Reimond Stijns
Encyclopedia
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
writer.
He started his professional career as a teacher in 1870, first in Bevere (Oudenaarde
Oudenaarde
Oudenaarde is a Belgian municipality in the Flemish province of East Flanders. The municipality comprises the city of Oudenaarde proper and the towns of Bevere, Edelare, Eine, Ename, Heurne, Leupegem, Mater, Melden, Mullem, Nederename, Welden, Volkegem and a part of Ooike.From the 15th to the 18th...
), and afterwards back in Sint-Jans-Molenbeek. In 1883, he became study master, later teacher Dutch at the Koninklijk athenaeum (E:Royal athenaeum) in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
. Initially as a writer, he worked together with his brother-in-law Isidoor Teirlinck
Isidoor Teirlinck
Isidoor Teirlinck was a Belgian writer. He is best known for his work on folklore.Isidoor Teirlinck went to school in Lier. He married with Oda van Nieuwenhove and he was the father of the writer Herman Teirlinck...
, who was also a teacher in Brussels. Together they published Arm Vlaanderen (E: Poor Flanders) in 1884, a political novel on the educational struggle between Belgian catholics and liberals
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
. As from 1886 he went his own way, and produced his best work, of which Hard labeur (1904) is best known. Reimond Stijns was the first naturalistic
Naturalism (literature)
Naturalism was a literary movement taking place from the 1880s to 1940s that used detailed realism to suggest that social conditions, heredity, and environment had inescapable force in shaping human character...
writer of Flanders, but his work was also still influenced by romanticism
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
.