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Dr. M.G. (Marrigje) Paijmans

Assistant Professor in Dutch Literature
Faculty of Humanities
Capaciteitsgroep Nederlandse Letterkunde

Visiting address
  • Spuistraat 134
  • Room number: 4.54
Postal address
  • Postbus 1637
    1000 BP Amsterdam
Social media
  • About

    As an Assistant Professor in Dutch Literature it is my job to explore the connections between historical and modern literature from a decolonial perspective, in the broadest sense. For my research, which focuses on seventeenth-century literature from postcolonial and ecocritical perspectives, I received the KNAW Early Career Award 2022. I am committed to the development of a diverse and inclusive curriculum for Dutch Language and Culture and the minor Critical Dutch Studies. With colleagues in my department I have developed new courses about Dutch culture in a global context, and landscape and ecologie in Dutch literature, which should contribute to this aim.

    After finishing my PhD at the UvA in 2015, I have worked as a teacher at the universities of Leiden, Utrecht, Nijmegen, Greenwich (London), and Groningen, at departments varying from Comparative Literature, Philosophy, Cultural Studies, and Literary Studies. I have taught courses in creative writing at ArtEZ Arnhem, as well as the international summer school 'Gender and Sexuality in Dutch Literature' for IES Abroad Amsterdam, and 'Art History of the 17th Century' for the Utrecht Summerschool. 

    Currently, I am a member of the advisory board ‘Poetry and Prose’ for the Dutch Foundation for Literature, and a member of the editorial boards of Spiegel der letteren and De Zeven Provinciën Reeks. Before, I have been a member of the juries for the VSB Poetry Prize (2016) and the Libris Literature Price (2017), and a member of the advisory board ‘Literature and Theatre’ for the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts (2017-2019).

  • Research Interests

    My research focuses on the early modern literary roots of anti-colonialism. It aims to bring marginalised voices to the fore, creating a more balanced understanding of the Dutch colonial past. My current project ‘Literary Unsettlements’ combines methods from Early Modern Literature and Postcolonial Theory to recover voices of dissent in early modern colonial discourse, and to gain insight into present-day cultural representations of the 17th century, such as the 'Golden Age', that have kept these voices hidden from our view. Within this project, my article about Spinozism and colonialism has been awarded the ASCA Article Award 2021. For my original and innovative approach to histroical literature I have received the KNAW Early Career Award 2022.

    In December 2022, Gaston Franssen and I published the special issue 'Symbiosis' for Nederlandse letterkunde, about ecocriticism in Dutch literature from the seventeenth century to today. This subject fits my recent research interest at the intersection of colonialism and ecology.

    In October 2021, with colleagues from Utrecht and Leiden, I organized the two-day conference ‘Slavery in the Cultural Imagination’. we will soon publish an edited volume on the same topic for Amsterdam University Press. 

    Currently working on a book publication on 'frank speech' in the work of the Dutch poet Joost van den Vondel. It utilises the Foucauldian notion of parrhesia to demonstrate how Vondel ‘dramatised’ political, theological and artistic conflicts in the Dutch Republic.

  • Publications

    2024

    • Paijmans, M. (2024). The Animal Hinterland in Marieke Lucas Rijneveld’s My Heavenly Favorite. In P. Gupta, S. Nuttall, E. Peeren, & H. Stuit (Eds.), Planetary Hinterlands: Extraction, Abandonment and Care (pp. 255-269). (Palgrave Studies in Globalisation, Culture & Society). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24243-4_16 [details]

    2023

    2022

    2021

    • Paijmans, M., Dietz, F., Geerdink, N., Leemans, I., de Morrée, C., & Veldhuizen, M. (2021). Pathways to agency: women writers and radical thought in the Low Countries, 1500–1800. Intellectual History Review, 31(1), 51-71. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/17496977.2020.1858389 [details]

    2020

    2019

    2018

    2017

    2023

    2022

    2020

    • Paijmans, M. G. (2020). Wonderlijke en monsterlijke werelden: Poëtische re-iteraties van Las Casas' Brevísima relación de la destruccíon de las Indias. In C. de Strycker, D. Schyns, Y. T’Sjoen , & K. van der Haven (Eds.), Zwemmen in talen: Nederlandstalige poëzie in internationaal perspectief (pp. 27-43). PoëzieCentrum .

    2019

    2016

    2012

    • van Gemert, L., Paijmans, M., & Muller, S. (2012). Big business! Literatuur als handelswaar in de Gouden Eeuw. Vooys, 30(2), 6-22. [details]

    2006

    • Paijmans, M. G. (2006). De zelfkant van de ander: Literatuuropvattingen van de late Foucault. Frame, 19(1), 32-48.

    2021

    2020

    • Muller, B., & Paijmans, M. (2020). Uitbreiding van het hoofdstuk ‘Strong and Independent: Titia Brongersma, Dokkum, ca. 1650 – Groningen?, after 1687’ door Lia van Gemert in Women’s Writing from the Low Countries, 1200-1875 met Brongersma’s gedicht ‘Op de Heerlijkheyt van de Thee’. In F. Blom, L. van der Deijl, M. Hogenbirk, J. Jansen, & O. van Middelkoop (Eds.), Voltreffer! : Populariteit en popularisering van de historische Nederlandse letterkunde: Bijdragen ter gelegenheid van het emeritaat van Lia van Gemert (pp. 45-50). capaciteitsgroep Historische Nederlandse letterkunde van de Universiteit van Amsterdam. [details]
    • Stronks, E. (Author), Bloemendal, J. (Author), Jansen, J. (Author), Meeus, H. (Author), & Paijmans, M. (Author). (2020). Welkom in de 17e eeuw. Onderwerpen. Web publication or website, KB nationale bibliotheek. https://www.literatuurgeschiedenis.org/17e-eeuw
    • Stronks, E., Bloemendal, J., Jansen, J., Meeus, H., & Paijmans, M. (2020). Welkom in de 17e eeuw. Hoofdstukken. In L. van Gemert (Ed.), Literatuurgeschiedenis.org KB nationale bibliotheek. https://www.literatuurgeschiedenis.org/17e-eeuw
    • Stronks, E., Bloemendal, J., Jansen, J., Meeus, H., & Paijmans, M. (2020). Welkom in de 17e eeuw. Schrijvers. In L. van Gemert (Ed.), Literatuurgeschiedenis.org KB nationale bibliotheek. https://www.literatuurgeschiedenis.org/17e-eeuw
    • Stronks, E., Bloemendal, J., Jansen, J., Meeus, H., & Paijmans, M. (2020). Welkom in de 17e eeuw. Teksten. In L. van Gemert (Ed.), Literatuurgeschiedenis.org KB nationale bibliotheek. https://www.literatuurgeschiedenis.org/17e-eeuw

    2016

    • Paijmans, M. (2016). Verwondering en verwensing: een nieuwe achttiende eeuw [Bespreking van: I. Leemans, G.-J. Johannes (2013) Worm en donder: geschiedenis van de Nederlandse literatuur, 1700-1800: de Republiek]. Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, 129(1), 161-163. https://doi.org/10.5117/TVGESCH2016.1.RECE [details]

    2014

    • Paijmans, M. (2014). 'Een galery vol oorlogstafereelen': een rijke verzameling perspectieven op oorlog in de vroegmoderne tijd [Bespreking van: L. Jensen, N. Geerdink (2013) Oorlogsliteratuur in de vroegmoderne tijd: vorm, identiteit, herinnering]. Spiegel der Letteren, 56(4), 556-558. https://doi.org/10.2143/SDL.56.4.1000005 [details]

    2012

    2021

    • Paijmans, M. G. (Accepted/In press). Metaforische en actuele slavernij in Bredero’s Moortje (1615). Paper presented at Achter de verhalen 2021, Leiden, Netherlands.
    • Paijmans, M. G. (Accepted/In press). Neo-Stoic Metaphors of Slavery: Coornhert and Spinoza on the Emotional Other. Paper presented at Annual Meeting of the Renaissance Society of America 2021, .

    2016

    • Paijmans, M. G. (2016). Parrhesia and Dramatisation: A Baroque Play with Truth and Imagination. Paper presented at Conference of the Society for European Philosophy, London, United Kingdom.

    Prize / grant

    Membership / relevant position

    • Paijmans, M. (2020-2023). I am a member of the committee Publications (Prose and Poetry)., Nederlands Letterenfonds (Dutch Foundation for Literature).

    Media appearance

    Talk / presentation

    • Paijmans, M. (speaker) (15-12-2023). Polders and Plantations: Re-imagining Our Lives with Water through Marginalised Stories in the Neerlandophone Space, University College London. https://www.history.ac.uk/seminars/low-countries-history#:~:text=About%20the%20seminar-,The%20Low%20Countries%20Seminar%20is%20an%20interdis…
    • Paijmans, M. (speaker) (25-2-2022). The Purple Trail of Murex Brandaris: From Tyrian to East Indian and Dutch Beaches, The Netherlands, Princeton.
    • Paijmans, M. (speaker) & van Amelsvoort, J. (speaker) (24-2-2022). Teaching Diversity at a Dutch University, Cross-Talk: Conversations on Race & Language.
    • Paijmans, M. (speaker) & Grootenboer, H. (speaker) (8-2-2022). Thinking with Shells, The Object Colloquia Series, Amsterdam.
    • Paijmans, M. G. (speaker) (30-4-2015). Vondel's Last Tragedy, Symposium Late Rembrandt and Old Age Creativity, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.
    • Paijmans, M. G. (speaker) (23-3-2015). Parrhesia and the Method of Dramatization: Bold Speech in Joost van den Vondel’s Tragedy, Text, Performance, and Production of Knowledge: A workshop by the research group Historical Theatre Research, Amsterdam, UvA.
    • Paijmans, M. G. (speaker) (3-9-2014). A Dramatization of Human Nature, Society for Renaissance Studies Conference, Southampton (UK). http://philosophyafternature.org/
    • Paijmans, M. G. (speaker) (3-9-2014). Parrhesia in Terms of Dramatization: Conflicting Concepts of Human Nature in Early Modern Tragedy, The Society for European Philosophy and Forum for European Philosophy: Philosophy after Nature, Utrecht. http://philosophyafternature.org/programme/
    • Paijmans, M. G. (speaker) (15-5-2014). A Dramatization of Human Nature: Notions of Bodily Integrity in Joost van den Vondel’s Hercules in Trachin (1668), Legal Bodies: Corpus / Persona / Communitas, Leiden: Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society. http://hum.leidenuniv.nl/film-en-literatuurwetenschap/actueel/legal-bodies-corpus-persona-communitas.html
    • Paijmans, M. G. (speaker) (26-3-2014). Tragedy in Terms of Dramatization: A Performance of Spinoza’s Ethics of Affect, RSA 2015 Berlin Conference, Berlin. http://www.rsa.org/
    • Paijmans, M. G. (speaker) (23-4-2013). Paus en antichrist: polyfonie en parrhesia in Joost van den Vondels treurspel 'Peter en Pauwels' (1641), Huizinga Symposium, Hilversum.
    • Paijmans, M. G. (speaker) (23-11-2012). Oranje onder vuur in Vondels lofdichten (1626-1632): auteurschap en waarheidspreken, Goliath-bijeenkomst over Joost van den Vondel: Autoriteit en autonomie, Amsterdam, UvA.
    • Paijmans, M. G. (speaker) (20-5-2012). Vondel at a Venture: Literary Entrepreneurship and Self-Positioning between Amsterdam and Orange, Meeting of Methods, Gent, UGent.
    • van Gemert, E. M. P. (speaker), Paijmans, M. G. (speaker) & Muller, S. C. I. (speaker) (12-11-2011). Big Business! Literatuur als handelswaar in de Gouden Eeuw, UAV-dag UvA 2011, Amsterdam.
    • Paijmans, M. G. (speaker) (27-8-2011). Kunstenaarschap in de Republiek. Palamedes in de strijd tussen Amsterdam en Den Haag, Jaarcongres van de Werkgroep Zeventiende Eeuw, Universiteit Gent.

    Others

    • Paijmans, M. (organiser), Minnaard, L. (organiser) & De Taeye, L. (organiser) (19-11-2021). Shades of Pale, Leiden (organising a conference, workshop, ...).
    • Paijmans, M. (participant) & Pieterse, S. (organiser) (31-10-2021 - 1-11-2021). Slavery in the Cultural Imagination, AmsterdamAmsterdam. Four hundred years of colonial history and involvement in slavery and indenture have left palpable traces in the emotions and imagination of the (…) (organising a conference, workshop, ...).
    • Westbroek, P. (organiser) & Paijmans, M. (organiser) (23-3-2015). workshop, University of Amsterdam. Text, Performance, and Production of Knowledge: A workshop by the research group Historical Theatre ResearchThe theatre has always been a platform (…) (organising a conference, workshop, ...).
    This list of publications is extracted from the UvA-Current Research Information System. Questions? Ask the library or the Pure staff of your faculty / institute. Log in to Pure to edit your publications. Log in to Personal Page Publication Selection tool to manage the visibility of your publications on this list.
  • Ancillary activities
    No ancillary activities