Hans Goedkoop
(Ermelo, NL, 1963) is an historian and literary critic. During his work for the television history programme "Andere Tijden" (Different Times) he stumbled on a short film in which his grandfather, a colonel, is present at the departure of Dutch troops from Yogyakarta in 1949. It was the beginning of his quest into his grandfather's past, published in 2012 as the book De laatste man (The Last Man). Goedkoop has made a public appeal not the allow the Dutch East Indies colonists to fall into historic oblivion: people can add their stories on www.delaatsteman.nl. Goedkoop worked for the Dutch weekly magazine Haagse Post before moving on to the VPRO network in 1991. Since 1995 he has written about literature for the daily paper NRC Handelsblad. In 1996 he received his PhD with honours for a biography of Dutch playwright Herman Heijermans, Geluk (Happiness). Een verhaal dat het leven moet veranderen (A Story to Change One's Life) was published in 2004, featuring essays on the relationship between contemporary Dutch literature and reality. Goedkoop made a successful television documentary series, De Gouden Eeuw (The Golden Age), and is now writing a biography of Dutch writer Renate Rubinstein.
(WU 2013 GR)Share this page
Archive available for: Hans Goedkoop
-
War in The Dutch East-Indies - with Alfred Birney and Hans Goedkoop
With: Alfred Birney, Hans Goedkoop, Paul van der Gaag
A programme - in Dutch - on the role of Dutch fathers and grandfathers in the Indonesian war of independence in the late fourties of the past century. Alfred Birney wrote a novel on the history of his father, who was a spy, informer, bodyguard and murderer, fighting for the Dutch. Birney tells that story, but also what happened after the war, in his bad relationship with his father. Hans Goedkoop reconstructed the history of his grandfather who was a high ranking officer in the Dutch army in that same war of independance. He was the man who arrested Soekarno, the first president of the Republic of Indonesia. After the war, the story of his grandfather 'fell through the hole of history'. Moderator was Paul van der Gaag (VPRO O.v.t.).
Dutch spoken. A programme made by Ton van de Langkruis (Writers Unlimited). Bookselling by Van Stockum.
-
A Conversation with Adriaan van Dis
With: Adriaan van Dis, Hans Goedkoop
A one-on-one conversation with much-loved writer Adriaan van Dis.
The subject matter includes his new novel Ik kom terug (I'm Coming Back). Historian and TV host Hans Goedkoop leads the interview.Adriaan van Dis is a journalist, television host, and one of the preeminent writers in the Netherlands. In the fall of 2014 he published Ik kom terug (I'm Coming Back) to brilliant reviews. It focusses on Van Dis' mother. Married to a member of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army who was murdered during the Japanese occupation, she and her three daughters ended up in an internment camp. Then she met the Indonesian man with whom she would return to the Netherlands (with her daughters), and who would become Adriaan's father. In the novel, the son describes his difficult relationship with his mother. He took notes during their phone calls that allowed him to portray her truthfully, mercilessly, but ultimately with a great deal of love and understanding. Aside from an all-revealing portait of his mother, the book also constitutes a razor-sharp definition of the idea of "home." What does it mean for a human life when "home" is both the safest and least safe place on earth?
Adriaan van Dis will be in conversation with Hans Goedkoop, who studied history, is the biographer of Herman Heijermans and Renate Rubinstein, and is especially recognized as host of the VPRO program "Andere Tijden" ("Different Times"). In 2012 he published De laatste man (The last man), about his grandfather, who fought in the Dutch East Indies war in the late 1940s.
-
Forget it!
Writers commenting on the black pages in their country's history. How to deal with the painful questions of the past. Is it the task of writers to investigate them? And if so, are they doing a good job? Isn't forgetting and starting again with a clean slate more effective in order to get ahead? Hanaan as-Sjaykh wrote about the civil war in Lebanon, Alberto Manguel did the same about the dirty war in Argentina while Hans Goedkoop in his book De laatste man (The Last Man) sheds a new light on the Dutch East Indies of the police actions in the late 1940s. David Van Reybrouck talks to them. Musical intermezzo by Kenyan musician Ngwatilo Mawuyoo accompanied by Serigne Gueye and Mark Tuinstra. In English.