This article discusses the ongoing crisis in the field of literary studies, relating these problems and challenges to the problem of writing literary histories. It advocates afunctionalist approach to literary phenomena, taking into account institutional frames and discursive strategies which are developed in order to structure and legitimize literary practices and literary evolution. These theoretical and methodological premises are applied to the very complex years immediately after the Second World War in Flanders (the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium). In particular, it is demonstrated how the very notion of ‘classicist poetry’ as adefensive practice clearly reveals an intricate variety of conceptions aimed at tackling the problems poets are confronted with in anew era. ; This article discusses the ongoing crisis in the field of literary studies, relating these problems and challenges to the problem of writing literary histories. It advocates afunctionalist approach to literary phenomena, taking into account institutional frames and discursive strategies which are developed in order to structure and legitimize literary practices and literary evolution. These theoretical and methodological premises are applied to the very complex years immediately after the Second World War in Flanders (the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium). In particular, it is demonstrated how the very notion of ‘classicist poetry’ as adefensive practice clearly reveals an intricate variety of conceptions aimed at tackling the problems poets are confronted with in anew era.