Madelon Székely-Lulofs

Madelon Székely-Lulofs

Magdalena Hermina (Madelon) Székely-Lulofs (born June 24, 1899 in Surabaya , † May 22, 1958 in Santpoort ) was a Dutch writer and journalist .

biography

Székely-Lulofs was born as the eldest daughter of Claas Lulofs and Sarah Dijckmeester in Surabaya on the island of Java , at that time the Dutch East Indies . Her father was a tax officer and was transferred at regular intervals. The family followed him to the province of Aceh in the north of the island of Sumatra and later on to a smaller garrison town. Between 1913 and 1915 Madelon Lulofs attended the “Higher Citizens School (HBS)” for girls in Deventer .

From 1917 to 1926 she was married to Hendrik Doffegnies, the planter of a rubber plantation in the former Deli sultanate in northeast Sumatra. She had two daughters with him. She began to write stories that the Hungarian planter László Székely had published in a newspaper in Sumatra. In 1926 Madelon Lulofs and Doffegnies got divorced and Lulofs married Székely. She had a daughter with him.

The couple moved to a new place in Sumatra and Székely-Lulof's stories were published in the Dutch magazine Groot Nederland . In 1931 her debut novel Rubber was published . Despite an avalanche of reviews, Rubber became an instant global hit. The novel has been translated into fifteen languages, including English, German ('Gummi', Berlin, 1934), French, Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Czech, Hungarian, Malay and Spanish. The book also became the basis for a script for a film. This and the following novels by Székely-Lulofs gave a disillusioning picture of the planters and coolies in the Dutch East Indies. For this reason, rubber was very reluctantly and negatively accepted in the Dutch East Indies.

In 1930 the family went to Hungary . Both translated - in some cases together - many Hungarian novels into Dutch. Including works by Kassák , Körmendi, Földi, Márai , Földes , Vaszary . In 1938 the family settled in a guesthouse in Santpoort, near IJmuiden . In 1941 László Székely went back to Hungary. On the one hand, there were health reasons for this, but he did not want to endanger his family because of his Jewish origins. Székely-Lulofs was active as a courier in the Dutch resistance against the German occupiers in World War II. Her husband survived the war, but she never saw him again. He died of cardiac arrest on June 8, 1945.

Székely-Lulofs continued to publish articles in De Groene Amsterdammer , Elseviers Weekblad and other magazines. A serial was published in the women's magazine Margriet . She has also published other books. On May 22, 1958, she suddenly fell ill and died of a heart attack.

The first biography of Madelon Székely-Lulofs, Tumult , by Frank Okker was published by the publishing house “Atlas” on May 22nd, 2008 . In 2005 a biographical novel about her was published with the title Madelon. The hidden life of Madelon Székely-Lulofs

Novels

rubber

The novel Rubber takes place on a rubber plantation in East Sumatra. The book has semi-autobiographical features. The planting society in the Sultanate of Deli is going through a dizzying development and in the time before the economic crisis in 1929 an infinite amount of money was made and spent. With this novel, Székely-Lulofs wanted to awaken insight into the alienations and ruptures, for the double standards and superficiality that the circumstances in the former Dutch East Indies could cause. The objects of their description are the white members of the colonial society and their habits, limitations and rituals. Locals only appear as domestic servants, servants, workers, or illegitimate lovers. In 1952, Rubber appeared in the Netherlands in a heavily shortened version. A complete edition did not appear again until 1992.

pen

Even "Rubber" was taken as a criticism of the circumstances in the Dutch East Indies. The novel "Koelie, dt. Kuli", published shortly afterwards in 1932, went beyond that. He describes the life of the Malay contract workers who work on the rubber plantations. The main character, Ruki, is lured into contract work by an agent. He is poor and only owns what he wears on his body. Contrary to his expectations, life and work on the rubber plantation turns out to be hard, unjust, monotonous. He gambled away what little he had left of his income. At the end of his contract period, he has no choice but to sign a new contract again. The novel was seen as a criticism of the Dutch colonial policy in the Dutch East Indies.

Hunger patrol

In contrast to the two earlier novels by Székely-Lulofs, which are set in the rubber plantations of Deli, the novel “Hunger Patrol” (1936) is set in Aceh (1873–1914) in the late period of the war . "Hunger Patrol" is based on the report of Lieutenant Nutters, who in 1911 undertook a disastrous expedition into the recently mapped jungle of Aceh. The military column got lost and, after wandering around without food for nearly two months, was found by a search patrol. Nineteen crew ranks died of starvation. The train went into the military manuals as a chilling example. Twenty years later, Nutters played the original report to Székely-Lulof's patrol with the wish to turn it into a novel. The result was an exciting novel that was right down to the smallest detail. It is considered by many to be the pinnacle of literature on the Dutch East Indies. The novel was used as the basis for the 1996 television series "In the Name of the Queen" in the Netherlands.

Doekoen

The last novel about the Dutch East Indies by Székely-Lulofs, Doekoen ("The Natural Doctor "), was only published in book form in 2001, published by the Royal Institute for Linguistics, Regional Studies and Ethnology, KITLV. The central theme of this novel is the clash of cultures from East and West. An idealistic surgeon finds himself in an opposition between himself and a medicine woman, a "Doekoen", who stirs up the population against him. This leads to a traumatic conflict for all involved. The description of the planting couple is strongly autobiographical. In it, Székely-Lulofs processes memories of their first marriage.

Works

• Rubber. Roman uit Deli (1931), German: Gummi. A novel from Sumatra. Holle & Co., Berlin 1934; Schwingen-Verlag, Rosenheim 1963
• Koelie (1932) German: Kuli. Goldmann, Munich 1955
• Emigrants behave differently (1933)
• De Andere wereld (1934), German: Die Other Welt, Roman Holle & Co., Berlin 1st edition 1936
• Vizioen (verhalen; 1935)
• De hongertocht (1936) German: Hungerpatrouille. Novel from the Dutch East Indies Holle & Co., Berlin, 1st edition 1937
• Colonists , Authorized translation from the Dutch by Willy van Büüren and Carl Otto Windecker, Holle & Co., Berlin without year (1937)
• Het laatste bedrijf (1937)
• De kleine strijd (1941)
• Onze serving in India (1946)
• Tjoet Nja Din. De geschiedenis van een Atjehse vorstin (1948)
• Doekoen (2001)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Kester Freriks: Madelon. Het hidden leven van Madelon Székely
2. ↑ Jeannette Moerman-Schravesande, De Deliromans van Madelon Szekely-Lulofs, Een vergelijking; in: Indian letters. Jaargang 17. Werkgroep Indisch-Nederlandse Letterkunde, Alphen aan den Rijn 2002, p. 99
3. ↑ so z. B. the regular visit to the club, which ends with the drunkenness of the bachelors as well as those with local women, such as van der Meulen (Lulofs: Rubber, p. 103 ff) or with a fight (Lulofs: Rubber. The 1930s Novel which shocked European Society, Oxford University Press, Singapore: 4th ed. 1991, p. 141, ISBN 0-19-588867-7 )
4. ↑ Peter van Zonneveld: Indian literatuur van de twintigste eeuw, in: Theo D'haen (ed.), Europa buitengaats. Colonial and post-colonial literatures in European valleys. Bert Bakker, Amsterdam 2002, p. 138
5. ↑ Lulofs: Coolie. 'If Allah has ordained it thus ...?' Oxford University Press, Singapore, 6th ed. 1993, p. 23, ISBN 0-19-582528-4
6. ↑ ibid.
7. ↑ He received his twenty guilders and played for two nights. Then all the money was wasted. Lulofs: Coolie. 'If Allah has ordained it thus ...?' Oxford University Press, Singapore, 6th ed. 1993, pp. 185f, ISBN 0-19-582528-4

Web links

• Literature by and about Madelon Székely-Lulofs in the catalog of the German National Library