Afwezig met bericht. De bureaucratische fantasie van A. Alberts

Samenvatting

An Apology for Absence. A. Alberts' Fictionalization of Bureaucratic Existence. The literary oeuvre of the acclaimed Dutch novelist A. Alberts (1911-1995) consists of almost 20 novels, short stories, and memoirs on life in bureaucratic organizations. Starting from the novel, De vergaderzaal ([The Meeting Room] 1974), this article argues that Alberts's fiction on alienated civil servants and white-collar workers presents social scientists with an incisive analysis of Merton's "bureaucratic structure and personality." Three elements of bureaucratic existence can be distilled from his work in particular: the bureaucratic time regime, the formalized sociability, and the collective fantasy of escape. Not unlike his famous equal Franz Kafka, Alberts combined his work as a novelist with a life-long tenure in several bureaucratic organizations. His work, then, should be located in a wider field of texts that figure both as a reflection and comment on the administrative revolution that changed the face of Western Europe in the 20th century. 59 References. Adapted from the source document.