|
|
A New MomentumIntroduction Julius MacLeod (1857-1919) Around the turn of the century the Flemish Movement gained momentum. As a result of the introduction in 1893 of universal (male) suffrage or, to be exact, a variant called >universal plural suffrage, no political party could afford to totally disregard voters sympathetic to the cause of the Flemish Movement. ##The Flamingant wings within the Liberal and Socialistist parties gained influence, whilst within the Catholic party the existing Flamingant faction started to carry more political clout. The fact that Catholic politicians in particular were the Flemish Movement´s political mouthpiece, is related not only to the developments mentioned earlier, but also to the Catholic party being the only party to win parliamentary seats in Flanders between 1886 and 1900. Having won in 1884 the ideological contest with the Liberals, the Catholic party was to >monopolize government until 1914, regardless of the massive extension of the franchise in 1893. With the introduction of universal plural suffrage and the Liberal – Catholic rivalry abating, we enter a more open intellectual climate. In the 1890s and 1900s, Flemish activists started again to define the Flemish Question in broader terms, reconnecting with the democratic ideals of the 1850s and 1860s – inter alia those espoused by Vuylsteke – and widening the Flemish Movement´s field of work, from language legislation to questions of education and economics. Julius MacLeod, scientist (professor at the State University of Gent) and Liberal Flamingant, is one of these figures. His pamphlet entitled Language and Knowledge (1895) is a fundamental contribution to the debate of the time within the Flemish Movement. We have selected three extracts of this pamphlet. If you want to >read a short biographical note on Julius MacLeod, please click here. Education and science are the key Title page of The Dutch Language and Science by Julius MacLeod (1901) Like Vuylsteke, MacLeod argued that the reawakening of the Flemish people also depended on economic development and innovation in Flemish culture. Hence, language legislation should be coupled with educational reform: according to MacLeod, Dutchification (that is, total Dutchification), improvement and expansion of education was the solution to the Flemish Question. A crucial part of his argument concerned the role of elite, as he saw it, in raising the intellectual standards of the Flemish people. Vuylsteke had been one of the first to discuss the language barrier and the lack of “intellectual contact” between the Frenchified bourgeoisie and the lower classes in Flemish society. MacLeod´s attack on Flanders´ Frenchified elite was more radical. He builds up his case, starting with the so-called ´civilisatory argument´ that was used to justify Frenchification: given that the French language is the vehicle of a more advanced culture and of science, the argument went, Frenchification served to bring a parochial, inward-looking culture up to a European level. MacLeod, in the first extract of the pamphlet, undermines this contention by asserting that the true cosmopolitans are the Dutch-speakers, not the French-speakers. The implication is clear: the Frenchified upper layers of Flemish society can play no role at all in educating the Flemish people; this is the responsibility of a rising Dutch-speaking intellectual elite. The first extract – to which we have appended a couple of questions – is followed by a second extract in which we will see MacLeod link the creation of a Flamingant intelligentsia with the other subject of his pamphlet, the Dutchification and improvement of education. Fragment 1“In the coming century, knowledge will be the principal power. More and more, knowledge and science will be the great instruments of all achievement. [...] Every civilized country plays a part in its advancement, and anyone knowing the scholarly or scientific achievements of only one country must inevitably remain in a position of inferiority. Now, to become familiar with the scholarship and science of different peoples, it is necessary to know different languages. The Flemings have an exceptional talent for learning foreign languages; their own has so much in common with the other Germanic languages, German and English, that it is possible for them to learn both the latter within a short time. Consequently the Flemings – and this goes for the Dutch (literally: the >northern Netherlanders) as well – are perhaps better suited than any people to enjoy all the advantages of cosmopolitanism in the field of knowledge; but this is possible only if the Fleming remains a Fleming. [...] [O]ur Frenchified Flemings have largely lost these valuable characteristics of their race. [...] For these, France is still the intellectual centre of the world: they are continually reading in French books, magazines, newspapers, that French civilization is superior to all others. They have not the slightest inkling of how France has been outstripped in the field of learning by England and Germany in the last fifty years. Frenchification has been given a false label: that it was necessary for the sake of being cosmopolitan, to break down the ´Chinese Wall´; but a new wall has been erected. 1. What does MacLeod mean by stating that the Fleming should remain a Fleming?2. Which general developments in European (and world) history does MacLeod refer to in order to support his claim that Dutch is a better vehicle than French for raising the level of culture in Flanders?3. “Frenchification has tried to block the doors and windows on three sides”: what do these three sides stand for?Fragment 2[The Flamingants] alone are capable of becoming the teachers of the common people, and of the middle class itself. [...] [They must] preach the fruits of their intellectual labours and make it available in this manner to the masses.[...] The number of Flamingants applying themselves to scholarly or scientific study has increased, particularly among the young. In this way a Flemish scholarly elite is gradually developing, which is destined to exert a great and beneficial influence on the country. Middle-class education must become Flemish, from the university down to primary school. Dutch must become the vehicle of the entire educational system; that is to say, all subjects should be taught in Dutch and with the aid of Dutch textbooks, with no French intervention. This is not simply a question of language, of French terminology being replaced by Flemish. The obsolete, partial French scholarship which is now taught almost exclusively must be replaced by the fresh, cosmopolitan scholarship of the Flemish school. Flemish must provide not only the language but the knowledge itself. Here Flemish scholars must blaze the trail and if necessary provide instruction for primary- and secondary school teachers. There is a widespread and very strong prejudice against making education Flemish. As long as we plead – I might almost say beg – for a Flemish education in the interests of the common people, we shall achieve little. When scholarship itself requests it, people listen more attentively. Here again Flemish scholarship must intervene, and it must enjoy respect and authority if it is to be heard.” Dutchification of education1898: Equality LawDutch recognized as an official language in Belgium, alongside French MacLeod´s case for making education Dutch is based, as we mentioned earlier, on a ´civilisatory´ argument: Dutch-language education is better education, at the same reminding Flamingants that it is not simply a question of French being substituted by Flemish. Dutchification has to entail an improvement in the quality of education. In addition, MacLeod urged a total conversion to Dutch. The Dutch language has to become the exclusive medium of instruction and Dutch-language education has to be organized at all levels, including higher education. His target was the education of the “burgerij”, that is, the schools which were only within the means of the middle classes: secondary schools – which were bilingual – and higher education – the language of instruction at the universities of Gent, Leuven and Brussels was almost exclusively French. Primary education, it is worth remembering, remained more often than not entirely Dutch-speaking, with the exception of primary schools in Brussels. The argument went that with a complete but gradual conversion to Dutch in the education system and with a Flemish intelligentsia educated at a Dutch-language university, Flemish culture will rise to a European level. The idea of only allowing Dutch as a language of instruction stems from the realization that “middle-class education” operated as a mechanism of Frenchification. The French-speaking Belgian Establishment strategically used secondary and higher education in order to ensure future generations of Flemish leaders would be bilingual as well – and with time would become monolingually French-speaking. The total Dutchification of the education system in Flanders and the transformation of the State University of Gent, “a torch of French culture in Flanders”, into >>Belgium´s first Dutch-speaking university will be adopted by the Flemish Movement as new objectives. The Dutch language had made further progress since the first language laws (1873, 1878, 1883) had been introduced: the 1883 law on state-run secondary education was not without consequences for the language used in a large number of (private) >Catholic secondary schools (which were attended by many more pupils than state-run secondaries were); the establishment of the Royal Flemish Academy of Language and Literature (1886); an increasing number of Frenchified local authorities, both rural and urban, switched to Dutch as the exclusive language of administration; and Dutch-language newspapers´ circulation was on the up – the result of newspaper owners wanting to reach out to as many of the newly enfranchised readers as possible! The Flemish Movement recruited its supporters now particularly among functionaries, office-workers, teachers – expanding professional groups for whom Dutchification of public life offered first and foremost many more career prospects. On the political terrain, these years witnessed the formation of new, more militant Flamingant pressure groups, often spurred by Flemish Catholic university students. Poster content in translation
“Away with tyranny!! Three cheers for liberty! A total changeover to Dutch in the education system in the Flemish part of the country was a radical demand. What it meant was a qualitative jump forward in the Flemish Movement´s position on language legislation – previously Flemish activists had been content with an official status of bilingualism for Flanders. For, total Dutchification of education implied that the language of the Flemish region was Dutch and that only this language had to be used in education, public administration and the justice system. This was nothing less than a frontal assault on the francophone top layers of Flemish society, which represented less than 5 per cent of the local population. It will take until the 1900s for the Flemish Movement to fully embrace this position. Nevertheless, opponents had already started making great play with the argument that, should this be realized, French would no longer function as Belgium´s overarching, national language, which meant that the unity of the fatherland was at stake. The notion of French as the cement of Belgian unity could only be maintained as long as the French language retained its presence, alongside Dutch, in the schools, public administration and the law courts of Flanders and as long as French remained predominant in Belgium as a whole. The >Equality Law of 1898 will deal a first serious blow to this fantasy. As a result of this law – a law with great symbolic value – Dutch properly spread to the national level for the first time. Until then in Parliament, central government, legislation, the civil service in Brussels and the army, French had been the dominant or only language. The Equality law recognized Dutch as a language of law: the Dutch text now had the same legal status as the French text in all legislation and government decrees, as well as in parliamentary discussions of bills. The poster above (“Away with tyranny!!”) has to be read against this background. Some Flemings – supported by both Liberal and Catholic politicians – were extremely apprehensive of Dutch moving centre stage in secondary education, the reason being that it would disadvantage their children. They rejected the principle that one has to adapt to the language of the region where one lives (i.e. in Flanders Dutch-language education only) and advocated the freedom of parents in choosing the language of instruction in order to have bilingual or French-language schools for their children. In other words, away with tyranny and three cheers for liberty. Their use of the slogan “All for Belgium!” shows that they thought that the disappearance of French as a language of instruction in Flanders would be at the expense of the integrity of the Belgian nation. Also, according to the poster, “most Flamingants speak and write French better and more effortlessly than their mother-tongue!”. This was a reproach MacLeod alludes to in the last part of his pamphlet; here he returns to his argument that Dutch is a better vehicle than French for scientific work and for raising Flanders´ level of culture. Fragment 3“Many people disapprove of the use of Dutch for scholarly or scientific purposes. It used to be because our language was too clumsy and imperfect. I still remember the occasion, some fifteen years ago, when I myself was challenged to write about science in Dutch. It was thought to be impossible! Nowadays no one dares to come out with that – it would be too ridiculous! Now they sing a different tune; now they drag out the ´Chinese Wall´. Young scholars and scientists are told that by writing in Dutch they are concealing the products of their intellectual labours from other specialists and obstructing the advancement of learning. ´No one will read you!´; this is repeated time and again. [...] This can be answered by quoting facts – namely, by pointing to the success achieved abroad by a number of scholars (both Dutch and Belgian) who write in Dutch. [...] Dutch has a future ahead of it. The more learned works are written in Dutch, the higher will be the regard for our language abroad. We do not stand alone; we must not forget the Netherlands, the Dutch East Indies, Surinam and South Africa. We have the future in our hands.” Dutch as a language of culture “Les ministres flandrins”, a caricature on the Equality Law. >To read the caption in English translation please click here. >To enlarge the caricature please click here. As MacLeod himself indicates, the language of the Flemings had steadily grown in terms of quality and status. Now it was a standardized language (instead of a multitude of dialects); its use as such made great strides thanks to changes in education and in the press; and it had come to be accepted as a language that was shared with the Netherlands (instead of an autonomous Flemish-Belgian language). Much slower, however, was the rise of Dutch as a language of science in Belgium. The establishment of Flemish scientific associations, periodicals and conferences, as well as the distribution of books from the Netherlands, gradually changed this. MacLeod was convinced that Dutch could become a language of culture and science with an international renown. Nevertheless, Dutch was still stuck with the image of an ´imperfect´ or ´clumsy´ language – it was said that even its speakers have a bad command of the language – and the image of a language lacking a uniform usage. Regarding the latter, Flemings never settled on importing, alongside spelling and the written language, also the spoken language from the Netherlands. It is illustrative that the Equality Law referred to the “Flemish” language en that even Flamingants spoke little about the “Dutch” language. The pro-Dutchness of MacLeod, which features prominently in the last paragraph of the third extract, was fairly exceptional. The caricature included here - dating from the 1900s – is a telling depiction of how some French-speakers persisted in perceiving the language of the Flemings – note that most francophones had no knowledge of Dutch. The caricature suggests that there is no such thing as a standard Dutch language. There are only dialects. Walking in the footsteps of MacLeod as a Flamingant intellectual and ideologue of the Flemish Movement, Lodewijk de Raet emphasized still more than MacLeod Flanders´ economic development. De Raet was to decidedly approach the issue of Dutch-language higher education from an economic perspective. Reading comprehension questions1. Re-read the first extract. What does the use of the term “race” suggest about the way in which MacLeod pictured the Flemings?2. Why did MacLeod put so much emphasis on the Dutchification of higher education?3. What was the symbolical value of the Equality Law of 1898?4. What did MacLeod mean by saying that “we do not stand alone; we must not forget the Netherlands, the Dutch East Indies, Surinam and South Africa”?5. What kind of prejudices against their language did Flemings have to contend with?>To find out more about Lodewijk de Raet and so-called “cultural Flamingantism” please click here. |
