Do the same laws and rules apply in the literary domain as they do in normal social interaction? Does a literary writer, as writer, have a responsibility toward society? After the liberation of the Netherlands, these general issues led to the urgent question to what extent a writer could be held accountable for having been literarily active during ‘the New Order.’ Although the postwar purge of the Dutch literary field was carried out by uncontroversial literary figures, it was contested from the start. In this book, Ted Laros analyzes the purge process and the fierce battle between the cultural, political, and juridical elites that were involved.

This book is included in DOAB.