Projects
Constrained. A Comparative Study of the Influence of Form on the Material Transmission of Middle Dutch Literature. University of Antwerp
Evaluation of literature by professional and layperson critics: A digital and literary sociological analysis of evaluative talk of literature through the prism of literary prizes (2007-2017) Ghent University
Recently, the manager of a Dutch publishing consortium manager stated that literary quality should
be measured and predicted by means of algorithms and big data-based audience research, rather
than by experts. His claim drew ire and caused the exodus of many of established authors; at the
same time, the statement is indicative of a broader societal trend in which the knowledge of
professional 'pundits' is rivalled and ...
Legal culture and language: a study of the linguisticdiscursive aspects of contract law in France, Germany and England from a comparative and historical perspective Ghent University
Comparative law has always been a kind of umbrella concept encompassing different
activities with diverse underlying motives and goals and to that extent, methodological
pluralism is part and parcel of comparative law. In the context of approximation/harmonization initiatives (e.g. EU), scholars in comparative contract law have tended to adopt a (not well elaborated) functionalist approach and limited their research to a mainly ...
Multilingualism, translation and minor languages in contemporary world literature KU Leuven
Since its emergence in the 18th century, monolingualism has had a strong impact on literature and culture. Despite its avowed global perspective, world literature still leans towards monolingualism. Not only does it focus on writers who write in major languages, while peripheral regions and minor languages are off the map, but it also favours monolingual works. Multilingual texts are often considered untranslatable or incomprehensible, which ...
Otherworldly Powers? Narrative Functions of the Supernatural in Flemish and Congolese Literature before and after Congo’s Independence (1945-1975) Ghent University
Between 1945 and 1975, magical powers, curses and transcendent visions played a decisive role in Flemish literature about Congo, shaping the narrative and evoking different worldviews. Impossible phenomena in science fiction or fantastic literature have similar functions, but, unlike these genres, the supernatural elements in the Flemish literature about Congo have a religious undertone. This is explained by the strong missionary presence of ...
Literature that bypassed the censor! The alternative literary circuit in Antwerp at the end of the seventeenth century. University of Antwerp
Waking Prithviraj: the subversive poetics of the past in North Indian historical literature Ghent University
Complementing and challenging a dominant historiographical and socio-political mode of textual analysis, this project offers a first and much-needed literary/aesthetic reappraisal of an important Sanskrit historical epic poem, Jayanaka’s long-neglected Pṛthvīrājavijaya “Prithviraj’s Victory” (1192-3). This epic stands at the beginning of a long and ongoing tradition of heroic and unheroic retellings about the (in)famous North Indian king ...
Language and Literature Teaching in the Sixteenth Century: Vergil and Homer at the Leuven Collegium Trilingue KU Leuven
During the Renaissance, humanist thought provoked great changes in school curricula across Europe. Latin and Greek language and literature were taught in a new way, classical writers were read in a different fashion. Whereas these new humanist pedagogical practices have been studied in some detail on a general level, especially with regard to Italy, they remain almost unstudied for the Southern Low Countries. For this reason I envisage to ...