No abstract

During the occupation of the Netherlands by Nazi Germany, the Dutch literary field was drastically restructured and politicized. Immediately after the liberation, efforts were made to rebuild the field. The first step that was made in the reconstruction, was to purge the field of collaborators. This purge was carried out by the Board of Honour for the Letters and the Central Board of Honour for the Arts. This article investigates just how these Boards contributed to the reconstruction of a(n) (relatively) autonomous literary field in the Netherlands. In doing so, it takes recourse to historical sociological theories regarding the legal and deontological responsibility of the writer.