Belgitude and Feminism: Intersection and Impact.

This project focuses on the link between four Belgian women writers and the Belgitude movement. This movement of Belgitude meant to claim and stress the differences and specificities of Belgian culture, art and literature. It was primarily led by male writers (Pierre Mertens (1939- ), Marc Quaghebeur (1947- ) to name but a few) but interestingly, the female writers involved in exploring the meaning of Belgitude (Françoise Lalande (1941- ), Françoise Collin (1928-2012), Michèle Fabien (1945-1999), Nicole Malinconi (1946- )) were also either involved in the Belgian Feminist Movement or exploring feminist issues in their writings. This project seeks to explore why and how these women writers took part in both these movements in their own way – finding their own voices and paths - and the impact that this participation had in turn on their literary production.

This project was heavily impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic and part of the award was repurposed for the 'Reframing the HPV Narrative' project