Sovereignty as inviolability

de Frans-Willem Korsten

Summary: Sovereignty was a key issue in the baroque, and especially in the Dutch Republic with its incredibly complicated political organisation. Consequently, sovereignty was explored in and through Joost van den Vondel's theatre plays. Vondel sensed a fundamental problem in the construction of Europe's politico-cultural 'house'. The questions he asked with respect to that construction concerned the relationship between theology and politics, including in terms of gender and culture. Because these questions could barely be considered explicitly, let alone actually discussed, they had to be presented through literature--theatre. A close reading of a number of plays reveals not only a pivotal discussion that concerns Vondel's own times, but also an on-going struggle in the European exploration of sovereignty. In that context, power and potency--a distinction made by Spinoza--determine the status of sovereignty that anybody can acquire.