Variations and contradictions. The radio practice of Dr. P.H. Ritter jr.

Dr. P.H. Ritter jr.(1882-1962) was the most active book reviewer on Dutch radio during the interwar period. His radio talks for the major broadcasting company AVRO contributed greatly to his national fame and influence. In this article, we explain Ritter's metacritical discourse regarding book reviewing on radio by focusing on his evolving notion of 'objective' criticism. We illustrate this with an exemplary radio talk from the thirties, which shows his standard analytic and didactic reviewing procedure. In addition to that, we discuss meaningful variations and contractions within his reviewing practice, thus showing that Ritter positioned himself not only as a cultural mediator, but also as a bookseller, an entertainer and a polemist.