Et si c’était un poète qui découvrait la nation? Quatre poètes belges entre racines, diversité et partage

The function of the “National Poet”, introduced in Belgium in 2014, is to create a bridge between the country’s linguistic communities and to bring them closer together from a cultural perspective. The bridge symbolises both rapprochement and differentiation, two particularly complex and sensitive issues in a linguistically and culturally fragmented Belgium. Although this literary project is outside the political debate, it also aims to be an instrument of social interaction and integration. The aim of this paper is to point out how the first four “National Poets”, two French-speaking (one Brussels and one Walloon) and two Dutch-speaking (one Brabant and one West-Flemish), who write in French and Dutch respectively, share a common historical, literary and linguistic frame of reference. In the poetry of Charles Ducal, Laurence Vielle, Els Moors and Carl Norac, we have identified thematic and stylistic affinities that allow us to situate them within the framework of a Belgian national literature.