A Theatrical Whodunit How did Calderón’s popular play 'La vida es sueño' come to the Low Countries? It seems that the Flemish-Portuguese printer Paulo Craesbeeck is responsible for this. In 1647, he published an anthology of Spanish plays, including Calderón's masterpiece. Tim Vergeer • January 09, 2020
All I want for Christmas is ‘you’ What is the value of gifts? Do we primarily care about the utility of the gift, its economic value or the person who gave it? And how did Homeric heroes value gifts? Leonie Henkes • December 13, 2019
Rumor or Reality? Moscow Conceptualism as a Challenge for our Contemporary Art Canon What is Moscow Conceptualism? A late Soviet art movement that is part of our contemporary art canon or a rumor? Cultural historian Dorine Schellens sheds light on this question by looking at the interconnection between academic and artistic worlds. Dorine Schellens • December 05, 2019
“Whatever Will Be Will Be” in Spanish Plays When you are fluent in a language, you can still make mistakes. This is what happened to the Dutch playwright Theodore Rodenburgh when he adopted his life’s motto “Chi sara sara”. Tim Vergeer • November 28, 2019
Drawn to deviance: the deformed body exhibited How and why is a body we see as ‘deformed’ able to arouse strong affective and aesthetic responses? Andries Hiskes explores how, where, and when a body is presented to us matters in how we experience it through a discussion of the film The Elephant Man. Andries Hiskes • November 21, 2019
A Pirate's Life for Me a literary close reading of Pirates of the Caribbean, part two Merel Oudshoorn • November 14, 2019
Sex in Leiden’s Student Culture since the Golden Age How different were students during the Dutch Golden Age? Not that much actually. Tim Vergeer discusses some historical and literary examples of the sexual adventures of some of Leiden’s students in the seventeenth century (and after). Tim Vergeer • November 07, 2019
‘Je kunt me vinden in de Westside’: Expressions of Local Identity in Contemporary Dutch Hip-hop Dutch hip-hop artists continuously invite us to their neighborhoods and districts through their music. What do we hear when we listen to the language of the streets? Aafje de Roest • October 31, 2019
Keep to the Code: Lawless and Lawful Pirates of the Caribbean What a literary close reading can tell you ‘bout those bloody pirates and their (non)-existent morality Merel Oudshoorn • October 24, 2019
