Over het verdwijnen van de (literaire) boer uit de Friese literatuur

Abstract

In this article I propose a semiotic approach to the so called disappearance of the ‘boerenroman’ (farmer’s novel) after 1945 from the canon of Frisian literature. The semiotic approach I use is based on a theory by Barend van Heusden who states that the iconic depiction of consciousness is the most important feature of literature. To investigate a change in a genre is to investigate a changing consciousness. The question to be answered is why the iconic depiction of consciousness changes. I propose a number of possible explanations. In part deviating from Trinus Riemersma, who links the socio-economic changes directly to their depiction in literature, I see a more indirect relation between the world surrounding the text and the text itself. To explain this relation I make use of the thoughts on this subject of Milan Kundera, Walter Benjamin and Jo Smit. Finally the depiction of consciousness in a world interwoven in a text has to take place through the narrator and through focalisation. I conclude with the idea that the effect of an omnipotent narrator (which is one of the features of a ‘boerenroman’) in relation to the appreciation of the work (old fashioned) can also be a cause for change.