Dutch poet, novelist and travel writer Cees Nooteboom will be granted a honorary doctorate at the University College London. The ceremony will take place at Tuesday 3 September 2019 at UCL in London. Nooteboom already holds honorary doctorates from universities in Brussels, Nijmegen and Berlin.
Work of Cees Nooteboom has been translated into over thirty languages. In the Anglophone world he first rose to prominence as a writer of both playful and erudite novels such as Rituals (1980) and In the Dutch Mountains (1984) and has since been an important literary voice in today’s global literature. His resolute, critical Europeanism is especially significant at the present time.
Nooteboom’s work has been enjoyed by many English-speaking students, not only of Dutch literature, but of comparative literature and translation studies too. Their world is not unlike that of the narrator of In the Dutch Mountains. “What else do I read? Diaries, letters and, best of all, dictionaries. For let us be honest: without the intervention of any thinking agent, language itself is still the greatest communicator.”
On Tuesday 3 September, Professor Jane Fenoulhet, Emeritus Professor of the Department of Dutch UCL, and author of Nomadic Literature: Cees Nooteboom and his Writing (Peter Lang, 2013), will interview the author about his work, followed by a book signing and wine reception.
The event at UCL is free but registration is required.
Photo: Simone Sassen
Links
- works by Cees Nooteboom in our Authors database
- an overview of Nooteboom’s work in translation
- ceesnooteboom.com
- Cees Nooteboom on the website of his Dutch publisher, Busy Bee (Dutch)