Stijn Streuvels has often been called a gifted describer. However, assoon as one sets about investigating why the author is given that label,and how descriptions actually function in his work, one is struck by thevagueness of the concept of "description". Several theorists have attemptedto come to grips with it by delineating its distinctive features,but their suggestions are not always easy to translate into practice. Nevertheless,"description" is a label the use of which was and still is quitecommon in literary criticism, stylebooks, and schoolbooks. Time andagain, it is stigmatized and its use in a literary text discouraged, unless itundergoes certain adaptations which mitigate its negative characteristics.An examination of relevant texts yields a number of interesting questions,which shed a new light on some of Streuvels' works.
