Kleine meditatie over een 'cadeau d'une merde': 'Het grote medelijden' van Willem Frederik Hermans

In this article, Frans Ruiter approaches the literary work as a gift. First, a sketch is given of the views of Mauss on the gift, and the carry-over of these in (post)structuralism and in the sociology of Bourdieu. Understanding the literary work as a gift, has the benefit of escaping the economistic reduction of Bourdieu’s sociology of literature, while still firmly footing it in a social context. Subsequently, the author demonstrates the importance of the gift-motif in Willem Frederik Hermans’ story ‘Het grote medelijden’ from the important story collection Een wonderkind of een total loss (1967). In contrast to the view of Cyrille Offermans that Hermans is a downright non-generous author, Ruiter argues that Hermans’ at first site poisoned gift actually amounts to a vital form of generosity.