Cultural Mediators and the Circulation of Cultural Identities in Interwar Bilingual Belgium

Abstract

During the interwar period, bilingual Belgium found itself in an existential crisis. In the 1920s and 1930s, growing linguistic conflicts between Dutch‐ and French‐speakers criticized the legitimacy of a unified Belgian nation and a solid national identity. In cultural life, that is in literary and artistic journals, in the course of arts exhibitions, in theatre life and in academies of fine arts, the validity of diverse cultural identities within Belgium was debated. Consequently, cultural and linguistic borders were shifting. In this article, the circulation of cultural identities in a conflicted bilingual country is analysed through the examination of the cultural transfers of one cultural mediator, Gaston Pulings. As a mediator, Pulings constantly transgressed political‐cultural, linguistic and artistic borders and his cultural practices were largely related to the construction, promotion or rejection of diverse cultural identities.