Leven en sterven van Rembrandt

De fictionele biografie tussen geschiedenis en psychologie

Authors

  • Machteld De Caluwé Universiteit Antwerpen
  • Koen Rymenants K.U.Leuven

Abstract

This article discusses three Dutch fictional biographies about the painter Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669): Rembrandt (1931) by Theun de Vries, Hendrickje Stoffels: Roman uit het leven van Rembrandt (1936) by Ro van Oven and Licht en schaduw: De roman van Rembrandt's leven (1942) by Ch. Huygens. A comparative analysis of these novels' dominant modes of consciousness representation, their paratextual presentation and their use of motifs referring to Rembrandt's painting demonstrates that they deal with the tension between fiction and biography in divergent ways. Thus, it is shown that even fairly conventional examples of fictional biography occupy different positions both within the genre itself and in a wider literary system, e.g. in relation to the historical and the psychological novel. In addition, the analysis demonstrates the use value of various theories of fictional biography (Ina Schabert, Dorrit Cohn, Ansgar Nünning).

Author Biographies

  • Machteld De Caluwé, Universiteit Antwerpen

    Machteld De Caluwé (1986) obtained the degree of Master of Linguistics and Literature (Dutch and French) from K.U.Leuven in 2008. She is currently training to be a teacher at Universiteit Antwerpen.

  • Koen Rymenants, K.U.Leuven

    Koen Rymenants (1977) holds a postdoctoral fellowship in the Subfaculty of Literary Studies at K.U.Leuven. He has published widely in the field of 20th-century Dutch literature. His current research focusses on artists' lives in Dutch and Flemish biographical fiction (1918-2008).

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Published

2026-05-04

Issue

Vol. 22 No. 1 (2009): Life and Narrative

Section

Main Section

License

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

De Caluwé, M., & Rymenants, K. (2026). Leven en sterven van Rembrandt: De fictionele biografie tussen geschiedenis en psychologie. FRAME, Journal of Literary Studies, 22(1), 23-42. https://platform.openjournals.nl/FRAME/article/view/27482