LL-L: "Gezelligheid" LOWLANDS-L, 06.JUN.2001 (01) [E]

[Sandy Fleming]

======================================================================
 L O W L A N D S - L * 06.JUN.2001 (01) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
 Web Site: <http://www.geocities.com/sassisch/rhahn/lowlands/>
 Rules: <http://www.geocities.com/sassisch/rhahn/lowlands/rules.html>
 Posting Address: <lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org>
 Server Manual: <http://www.lsoft.com/manuals/1.8c/userindex.html>
 Archive: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/lowlands-l.html>
=======================================================================
 A=Afrikaans, Ap=Appalachean, D=Dutch, E=English, F=Frisian, L=Limburgish
 LS=Low Saxon (Low German), S=Scots, Sh=Shetlandic, Z=Zeelandic (Zeeuws)
=======================================================================

From: Pat Reynolds [pat at caerlas.demon.co.uk]
Subject: "Gezelligheid"

Dear Ron and Sandy,

Many thanks for your responses.  The 'crow step gable' as it's called in
England certainly isn't unknown in the south.  Barham Manor, Suffolk
(illustrated in Brunskill and Clifton-Taylor (1977, 79) is one of a
number of East Anglian examples.

The construction technique I'm interested in (the short wall anchor)
permitted a large area of the gable wall to be used as a window but did
not entail this usage. The Great Yarmouth houses, for example, often had
small windows. O'Neil (1953. 145) notes two houses with original
windows, including No. 8, Row 111 and I have seen earlier, smaller
windows (such as the restored Old Merchant's House).
Images of Low Countries houses of the 1700s invite the viewer to look
into the front of the house and the yard beside it. However, there are
shutters at the windows which can close the room off from public view.
Similarly in England, a survey of 3000 early modern inventories shows
that only 13% of houses had window curtains, but 81% of wealthier London
tradesmen had them (Weatherill 1988, 8).
In some ways the typical short wall anchor construction house seems to
be going against the trend to closure which Johnson (1993, etc.) has
observed in rural English housing.  There are some deliberate
invitations to view. There is a complex of relationships: looking at,
looking in, being looked at - and I find the idea of gezelligheid
fascinating in this context - a 'cosiness' and 'doing the right thing'
which seems to me related to the medieval and early modern ideas of
hospitality and community as much as they are to modern ideas of the
family.  My Dutch teacher says she uses the word 'gezellig' when telling
her children to 'play nicely' - which is what alerted me to the
possibility that the intimacy of gezelligheid may be a _visible_
intimacy, which all are (apparently) able to draw up a chair and join
in.

Well, I'm off to Den Haag tomorrow to look at lots of nice books of
Dutch architecture, and then Brielle at the weekend for the Tolkien
Lustrum ... if any of you come across me (you will know me - I am going
to be the only woman in the Netherlands wearing orange boots), let us go
for a coffee - won't that be gezellig!

Best wishes to all,
--
Pat Reynolds
pat at caerlas.demon.co.uk
   "It might look a bit messy now, but just you come back in 500 years time"
   (T. Pratchett)

==================================END===================================
 You have received this because your account has been subscribed upon
 request. To unsubscribe, please send the command "signoff lowlands-l"
 as message text from the same account to
 <listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org> or sign off at
 <http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html>.
=======================================================================
 * Please submit contributions to <lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org>.
 * Contributions will be displayed unedited in digest form.
 * Please display only the relevant parts of quotes in your replies.
 * Commands for automated functions (including "signoff lowlands-l") are
   to be sent to <listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org> or at
   <http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html>.
 * Please use only Plain Text format, not Rich Text (HTML) or any other
   type of format, in your submissions
=======================================================================