stijns tot L.P. Boon (1888–1946) (1988); Ada Deprez and Walter Gobbers (eds.), Vlaamse literatuur van de negentiende eeuw: dertien verkenningen (1990); Jaap Goedegebuure and Anne Marie Musschoot, Contemporary Fiction of the Low Countries, 2nd rev. ed. (1995); and M.A. Schenkeveld-Van der Dussen (ed.), Nederlandse literatuur, een geschiedenis (1993). Anthologies include Jethro Bithell (compiler and trans.), Contemporary Flemish Poetry (1917); Jan Greshoff (ed.), Harvest of the Lowlands (1945); Konrad Hopkins and Ronald Van Roekel (eds.), Quartet: An Anthology of Dutch and Flemish Poetry (1978); Joost de Wit and Stanley H. Barkan (compilers), 50 Dutch & Flemish Novelists (1979); Hans van de Waarsenburg (compiler), Five Contemporary Flemish Poets (1979); Manuel Van Loggem (compiler and ed.), New Worlds from the Lowlands: Fantasy and Science Fiction of Dutch and Flemish Writers (1982), a collection of post-World War II works; James S. Holmes and William Jay Smith (eds.), Dutch Interior: Postwar Poetry of The Netherlands and Flanders (1984); Hugo Brems and Ad Zuiderent (eds.), Contemporary Poetry of the Low Countries, 2nd rev. ed. (1995); Lucie Th. Vermij (ed.), Women Writers from The Netherlands and Flanders (1992); and vol. 14, no. 2 (Summer 1994), special issue of The Review of Contemporary Fiction on new Flemish fiction.

Texts dealing with French-language Belgian literature are Camille Hanlet, Les Écrivains belges contemporains de langue française, 1800–1946, 2 vol. (1946); Andrew J. Mathews, La Wallonie, 1886–1892: The Symbolist Movement in Belgium (1947); Gustave Charlier and Joseph Hanse (eds.), Histoire illustrée des lettres françaises de Belgique (1958); Adrien Jans (ed.), Lettres vivantes: deux générations d’écrivains français en Belgique, 1945–1975 (1975); Robert Burniaux and Robert Frickx, La Littérature belge d’expression française, 2nd ed. (1980); Robert Frickx and Jean-Marie Klinkenberg, La Littérature française de Belgique (1980); Alberte Spinette (ed.), Alphabet des lettres belges de langue française (1982); René Andrianne, Ecrire en Belgique: essai sur les conditions de l’écriture en Belgique francophone (1983); René Andrianne (ed.), Ecriture française et identifications culturelles en Belgique (1984); Robert Frickx and Raymond Trousson (eds.), Lettres françaises de Belgique: dictionnaire des oeuvres, 4 vol. (1988–94); Marc Quaghebeur, Lettres belges entre absence et magie (1990); Michel Biron, La Modernité belge: littérature et société (1994); Renée Linkhorn (ed.), La Belgique telle qu’elle s’écrit: perspectives sur les lettres belges de langue française (1995); Colloque international francophone du canton de Payrac, Belgique Wallonie-Bruxelles: une littérature francophone (1999); Christian Berg and Pierre Halen (eds.), Littérature belges de langue française: histoire et perspectives, 1830–2000 (2000). Anthologies include Pierre Bourgeois and Fernand Verhesen (compilers), A Quarter Century of Poetry from Belgium (1970); Liliane Wouters (ed.), Panorama de la poésie françaises de Belgique (1976); Werner Lambersy (ed.), An Anthology of Young Belgian Poetry (1982); Maurice Maeterlinck, Fernand Crommelynck, and Michel de Ghelderode, An Anthology of Modern Belgian Theatre, trans. from the French by Alba Amoia, Bettina L. Knapp, and Nadine Dermoy-Savage (1982); Liliane Wouters and Alain Bosquet (eds.), La Poésie francophone de Belgique, 4 vol. (1985–92); David Willinger and Jeanine Parisier Plottel (eds.), Theatrical Gestures: From the Belgian Avant-Garde (1987); Donald Flanell Friedman (ed.), An Anthology of Belgian Symbolist Poets (1992); The Key to Our Aborted Dreams: Five Plays by Contemporary Belgian Women Writers (1998), trans. from the French by Anne-Marie Glasheen; Kim Connell (ed.), The Belgian School of the Bizarre: An Anthology of Short Stories (1998); Michel Joiret and Marie-Ange Bernard, Littérature belge de langue française (1999).