Jane Fenoulhet

Romanticising language learning: beyond instrumentalism

Romanticism was a powerful force in western Europe and Russia at the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth century that gave rise to radically new forms of artistic endeavour, but once it had run its course, it was often regarded as an overblown and outdated current of thought partly because of its predisposition to fantasy and its connections with nationalistic movements. And yet its persistence in our vocabulary and imaginaries shows its continued relevance in today’s world. This volume uses the philosophical approach of Romanticism associated with Rousseau in France, and Herder, Kant, Fichte and Schelling in Germany, that valued notions such as the expressive powers, individual experience, the pleasurable and the revolutionary (Bullock & Trombley, 2000), in order to throw new light on the language-learning experience. The aim is to capture a changing mood that is increasingly moving away from an approach to language learning which highlights its value for delivering new opportunities for economic advancement and market openings. A ‘Romantic’ disposition places the individual at the heart of the languagelearning project, accentuating the personal value of the intercultural encounter. Many have spoken against the hegemony of instrumentalist (Block & Cameron, 2002; Cronin, 2000; Kramsch, 2005; Leung, 2005; Phipps, 2010; Phipps & González, 2004) and even neoliberalist approaches to language pedagogy (Block, Gray, & Holborow, 2012), and how such approaches narrow and limit the perspectives and ambitions of the language learner. The development of much language-teaching pedagogy has been built on a Communicative Language Teaching ideology that has limited the way in which the individual can build on his/her most personal, emotional and intellectual expressive needs. As Said (2004) points out in reference to ELT:

From Personal to Public Memory: Scandal in the Life Writing of E. du Perron and Hella S. Haasse

Abstract The contribution of life writing, particularly biography, to public memory is examined with particular focus on two eighteenth-century scandals. Biography places private lives in the public arena on the assumption that they are relevant to the concerns of a reading public. Two questions are raised: why are these particular stories worthy of interest and what power do they have to alter public memory? These questions are addressed through two examples: E. du Perrons Schandaal in Holland, which tells the story of Onno Zwier van Haren and the disputed accusation of incest with his daughters; and Hella S. Haasses Mevrouw Bentinck in which an aristocratic woman abandons her husband and children to lead an emancipated existence.

Adaptability and audience: the many publics of Etty Hillesum

Abstract This article considers the many adaptations of Etty Hillesum’s diary in English and French and asks whether there are similarities with Anne Frank’s diary which has also been mediated to many audiences through a range of adaptations. Two stage versions and their publics are then explored in more detail to reveal similar strategies for engaging audiences despite contrasting treatments of the diary.

Anna Blaman's losers ? Single people in the Netherlands in and after the Second World War

Abstract This paper looks at the position of single people in the Netherlands in the mid-twentieth Century and at their representation in the novels of Anna Blaman. It argues that Blaman enables her readers to view mainstream society front a marginal perspective and suggests that by doing so, she makes a contribution to the process of democratization.

Love, Marriage and Disappointment: Women's Lives in the Work of Ina Boudier-Bakker

ABSTRACTThis article takes a critical look at Ina Boudier-Bakkers work in the 1920s and 1930s. It analyses her views on womens role in society as expressed in the political tract De moderne vrouw en haar tekort1 (The modern woman and her failings), and two novels, one contemporary, one historical. It also investigates the notion of love and its function, and attempts to answer the question of how the love-ideal can be reconciled with the womens lives as portrayed in the fiction.