The happy man (Dutch poetry of domesticity, gender studies)

The image of man and woman in Dutch 'huiselijke' or homely poetry (1800-184 0) is contrasted here with the image the later writer Potgieter used. In th e homely poetry, man claims the perspective for himself and implicitly plac es himself in the tradition of the philosophy of happiness and of the man o f feeling in Sentimentalism. Homely poetry describes the happy man. There a re several reasons why there is no place for female poets. While the image of woman is scarcely developed in homely poetry, Potgieter is shown to have invented a new female tradition in his early prose texts (1840-1845).