“My language has an immense potential”

Abstract

Abstract This article sets out to chart the success of the Dutch novelist, poet and travel writer Cees Nooteboom, who has achieved literary fame in several countries of the world while recognition in his home country lagged behind. To analyse the reasons for the conflicting images attributed to this cosmopolitan author, I will look behind the curtains of the transnational production and reception of his writings, investigating his success in five central or semi-central languages (Heilbron 2010). The study of how this writer has succeeded in transcending the peripheral position of the Dutch language in the world literary system will be carried out by combining the sociology of translation with reception studies and imagological considerations. Nooteboom appears to be a peculiar case of image building: he is internationally represented as a Dutch and a European writer, but his lack of Dutchness appears to have hindered his recognition in the Netherlands.