De Edele en de Onedele Rover: veranderende literaire voorstellingen over Westeuropese bandieten

Samenvatting

The Noble and the Ignoble Bandit : Changing Literary Representations of West European robbers. This article deals with literary representations of West European bandits. It discusses the literary career of four famous historical bandits - Cartouche, Bakelandt, Jan de Lichte, and Schinderhannes - focusing on structural resemblances between their images. In m ost bandit stories, their representations have been made to fit the stereotypical image of either the Noble or the Ignoble Bandit, whereas the robber band itself is either depicted as an idyllic society of equals or as a dangerous, subversive counter-society. Referring to structuralist anthropological insights, it is argued that both the negative and the positive stereotype form an inversion of the equally stereotypical self-image of established bourgeois citizens in Western Europe. The second part of the article deals with the social background of the authors and readers of these stories. In the final paragraphs it is argued that both the idealized and the extremely negative image of the bandits should be understood in connection with the increasing influence of nation states on the lives of their inhabitants.