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O.M. (Odile) Heynders

Hoogleraar Comparative Literature

Tilburg School of Humanities
Department of Culture Studies

Expertise

Description of the project EUROPEAN VOICES

The project addresses the hybridity of literature, the blurring of text genres (autobiography, essay, novel) and discourses (literature, history, journalism, politics) in current globalised EU societies. The assumption is that imagination is a tool in getting grip on the social and political circumstances in a globlised reality (Appadurai 1996). Both writers and politicians make use of imagination, however, they do this in different ways: the politician by myth making (making reality more attractive) and the author by the explicit feigning of truth (the resistance of reality). In this project the various strategies of everyday storytelling, the creation of myths and the resistant writing of literary narratives are examined in order to get a comprehension of Europe as an idea (G. Delanty 1995), a historical construction and an experience.

Main focus is on questions such as:

- What role do European writers take as public intellectuals in political debates?

- What is the power of fiction/imagination in relation to political discussion?

- What is the position of the self-reflecting narrator as authentic voice on historical events?

- How do politicians write/mystify their autobiographies?

Conference papers 2013

1. Harvard US 27-29 April 2013 - Public Intellectual Conference IV: Public Roles: The Activist-Writer BHL

2. Ghent Belgium 22-25 May 2013 ? Kenneth Burke Conference - Rhetoric as Equipment for Living: The Vox Populi in Poems

3. Tilburg University 6-7 June 2013 - Law and Popular Culture: De Rijdende Rechter, Conjunctures and Rhetoric Observations from the Perspective of Cultural Studies icw Philip Paiement.

Key words

Publications

Most recent publications

Heynders, O. (2012). Waarnemen en verbeelden. (Review of the book Waarom de hel naar zwavel stinkt, S. Kroonenberg, 2011, 9789045018768). De Academische Boekengids, 91(91), Further information
Heynders, O. (2012). Naam, mens, leven: Life narrative perspectieven op Srebrenica. Vooys, 41-54. Further information
Heynders, O. (2012). Strijd in voetnoten: Grunberg op de voorkant van de Volkskrant. In S. Fagel, E. Francken, & R. Honings (Eds.), Strijd!: Polemiek en conflict in de Nederlandse letteren (pp. 222-229). Leiden: Leiden University Press. Further information
Heynders, O. (2012). Een kunstenaar in de gedaante van een middenstander. (Review of the book Pierre Kemp, een leven, W. Kusters, 2010, 9789460040443). Spiegel der Letteren, 54(3), 389-391. Further information
Heynders, O. (2012). Mikhail Bakhtin & De Geruchten van Hugo Claus. In Y. Dijk, M. de Pourcq, & C. de Strycker (Eds.), Draden in het donker, intertekstualiteit: Theorie en praktijk (pp. 63-79). Nijmegen: Vantilt. Further information

Click here for the complete list of publications (Tilburg University Repository Publications only)

Publications

Most recent publications

Heynders, O. (2012). Waarnemen en verbeelden. (Review of the book Waarom de hel naar zwavel stinkt, S. Kroonenberg, 2011, 9789045018768). De Academische Boekengids, 91(91), Further information
Heynders, O. (2012). Naam, mens, leven: Life narrative perspectieven op Srebrenica. Vooys, 41-54. Further information
Heynders, O. (2012). Strijd in voetnoten: Grunberg op de voorkant van de Volkskrant. In S. Fagel, E. Francken, & R. Honings (Eds.), Strijd!: Polemiek en conflict in de Nederlandse letteren (pp. 222-229). Leiden: Leiden University Press. Further information
Heynders, O. (2012). Een kunstenaar in de gedaante van een middenstander. (Review of the book Pierre Kemp, een leven, W. Kusters, 2010, 9789460040443). Spiegel der Letteren, 54(3), 389-391. Further information
Heynders, O. (2012). Mikhail Bakhtin & De Geruchten van Hugo Claus. In Y. Dijk, M. de Pourcq, & C. de Strycker (Eds.), Draden in het donker, intertekstualiteit: Theorie en praktijk (pp. 63-79). Nijmegen: Vantilt. Further information

Click here for the complete list of publications (Tilburg University Repository Publications only)

External accreditation

Editorial boards

. Lid redactie Tijdschrift voor Literatuurwetenschap1995-1999 (uitgever AUP)

. Lid redactie TNTL, september 2007

Teaching

BA: Grote verhalen van de Humanities: Cervantes

BA: Globalisation and Art

BA: Wetenschap en Publiek Debat

MA: Veranderingen in Beleving

Liberal Arts: Literature as Social Knowledge

Honors Program European Discourses: Cultural History and Diversity

O.M. (Odile) Heynders teaches the following subjects:

Research Skills: Hermeneutical Research of Discourse and Visual Images (880476) Further information
(825044) Further information
Globalisation (825046) Further information
Rhetoric, Culture and Democracy (840005) Further information
Methods of Interpretation (840011) Further information
Contemporary History: Politics and Literature since the 1990s (840021) Further information
Current European Issues (check out specifics) (840054) Further information
Theories on Narrative (840056) Further information
Rhetoric, Culture & Democracy, in conjunction with Academic English (840083) Further information
Changes in Experiencing Art (880213) Further information