Published Papers by Dorothee Sturkenboom
in Yearbook of Women's History 40. Living Concepts. 40 Years of Engaging Gender and History (2021) pp. 53-58, 2021
Considering the hard time Dutch gender historians have incorporating the concept of masculinity i... more Considering the hard time Dutch gender historians have incorporating the concept of masculinity in their research, this paper is set up as a miniature ‘how-to-guide’.
After briefly discussing its notorious ‘unmarked’ character, the inherently plural nature of masculinity is introduced as useful guiding principle. Then some examples of possible methods and their relative merits are given. Meanwhile, eclecticism in one’s methods is also recommended as a working strategy.
The essay concludes with a plea not to underestimate the value of contradictory findings and the opportunities they offer for a more advanced analysis of masculinity.
in Isis. International Review devoted to the History of Science and its Cultural Influences 94 (2003), pp. 216-252, 2003
The Natuurkundig Genootschap der Dames (Women's Society for Natural Knowledge), formally establis... more The Natuurkundig Genootschap der Dames (Women's Society for Natural Knowledge), formally established by and for women, met regularly from 1785 to 1881 and sporadically until 1887. It challenges our stereotypes both of women and the physical sciences during the eighteenth century and of the intellectual interests open to women in the early European republics.
This essay aims not simply to identify the society and its members but to describe their pursuits and consider what their story adds to the history of Western science. What does this society's existence tell us about the relationship between women and early science in general and about science and society in the Dutch setting in particular?
Science and gender look rather different when observed through the activities of the immensely prosperous women of Middelburg, citizens of one of the most highly literate Western countries. The elite lives of the first-generation members of the women's society also offer us a glimpse into the early domestication of science, a process vital to its acceptance and assimilation.
in BMGN. Low Countries Historical Review 129 (2014) no. 2, pp. 163-191, 2014
Throughout history emotions and emotional styles have functioned as social markers to make a dist... more Throughout history emotions and emotional styles have functioned as social markers to make a distinction between groups in societies. This essay introduces the concept of ‘emotional identity’ to reflect upon the underlying dynamic process in which both insiders and outsiders use (the handling of) emotions, or the lack thereof, to characterize a group of persons.
Taking the allegedly phlegmatic temperament of the Dutch as example, it explains how such identities come into being and are sustained, yet also contested, reappraised, and altered over time. It discusses the non-exclusive and inherently paradoxical nature of emotional group identities as well as some of the key mechanisms and patterns of adjustment that account for the long life of the stereotypes involved.
While the essay covers a time span of two millennia, it mainly focuses on the early modern era when classical climate zone theories merged with new modes of national thinking and even allowed for the smooth introduction of an entirely new element into the stolid character of the Dutch, that is, the national passion for profit.
in Marco de Waard (ed.), Imagining Global Amsterdam. History, Culture, and Geography in a World City (Amsterdam 2012: Amsterdam University Press) 45-65, 2012
The financial crisis of the early 21th century has breathed new life into economic patriotism – a... more The financial crisis of the early 21th century has breathed new life into economic patriotism – a mode of thinking that commonly gains influence when international economic processes are believed to be at the root of national problems. Today, critical words about how local interests are losing out in the context of a global economy are to be heard in nearly every European country – the Netherlands not excepted. Time and again, the same stereotypes surface in these nationalistic narratives: the scheming and shady foreigner who is after the nation’s financial and social capital, the selfish and short-sighted elite who does not put up the necessary fight, and the sane and sensible citizen as the only one who sees the risks clearly and behaves responsibly.
These stereotypes are not modern inventions, but were already alive and kicking centuries ago as this article on the imagery and rhetoric of Dutch economic patriotism in the late eighteenth century shows. Published in a volume on Amsterdam as a world city, the article discusses two economic cartoons and a related drama pamphlet (published in 1780), analyzing the symbolic position of Amsterdam as financial global city in the larger narrative about the Dutch nation presented in these sources.
The anti-metropolitan and anti-cosmopolitan strands in eighteenth-century economic patriotism reveal a crucial fault line running between Amsterdam and the Dutch provinces in the consciousness of the Dutch civic population at the time: especially the well-to-do city dwellers were distrusted by the rest of the country and their cosmopolitan orientation was discarded as particularly narrow-minded in comparison to the ‘true’ patriotism of countrymen living outside the walls of the capital city. A similar fault line between metropolis and country can still be recognized in the economic patriotic rhetoric deployed by quite a number of European politicians today, courting their constituency with the popular fallacy that urban, national, and international interests are by definition incompatible.
A complementary historical analysis of the same eighteenth-century triple source is presented in: Dorothee Sturkenboom’s ‘Merchants on the Defensive. National Self-Images in the Dutch Republic of the Late Eighteenth Century', in: Margaret C. Jacob and Catherine Secretan (eds.), The Self-Perception of Early Modern Capitalists, New York 2008, p.99-122 (available at Sturkenboom's Homepage and Professional Webpage).
in Journal of Social History 34 (2000-2001), pp. 55-75, 2000
This article seeks to historicize the deep-seated notion of 'emotional woman' and 'rational man'... more This article seeks to historicize the deep-seated notion of 'emotional woman' and 'rational man' by means of research into the changing perceptions of sexual difference and emotions in the eighteenth-century.
Texts from Dutch Enlightenment weeklies reveal a change in the gendered meaning of emotionalism. The bad-tempered and imperious woman who causes havoc in sexual relations as well as in the social order in general was gradually replaced by the woman whose sensibility was considered to be a private as well as a social virtue. This late eighteenth-century cult of sensibility was not restricted to women. It also produced the ideal of the man of feeling, a figure who, although part of 'bourgeois' anti-aristocratic discourses, was molded after aristocratic examples.
Towards the end of the century the rapprochement of gendered notions of emotionalism was undone by the rise of a binary model of sexual difference that relegated the emotions back to the female realm. The author explains these changes as, among other things, a conservative middle-class reaction to egalitarian ideals of sexual relations earlier in the century.
An earlier version of this article written in Dutch was published in the Tijdschrift voor Genderstudies 1 (1998) no. 4, p.14-26 (available at Sturkenboom's Homepage and Professional Webpage).
Books by Dorothee Sturkenboom
The purpose of the Daendels lecture of 2022 was to tackle the modern boreal ideology by studying ... more The purpose of the Daendels lecture of 2022 was to tackle the modern boreal ideology by studying its previous history. Focusing on the late eighteenth century, this text uncovers a number of weaknesses in how the Northern identity was, and is, conceptualized as superior to the Southern.
At the time of the socalled Batavian Republic (1795-1806) and the years leading up to it, Dutch intellectuals were worrying about the state of their country and wondering what remained of its national identity—just like today. And just like today, patriotic and Batavian critics were searching for exemplars in the past, contesting influences from abroad, and blaming the elite for its opulnece and weaknesses.
While the Dutch wished to lay claim to an uncorrupted masculine northern character, for others that same character represented a lack of civilisation, intelligence and sensitivity - in line with ancient climatological theories. To find an answer to that wasn't simple.
In this lecture it is argued that "The North" is not solely a geographic but also an imaginary space with fact and fiction, sense and nonsense to suit all tastes. That is true for the eighteenth century but also for the twenty-first century, where we can still hear the dissonant echo's of this age old boreal ideology.
In the minds of many people national identity and masculinity are intimately connected. Yet, this... more In the minds of many people national identity and masculinity are intimately connected. Yet, this connection has hardly been a subject of analysis in Dutch history. That is because, different from femininity, masculinity has such a quality of naturalness and self-evidence that it is not consciously noticed. Nevertheless, in each culture ideas about what is masculine and what is not, serve as a founding axis of meanings. As such masculinity has shaped the image and self-image of the Dutch as a nation. We only have to think of the evidently male models which keep popping up as icons of national identity in Dutch media again and again: the merchant (sometimes seconded by the seaman) and the minister.
The insight that not only femininity but also masculinity is often used symbolically to create differences with other people and define, for instance, professional groups or nations, is common to historians of gender. However, this specific gender perspective is practically absent from the current research into Dutch identity by other historians, imagologists and social scientists. That is a shortfall because in whatever way one chooses to see Dutch identity –as well-defined and essential, as variable and constructed, or as something in-between– this is a fundamental dimension. It is also a fascinating dimension because different models of masculinity seem to be competing with each other in the dynamic and contested heritage that we call Dutch identity.
This dynamic between softer and harder styles of masculinity is the leitmotiv of this book. The chapters discuss the bravery of the merchant that was found to be lacking in the eyes of outsiders, the masculinity of the Dutch she-merchant who was wearing the breeches at home, the militant masculinity of colonial merchants overseas which contrasted sharply with the accommodating masculinity of the merchants at home. The last chapter analyses in detail how –despite the classical and Christian traditions to judge commerce negatively– a positive identification and broad social appreciation was brought about for the merchant as icon of Dutchness in the 17th and 18th centuries.
It can hardly be called a new idea that the period of the Dutch Republic has shaped Dutch commercial identity. What is new, however, is the argument that masculinity has been a symbolic ánd decisive factor in the historic appreciation for both commercial capitalism and the Dutch as a nation of merchants. To argue this point, this book not only analyses several early modern styles of masculinity with their particular honour codes but also uncovers the cultural traditions which delivered the models and words that made it possible to speak of masculinity at the time.
In order to explain the moments and ways in which masculinity served as a symbolical instrument in favour or to the detriment of Dutch commercial identity, historical developments such as rising capitalism, colonialism, urbanisation, war and migration are taken into consideration. Furthermore, the social and political mechanisms that shaped this process of identification ideologically for both insiders and outsiders, are analysed.
In these times of reviving political machismo, the ongoing appeal to ‘the’ Dutch identity, a growing awareness of the colonial past, and climbing criticism on the dominance of the market in politics and culture, The Merchant's Balls offers an innovative and refreshing approach to present discussions in Dutch society.
From the outset, the members of the Dutch ‘Natuurkundig Genootschap der Dames’ (1785-1887) (the L... more From the outset, the members of the Dutch ‘Natuurkundig Genootschap der Dames’ (1785-1887) (the Ladies’ Scientific Society) must have known that their gatherings were special. Elsewhere, women had never yet come together in order to study the laws and wonders of divine nature. Yet in Middelburg, with support from local councillors and clergy, they founded a society, purchased scientific instruments and hired an instructor to teach modern empirical science through experimentation.
Who were these women? What ideals drove them and their male counterparts? Why did Middelburg, of all places, become the location of the world’s first scientific organisation for women? And how did the rest of the world react at the time to women who displayed a striking interest in telescopes, air pumps, test tubes, and condensers?
Focussed on the Zeeland town of Middelburg, yet often turning its attention to developments elsewhere, The Electric Kiss tells the story of attraction and repulsion between women and the burgeoning scientific disciplines in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It demonstrates how the new experimental sciences won a place in social and family life in the early modern era, and thus became integrated into Western culture and society.
It also relates how this relationship came to an end in the second half of the nineteenth century. Changes in urban sociability, in the education system, and in the social organisation of the sciences signalled the decline of the women’s scientific society in Middelburg. At the same time, this also symbolised the end of an extraordinary era in which male and female enthusiasts could experiment freely with electrostatic generators, and could express their shared fascination for nature through experiments such as ‘the electric kiss’.
It was a good idea for those wishing to join in discussions with colleagues and friends in the Du... more It was a good idea for those wishing to join in discussions with colleagues and friends in the Dutch Republic of the eighteenth century to consult a Spectatorial weekly on a regular basis. As opinion papers before the term even existed, these partly literary, partly well-argued texts were representative of a substantial part of the public debate as this was conducted in the Netherlands in the days of the Enlightenment.
People in the eighteenth century struggled with very much the same problems as we are faced with today: the relationship between men and women, the relationship between those in authority and subordinates, the rift between various nations, the essential balance between body and mind. Even then, public opinion was divided, and the spectatorial authors liked to take advantage of this division. They used their flowing style to employ all kinds of genres to shape the behaviour and mentality of their fellow citizens: fictive readers' letters, ethical discourse, psychological profiles, popular-scientific arguments, moralising poetry, sentimental histories and allegorical dream narratives - they took advantage of every available possibility.
It is up to the modern-day reader to decide whether the moral powers of persuasion of these authors has withstood the test of time, whether elements of the discussion are still familiar or whether one is primarily surprised by the standpoint taken during the discussions. However, one thing is certain. The pleasure elicited by reading these culture-critical texts has definitely remained in tact.
The eighteenth century, which is known as the age of Reason and Enlightenment, was also a period ... more The eighteenth century, which is known as the age of Reason and Enlightenment, was also a period in which passion and sentiment stirred the senses. In this book, the reader is transported to the emotional universe of a group of eighteenth-century Dutch authors, who made themselves responsible for steering the inner lives of their contemporaries in the right direction during a period of 'national decline’. Their enlightening-ethical lessons in life can be found in the so-called ‘spectatoriale geschriften’ (Spectatorial weekly magazines) around which this study revolves.
In Spectators van hartstocht, the feeling rules, psychological insight and emotional vocabulary of these Dutch spectatorial authors are subjected to a further analysis. The study looks into the way in which they viewed various emotional phenomena, the words they used to describe these phenomena, their views on the extent to which ‘the passions’ were gendered and the ways in which their opinions on emotions were rooted in the period in which they lived.
In the emotional culture of the Dutch spectatorial authors, notions of human happiness, divine intentions, natural inclinations, masculinity, femininity, power and excess were closely linked. In this book, the eighteenth century is presented as the period in which the Dutch nation developed its emotional identity, an identity that had to be characterised by masculinity and virtuousness.
This book is in Dutch but it includes an English summary of 8 pages (pp. 403-410)
Papers by Dorothee Sturkenboom
Isis; an international review devoted to the history of science and its cultural influences, 2003
The Natuurkundig Genootschap der Dames (Women's Society for Natural Knowledge), formally esta... more The Natuurkundig Genootschap der Dames (Women's Society for Natural Knowledge), formally established by and for women, met regularly from 1785 to 1881 and sporadically until 1887. It challenges our stereotypes both of women and the physical sciences during the eighteenth century and of the intellectual interests open to women in the early European republics. This essay aims not simply to identify the society and its members but to describe their pursuits and consider what their story adds to the history of Western science. What does this society's existence tell us about the relationship between women and early science in general and about science and society in the Dutch setting in particular? Science and gender look rather different when observed through the activities of the immensely prosperous women of Middelburg, citizens of one of the most highly literate Western countries. The elite lives of the first-generation members of the women's society also offer us a glim...
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Published Papers by Dorothee Sturkenboom
After briefly discussing its notorious ‘unmarked’ character, the inherently plural nature of masculinity is introduced as useful guiding principle. Then some examples of possible methods and their relative merits are given. Meanwhile, eclecticism in one’s methods is also recommended as a working strategy.
The essay concludes with a plea not to underestimate the value of contradictory findings and the opportunities they offer for a more advanced analysis of masculinity.
This essay aims not simply to identify the society and its members but to describe their pursuits and consider what their story adds to the history of Western science. What does this society's existence tell us about the relationship between women and early science in general and about science and society in the Dutch setting in particular?
Science and gender look rather different when observed through the activities of the immensely prosperous women of Middelburg, citizens of one of the most highly literate Western countries. The elite lives of the first-generation members of the women's society also offer us a glimpse into the early domestication of science, a process vital to its acceptance and assimilation.
Taking the allegedly phlegmatic temperament of the Dutch as example, it explains how such identities come into being and are sustained, yet also contested, reappraised, and altered over time. It discusses the non-exclusive and inherently paradoxical nature of emotional group identities as well as some of the key mechanisms and patterns of adjustment that account for the long life of the stereotypes involved.
While the essay covers a time span of two millennia, it mainly focuses on the early modern era when classical climate zone theories merged with new modes of national thinking and even allowed for the smooth introduction of an entirely new element into the stolid character of the Dutch, that is, the national passion for profit.
These stereotypes are not modern inventions, but were already alive and kicking centuries ago as this article on the imagery and rhetoric of Dutch economic patriotism in the late eighteenth century shows. Published in a volume on Amsterdam as a world city, the article discusses two economic cartoons and a related drama pamphlet (published in 1780), analyzing the symbolic position of Amsterdam as financial global city in the larger narrative about the Dutch nation presented in these sources.
The anti-metropolitan and anti-cosmopolitan strands in eighteenth-century economic patriotism reveal a crucial fault line running between Amsterdam and the Dutch provinces in the consciousness of the Dutch civic population at the time: especially the well-to-do city dwellers were distrusted by the rest of the country and their cosmopolitan orientation was discarded as particularly narrow-minded in comparison to the ‘true’ patriotism of countrymen living outside the walls of the capital city. A similar fault line between metropolis and country can still be recognized in the economic patriotic rhetoric deployed by quite a number of European politicians today, courting their constituency with the popular fallacy that urban, national, and international interests are by definition incompatible.
A complementary historical analysis of the same eighteenth-century triple source is presented in: Dorothee Sturkenboom’s ‘Merchants on the Defensive. National Self-Images in the Dutch Republic of the Late Eighteenth Century', in: Margaret C. Jacob and Catherine Secretan (eds.), The Self-Perception of Early Modern Capitalists, New York 2008, p.99-122 (available at Sturkenboom's Homepage and Professional Webpage).
Texts from Dutch Enlightenment weeklies reveal a change in the gendered meaning of emotionalism. The bad-tempered and imperious woman who causes havoc in sexual relations as well as in the social order in general was gradually replaced by the woman whose sensibility was considered to be a private as well as a social virtue. This late eighteenth-century cult of sensibility was not restricted to women. It also produced the ideal of the man of feeling, a figure who, although part of 'bourgeois' anti-aristocratic discourses, was molded after aristocratic examples.
Towards the end of the century the rapprochement of gendered notions of emotionalism was undone by the rise of a binary model of sexual difference that relegated the emotions back to the female realm. The author explains these changes as, among other things, a conservative middle-class reaction to egalitarian ideals of sexual relations earlier in the century.
An earlier version of this article written in Dutch was published in the Tijdschrift voor Genderstudies 1 (1998) no. 4, p.14-26 (available at Sturkenboom's Homepage and Professional Webpage).
Books by Dorothee Sturkenboom
At the time of the socalled Batavian Republic (1795-1806) and the years leading up to it, Dutch intellectuals were worrying about the state of their country and wondering what remained of its national identity—just like today. And just like today, patriotic and Batavian critics were searching for exemplars in the past, contesting influences from abroad, and blaming the elite for its opulnece and weaknesses.
While the Dutch wished to lay claim to an uncorrupted masculine northern character, for others that same character represented a lack of civilisation, intelligence and sensitivity - in line with ancient climatological theories. To find an answer to that wasn't simple.
In this lecture it is argued that "The North" is not solely a geographic but also an imaginary space with fact and fiction, sense and nonsense to suit all tastes. That is true for the eighteenth century but also for the twenty-first century, where we can still hear the dissonant echo's of this age old boreal ideology.
The insight that not only femininity but also masculinity is often used symbolically to create differences with other people and define, for instance, professional groups or nations, is common to historians of gender. However, this specific gender perspective is practically absent from the current research into Dutch identity by other historians, imagologists and social scientists. That is a shortfall because in whatever way one chooses to see Dutch identity –as well-defined and essential, as variable and constructed, or as something in-between– this is a fundamental dimension. It is also a fascinating dimension because different models of masculinity seem to be competing with each other in the dynamic and contested heritage that we call Dutch identity.
This dynamic between softer and harder styles of masculinity is the leitmotiv of this book. The chapters discuss the bravery of the merchant that was found to be lacking in the eyes of outsiders, the masculinity of the Dutch she-merchant who was wearing the breeches at home, the militant masculinity of colonial merchants overseas which contrasted sharply with the accommodating masculinity of the merchants at home. The last chapter analyses in detail how –despite the classical and Christian traditions to judge commerce negatively– a positive identification and broad social appreciation was brought about for the merchant as icon of Dutchness in the 17th and 18th centuries.
It can hardly be called a new idea that the period of the Dutch Republic has shaped Dutch commercial identity. What is new, however, is the argument that masculinity has been a symbolic ánd decisive factor in the historic appreciation for both commercial capitalism and the Dutch as a nation of merchants. To argue this point, this book not only analyses several early modern styles of masculinity with their particular honour codes but also uncovers the cultural traditions which delivered the models and words that made it possible to speak of masculinity at the time.
In order to explain the moments and ways in which masculinity served as a symbolical instrument in favour or to the detriment of Dutch commercial identity, historical developments such as rising capitalism, colonialism, urbanisation, war and migration are taken into consideration. Furthermore, the social and political mechanisms that shaped this process of identification ideologically for both insiders and outsiders, are analysed.
In these times of reviving political machismo, the ongoing appeal to ‘the’ Dutch identity, a growing awareness of the colonial past, and climbing criticism on the dominance of the market in politics and culture, The Merchant's Balls offers an innovative and refreshing approach to present discussions in Dutch society.
Who were these women? What ideals drove them and their male counterparts? Why did Middelburg, of all places, become the location of the world’s first scientific organisation for women? And how did the rest of the world react at the time to women who displayed a striking interest in telescopes, air pumps, test tubes, and condensers?
Focussed on the Zeeland town of Middelburg, yet often turning its attention to developments elsewhere, The Electric Kiss tells the story of attraction and repulsion between women and the burgeoning scientific disciplines in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It demonstrates how the new experimental sciences won a place in social and family life in the early modern era, and thus became integrated into Western culture and society.
It also relates how this relationship came to an end in the second half of the nineteenth century. Changes in urban sociability, in the education system, and in the social organisation of the sciences signalled the decline of the women’s scientific society in Middelburg. At the same time, this also symbolised the end of an extraordinary era in which male and female enthusiasts could experiment freely with electrostatic generators, and could express their shared fascination for nature through experiments such as ‘the electric kiss’.
People in the eighteenth century struggled with very much the same problems as we are faced with today: the relationship between men and women, the relationship between those in authority and subordinates, the rift between various nations, the essential balance between body and mind. Even then, public opinion was divided, and the spectatorial authors liked to take advantage of this division. They used their flowing style to employ all kinds of genres to shape the behaviour and mentality of their fellow citizens: fictive readers' letters, ethical discourse, psychological profiles, popular-scientific arguments, moralising poetry, sentimental histories and allegorical dream narratives - they took advantage of every available possibility.
It is up to the modern-day reader to decide whether the moral powers of persuasion of these authors has withstood the test of time, whether elements of the discussion are still familiar or whether one is primarily surprised by the standpoint taken during the discussions. However, one thing is certain. The pleasure elicited by reading these culture-critical texts has definitely remained in tact.
In Spectators van hartstocht, the feeling rules, psychological insight and emotional vocabulary of these Dutch spectatorial authors are subjected to a further analysis. The study looks into the way in which they viewed various emotional phenomena, the words they used to describe these phenomena, their views on the extent to which ‘the passions’ were gendered and the ways in which their opinions on emotions were rooted in the period in which they lived.
In the emotional culture of the Dutch spectatorial authors, notions of human happiness, divine intentions, natural inclinations, masculinity, femininity, power and excess were closely linked. In this book, the eighteenth century is presented as the period in which the Dutch nation developed its emotional identity, an identity that had to be characterised by masculinity and virtuousness.
This book is in Dutch but it includes an English summary of 8 pages (pp. 403-410)
Papers by Dorothee Sturkenboom
After briefly discussing its notorious ‘unmarked’ character, the inherently plural nature of masculinity is introduced as useful guiding principle. Then some examples of possible methods and their relative merits are given. Meanwhile, eclecticism in one’s methods is also recommended as a working strategy.
The essay concludes with a plea not to underestimate the value of contradictory findings and the opportunities they offer for a more advanced analysis of masculinity.
This essay aims not simply to identify the society and its members but to describe their pursuits and consider what their story adds to the history of Western science. What does this society's existence tell us about the relationship between women and early science in general and about science and society in the Dutch setting in particular?
Science and gender look rather different when observed through the activities of the immensely prosperous women of Middelburg, citizens of one of the most highly literate Western countries. The elite lives of the first-generation members of the women's society also offer us a glimpse into the early domestication of science, a process vital to its acceptance and assimilation.
Taking the allegedly phlegmatic temperament of the Dutch as example, it explains how such identities come into being and are sustained, yet also contested, reappraised, and altered over time. It discusses the non-exclusive and inherently paradoxical nature of emotional group identities as well as some of the key mechanisms and patterns of adjustment that account for the long life of the stereotypes involved.
While the essay covers a time span of two millennia, it mainly focuses on the early modern era when classical climate zone theories merged with new modes of national thinking and even allowed for the smooth introduction of an entirely new element into the stolid character of the Dutch, that is, the national passion for profit.
These stereotypes are not modern inventions, but were already alive and kicking centuries ago as this article on the imagery and rhetoric of Dutch economic patriotism in the late eighteenth century shows. Published in a volume on Amsterdam as a world city, the article discusses two economic cartoons and a related drama pamphlet (published in 1780), analyzing the symbolic position of Amsterdam as financial global city in the larger narrative about the Dutch nation presented in these sources.
The anti-metropolitan and anti-cosmopolitan strands in eighteenth-century economic patriotism reveal a crucial fault line running between Amsterdam and the Dutch provinces in the consciousness of the Dutch civic population at the time: especially the well-to-do city dwellers were distrusted by the rest of the country and their cosmopolitan orientation was discarded as particularly narrow-minded in comparison to the ‘true’ patriotism of countrymen living outside the walls of the capital city. A similar fault line between metropolis and country can still be recognized in the economic patriotic rhetoric deployed by quite a number of European politicians today, courting their constituency with the popular fallacy that urban, national, and international interests are by definition incompatible.
A complementary historical analysis of the same eighteenth-century triple source is presented in: Dorothee Sturkenboom’s ‘Merchants on the Defensive. National Self-Images in the Dutch Republic of the Late Eighteenth Century', in: Margaret C. Jacob and Catherine Secretan (eds.), The Self-Perception of Early Modern Capitalists, New York 2008, p.99-122 (available at Sturkenboom's Homepage and Professional Webpage).
Texts from Dutch Enlightenment weeklies reveal a change in the gendered meaning of emotionalism. The bad-tempered and imperious woman who causes havoc in sexual relations as well as in the social order in general was gradually replaced by the woman whose sensibility was considered to be a private as well as a social virtue. This late eighteenth-century cult of sensibility was not restricted to women. It also produced the ideal of the man of feeling, a figure who, although part of 'bourgeois' anti-aristocratic discourses, was molded after aristocratic examples.
Towards the end of the century the rapprochement of gendered notions of emotionalism was undone by the rise of a binary model of sexual difference that relegated the emotions back to the female realm. The author explains these changes as, among other things, a conservative middle-class reaction to egalitarian ideals of sexual relations earlier in the century.
An earlier version of this article written in Dutch was published in the Tijdschrift voor Genderstudies 1 (1998) no. 4, p.14-26 (available at Sturkenboom's Homepage and Professional Webpage).
At the time of the socalled Batavian Republic (1795-1806) and the years leading up to it, Dutch intellectuals were worrying about the state of their country and wondering what remained of its national identity—just like today. And just like today, patriotic and Batavian critics were searching for exemplars in the past, contesting influences from abroad, and blaming the elite for its opulnece and weaknesses.
While the Dutch wished to lay claim to an uncorrupted masculine northern character, for others that same character represented a lack of civilisation, intelligence and sensitivity - in line with ancient climatological theories. To find an answer to that wasn't simple.
In this lecture it is argued that "The North" is not solely a geographic but also an imaginary space with fact and fiction, sense and nonsense to suit all tastes. That is true for the eighteenth century but also for the twenty-first century, where we can still hear the dissonant echo's of this age old boreal ideology.
The insight that not only femininity but also masculinity is often used symbolically to create differences with other people and define, for instance, professional groups or nations, is common to historians of gender. However, this specific gender perspective is practically absent from the current research into Dutch identity by other historians, imagologists and social scientists. That is a shortfall because in whatever way one chooses to see Dutch identity –as well-defined and essential, as variable and constructed, or as something in-between– this is a fundamental dimension. It is also a fascinating dimension because different models of masculinity seem to be competing with each other in the dynamic and contested heritage that we call Dutch identity.
This dynamic between softer and harder styles of masculinity is the leitmotiv of this book. The chapters discuss the bravery of the merchant that was found to be lacking in the eyes of outsiders, the masculinity of the Dutch she-merchant who was wearing the breeches at home, the militant masculinity of colonial merchants overseas which contrasted sharply with the accommodating masculinity of the merchants at home. The last chapter analyses in detail how –despite the classical and Christian traditions to judge commerce negatively– a positive identification and broad social appreciation was brought about for the merchant as icon of Dutchness in the 17th and 18th centuries.
It can hardly be called a new idea that the period of the Dutch Republic has shaped Dutch commercial identity. What is new, however, is the argument that masculinity has been a symbolic ánd decisive factor in the historic appreciation for both commercial capitalism and the Dutch as a nation of merchants. To argue this point, this book not only analyses several early modern styles of masculinity with their particular honour codes but also uncovers the cultural traditions which delivered the models and words that made it possible to speak of masculinity at the time.
In order to explain the moments and ways in which masculinity served as a symbolical instrument in favour or to the detriment of Dutch commercial identity, historical developments such as rising capitalism, colonialism, urbanisation, war and migration are taken into consideration. Furthermore, the social and political mechanisms that shaped this process of identification ideologically for both insiders and outsiders, are analysed.
In these times of reviving political machismo, the ongoing appeal to ‘the’ Dutch identity, a growing awareness of the colonial past, and climbing criticism on the dominance of the market in politics and culture, The Merchant's Balls offers an innovative and refreshing approach to present discussions in Dutch society.
Who were these women? What ideals drove them and their male counterparts? Why did Middelburg, of all places, become the location of the world’s first scientific organisation for women? And how did the rest of the world react at the time to women who displayed a striking interest in telescopes, air pumps, test tubes, and condensers?
Focussed on the Zeeland town of Middelburg, yet often turning its attention to developments elsewhere, The Electric Kiss tells the story of attraction and repulsion between women and the burgeoning scientific disciplines in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It demonstrates how the new experimental sciences won a place in social and family life in the early modern era, and thus became integrated into Western culture and society.
It also relates how this relationship came to an end in the second half of the nineteenth century. Changes in urban sociability, in the education system, and in the social organisation of the sciences signalled the decline of the women’s scientific society in Middelburg. At the same time, this also symbolised the end of an extraordinary era in which male and female enthusiasts could experiment freely with electrostatic generators, and could express their shared fascination for nature through experiments such as ‘the electric kiss’.
People in the eighteenth century struggled with very much the same problems as we are faced with today: the relationship between men and women, the relationship between those in authority and subordinates, the rift between various nations, the essential balance between body and mind. Even then, public opinion was divided, and the spectatorial authors liked to take advantage of this division. They used their flowing style to employ all kinds of genres to shape the behaviour and mentality of their fellow citizens: fictive readers' letters, ethical discourse, psychological profiles, popular-scientific arguments, moralising poetry, sentimental histories and allegorical dream narratives - they took advantage of every available possibility.
It is up to the modern-day reader to decide whether the moral powers of persuasion of these authors has withstood the test of time, whether elements of the discussion are still familiar or whether one is primarily surprised by the standpoint taken during the discussions. However, one thing is certain. The pleasure elicited by reading these culture-critical texts has definitely remained in tact.
In Spectators van hartstocht, the feeling rules, psychological insight and emotional vocabulary of these Dutch spectatorial authors are subjected to a further analysis. The study looks into the way in which they viewed various emotional phenomena, the words they used to describe these phenomena, their views on the extent to which ‘the passions’ were gendered and the ways in which their opinions on emotions were rooted in the period in which they lived.
In the emotional culture of the Dutch spectatorial authors, notions of human happiness, divine intentions, natural inclinations, masculinity, femininity, power and excess were closely linked. In this book, the eighteenth century is presented as the period in which the Dutch nation developed its emotional identity, an identity that had to be characterised by masculinity and virtuousness.
This book is in Dutch but it includes an English summary of 8 pages (pp. 403-410)