'Aangewaaid uit een vreemd land': de westerse poëzie van G.J. Resink

This article examines the critical response to the poetry of G.J. (Han) Resink (1911-1997), a Dutch-language poet and scholar who adopted the Indonesian nationality in 1950. In the past, commentators have very much focused on what they perceive to be 'eastern' elements in Resink's oeuvre. I maintain that this has resulted in a one-sided interpretation, neglecting the underlying western, and in particular Dutch, tradition in many of Resink's poems. This article demonstrates the different ways in which Resink drew on the principles and literary output of the Eighties Movement, and how his formal experiments gain in significance when set against the work of poets like Perk, Kloos, and Dèr Mouw. The general view on Resink's later work as being inferior to his earlier poetry is shown to be the result of unwarranted preconceptions.