Carel Peeters (born 5 June 1944, in

Nijmegen Nijmegen (;; Spanish and it, Nimega. Nijmeegs: ''Nimwèège'' ) is the largest city in the Dutch province of Gelderland and tenth largest of the Netherlands as a whole, located on the Waal river close to the German border. It is about 6 ...

) is one of the leading Dutch literary critics and since 1973 a writer and editor at ''

Vrij Nederland ''Vrij Nederland'' (Free Netherlands) is a Dutch magazine, established during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II as an underground newspaper. It has since grown into a magazine. The originally weekly and now monthly magazi ...

''. Peeters grew up in Nijmegen but moved, with his parents, to Amsterdam at age 14. In 1964 he enrolled at the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other bein ...

to study literature, and began writing for the newspaper ''

Het Parool ''Het Parool'' () is an Amsterdam-based daily newspaper. It was first published on 10 February 1941 as a resistance paper during the German occupation of the Netherlands (1940–1945). In English, its name means ''The Password'' or ''The Motto ...

''; he never attained his degree. In 1970 he was hired by ''

Elsevier Elsevier () is a Dutch academic publishing company specializing in scientific, technical, and medical content. Its products include journals such as '' The Lancet'', '' Cell'', the ScienceDirect collection of electronic journals, '' Trends'', ...

'', where he worked as the assistant of

Wim Zaal Willem Philippe Maria "Wim" Zaal (14 August 1935, Amsterdam - 11 October 2021, Muiden) was a Dutch journalist, essayist, translator and literary critic. He was literary editor of '' Elsevier'' for years. He has edited anthologies from the works o ...

, and in 1973 moved to ''

'' (where he still works) and started their literary supplement, which in 1982 earned him an award from the

Collectieve Propaganda van het Nederlandse Boek The Collectieve Propaganda van het Nederlandse Boek (CPNB, "Collective Promotion for the Dutch Book") is a Dutch organization that includes representatives of bookstores and publishers, whose goal is to promote Dutch literature. History and activi ...

, the Dutch trade organization for booksellers and publishers. From 1987 to 1992 he was a professor of literature at the University of Amsterdam. Peeters published more than a dozen collections of essays, and was awarded the Dr. Wijnaendts Francken award for essays and literary criticism in 1985, and in 2008 the Jacobson Award, awarded to "elderly" literati. As a literary critic, Peeters, whose allegiance is with the writers and critics associated with ''

Forum Forum or The Forum (plural forums or fora) may refer to: Common uses *Forum (legal), designated space for public expression in the United States *Forum (Roman), open public space within a Roman city **Roman Forum, most famous example *Internet ...

'' from the 1930s and the '' De Revisor'' from the 1980s, is well known as an opponent of postmodernism; he published a pamphlet on the subject in 1986 and the following year participated in a well-publicized public debate with Christel van Boheemen.

References

External links

Carel Peeters
page at ''

''
Works by Peeters
at

Digital Library for Dutch Literature The Digital Library for Dutch Literature (Dutch: Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Letteren or DBNL) is a website (showing the abbreviation as dbnl) about Dutch language and Dutch literature. It contains thousands of literary texts, second ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peeters, Carel 1944 births Living people Dutch essayists Dutch literary critics University of Amsterdam alumni Academic staff of the University of Amsterdam Writers from Nijmegen