Suchergebnisse

n the second half of the seventeenth century, the Dutch Republic became the "sex shop" of Europe, printing large varieties of erotic works and distributing them through various reader groups. The production of pornographic works also inspired Dutch authors, who developed new forms of erotic prose and plays. Around 1700 Dutch theatrical eroticism mainly took the form of a bawdy dialogue. During the second half of the eighteenth century, when the theatrical landscape of the Netherlands diversified, new pornographic settings were invented. Dutch pornographers developed different varieties of libertinism by making use of the available political discourses and of the available theatrical styles, while experimenting with different styles to manipulate the bodies of both the actors and the audience. This article discusses three pornographic plays to analyze the different performative styles that were deployed to arouse discontent. The dynamics of the production of Dutch pornographic plays thus was dependent upon a combination of factors: the practice of theatrical performance in the Dutch Republic, the development of different theatrical styles, and the construction of specific varieties of (political) criticism for which Dutch pornography was used as a vehicle.

This article analyses the iconography of kiting in the Dutch Republic and the role kites played in the conceptualization of political order and conflict. We argue that the introduction of the kite in Europe around 1600 provided authors and artists with a new, multi-layered and dynamic symbol, to help understand and imagine the new political reality of the Dutch Republic. Although the kite in Europe was mainly perceived as a children's game, leaving behind its more adult and sometimes violent Asian background, it acquired a serious and powerful set of meanings in texts and images. In competition with the traditional iconography of bubbles, Icarus, the Ship of State and the Body Politic, the kite provided new opportunities for cultural imagery. It facilitated the analysis and visualisation of complex phenomena such as the state system of the Dutch Republic, the interplay between Stadtholder and Land's Advocate, the ambition of statesmen, and the international balance of power. The kite, a new technological device, helped to narrate the story of a proud Republic, based on technological accomplishments and moral superiority, and admired by other nations for its high flight.