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Frisian
Literature
Frisian Literature, writings in the
Frisian language, spoken in the Dutch province of Friesland and the
Frisian Islands. No document in Frisian can be dated earlier than the
13th century, and little was written in the language between the 18th
and 20th centuries. The oldest writings extant are collections of laws,
Germanic sagas, and verses. New West Frisian literature dates from the
17th century; the first notable work in that language was a comic
dialogue, Wouter en Tialle (1609). The two greatest figures in Frisian
literature are the poet Gijsbert Japiks and the writer Jan Althuysen.
"Frisian Literature,"
Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2000 http://encarta.msn.com
© 1997-2000 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Frisian
Language
Frisian Language, language of the historical Frisian people, now an official language in the Dutch province of Friesland, with dialects still spoken on the Frisian Islands, and in a few German villages. Frisian, most closely related to English, belongs to the Anglo-Frisian group in the western branch of the Germanic languages. Similar Frisian and English words include boi (boy), tolve (twelve), and hy (he). Frisian was once the prominent tongue along the North Sea coast and on nearby islands, from the present Dutch-Belgian border to the modern German-Danish border. Since the 16th century, Frisian has gradually been replaced by Dutch and Low German, but it was revived in the 20th century. "Frisian Language," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2000 http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2000 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved
the literature that is written in West
Frisian, a language closely related to Old English, and now spoken
primarily by the inhabitants of Friesland, a northern province of The
Netherlands. (The languages known as East Frisian and North Frisian made
little contribution to Frisian literature. See Frisian language.)
Frisian literature, as it is known today,
began with Gysbert Japicx (also spelled Japiks; 1603-66) in the 17th
century. Friesland's incorporation into the Dutch Republic in 1581
threatened to reduce Frisian to a mere peasant dialect. Japicx, however,
through his Friesche Rymlerye (1668; "Frisian Verse") and
other works proved the richness and versatility of the language and
saved it from potential extinction.
It was not until the Romantic period of
the 19th century, however, that Frisian literature began to flourish as
a national literature. About this time the Halbertsma brothers--Eeltsje,
Joast, and Tsjalling--founded a movement known as "New Frisian
Literature," and they went on to write an amusing collection of
Romantic prose and poetry, Rimen en Teltsjes (1871; "Rhymes and
Tales"), that stimulated the rise of a rich folk literature in the
second half of the 19th century. Their contemporary, the philologist and
poet Harmen Sytstra, wrote of the heroic past in old Germanic verse
forms.
In 1915 Douwe Kalma launched the Young
Frisian Movement, which challenged younger writers to break radically
with the provincialism and didacticism of past Frisian literature. This
break had been anticipated in the lyrical poetry and fiction of Simke
Kloosterman and in the psychological narratives of Reinder Brolsma.
Kalma himself made important contributions to poetry, drama,
translation, and literary history and criticism. Other important Frisian
literary figures in the first half of the 20th century were the essayist
E.B. Folkertsma and the poets Fedde Schurer, Obe Postma, and Douwe
Tamminga.
Frisian literature since World War II has
largely broken away from the national movement and many traditional
conventions, especially through Anne Wadman's leadership as critic,
essayist, and novelist. Most Frisian poetry and fiction now reflects the
larger western European community of writers in themes and techniques.
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