Herman Pleij (born 1943) is a

professor emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

of Medieval Dutch literature 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 being ...

. He was appointed professor in 1981 and taught until February 2008.

Career

In 1979 he completed his thesis on De Blauwe Schuit, among other ancient carnival texts. In 1981 he became a professor at the

. From 1992 to 1994 he was

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of the Faculty of Arts. He retired on February 29, 2008. Since then he has published many works on

cultural history Cultural history combines the approaches of anthropology and history to examine popular cultural traditions and cultural interpretations of historical experience. It examines the records and narrative descriptions of past matter, encompassing the ...

, such as the issue of

national identity National identity is a person's identity or sense of belonging to one or more states or to one or more nations. It is the sense of "a nation as a cohesive whole, as represented by distinctive traditions, culture, and language". National identity ...

. His interest in the social debate on any available subject is reflected in his frequent participation in

talk show A talk show (or chat show in British English) is a television programming or radio programming genre structured around the act of spontaneous conversation.Bernard M. Timberg, Robert J. Erler'' (2010Television Talk: A History of the TV Talk Sh ...

s on

Dutch television Television in the Netherlands was officially introduced in 1951. In the Netherlands, the television market is divided between a number of commercial networks, such as RTL Nederland, and a system of public broadcasters sharing three channels, NPO 1 ...

. DWDD gemist? Herman Pleij springt op tafel en vertelt over liefde en seks in de middeleeuwen
Gids.TV, 20 January 2020. (in Dutch)

Honors

* 2000:

Honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...

from the

Catholic University of Brussels The ''Katholieke Universiteit Brussel'' (English: Catholic University of Brussels) was a Flemish university located in Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one ...

* 2008:

Knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...

in the

Order of the Netherlands Lion The Order of the Netherlands Lion, also known as the Order of the Lion of the Netherlands ( nl, De Orde van de Nederlandse Leeuw, french: L'Ordre du Lion Néerlandais) is a Dutch order of chivalry founded by King William I of the Netherlands on ...

Works

*''Het Gilde van de Blauwe Schuit. Literatuur, volksfeest en burgermoraal in de late middeleeuwen'' (dissertation, Gemeentelijke Universiteit Amsterdam, 1979) *''Van schelmen en schavuiten. Laatmiddeleeuwse vagebondteksten'' (compiled by Herman Pleij, 1985) *''De sneeuwpoppen van 1511. Literatuur en stadscultuur tussen middeleeuwen en moderne tijd'' (1988) *''Op belofte van profijt; stadscultuur en burgermoraal in de Nederlandse letterkunde van de middeleeuwen'' (ed., 1991) *''Zandgrond'' (1994) - novel *''Dromen van Cocagne. Middeleeuwse fantasieën over het volmaakte leven'' (1997) *''Hollands welbehage''n (1998) *''Tegen de barbarij; tien stukken over de Nederlandse beschaving'' (1999) *''Dreaming of Cockaigne: Medieval Fantasies of the Perfect Life''. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001. *''Van karmijn, purper en blauw; over kleuren van de Middeleeuwen en daarna'' (2002) *''De Herontdekking van Nederland: over vaderlandse mentaliteiten en rituelen'' (2003) *''Colors Demonic and Divine: Shades of Meaning in the Middle Ages and After''. Translated by Diane Webb. New York, Columbia University Press, 2004. *''Erasmus en het poldermodel'' (2005), *''De eeuw van de zotheid; Plaatsen van herinnering,'' deel I (2007) *''Het gevleugelde woord. Geschiedenis van de Nederlandse literatuur,'' deel II: van 1400 tot 1560 (2007) *''Anna Bijns, van Antwerpen'' (2011) *''Moet kunnen. Op zoek naar een Nederlandse identiteit.'' (2014)

References

1943 births Living people Dutch literary historians Dutch medievalists People from Hilversum University of Amsterdam alumni Academic staff of the University of Amsterdam {{academic-bio-stub