Projects
Facing Diversity. Representations of Early Modern Learned Women Writers and the Construction of intellectual and literary authority (1500-1850) KU Leuven
The prototypical image of the learned has long been that of a man. This project reveals a different lineage. It investigates female representations of intellectual and literary authority at the dawn of modern science in the early modern era, systematically analyzing printed textual and visual portraits of women writers as agents of public authority. In traditional historiography on women’s contributions to the early modern European ...
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 ...