‘Alle planten van het Caribische gebied bijeenbrengen.’ Een comparatieve analyse van Dubbelspel (1973) en De laatste vrijheid (1995) van Frank Martinus Arion aan de hand van cosmopolitan bioregionalism

Abstract

Frank Martinus Arion (1936-2015) was a Curaçao-Dutch writer who, in addition to novels, wrote poetry and was editor-in-chief of the cultural magazine Ruku. Born in Curaçao, he travelled extensively during his lifetime and spent long periods in the Netherlands and Suriname. But he always returned to Curaçao, where he lived from 1981 until his death. Arion's focus on his own living environment on the one hand and on the global on the other is also reflected in his oeuvre, in which these two interests are intertwined. In this article, I examine this characteristic dynamic on the basis of two of Arion's novels, namely his debut Dubbelspel (Double Play, 1973) and his later work De laatste vrijheid (The Last Freedom, 1995). I analyse the treatment of the living environment in both novels using the concept of cosmopolitan bioregionalism in order to shed new light on the way in which Arion's novels depict the treatment of the living environment. By comparing both novels on the basis of this concept, similarities and differences in that depiction are made visible.