This book examines both classic and less-known works of Dutch literature from the Middle Ages to the twenty-first century. Its starting-point is that both authors and readers are born into a network of ideologies. But how do these ideologies work, and how do they serve to legitimize various forms of subjugation? Judit Gera surveys literary representations of the Dutch colonial experience and of women's lives in male-dominated societies, showing how colonial and gender-based forms of subjugation are interrelated and often intersect. Judit Gera is Professor of Dutch Literature at the Eötvös Loránd University Budapest, Hungary.