Icons of Danish modernity
Subtitle: Georg Brandes and Asta Nielsen
By: Julie K. Allen
Series: New directions in Scandinavian studies
Publisher: University of Washington Press; Museum Tusculanum Press
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Seattle; Copenhagen
Language: eng
ISBN-13: 9780295992204
Subjects: Scandinavia National characteristics; Friends and associates; Intellectual life; Criticism and interpretation; HISTORY / Europe / Scandinavia; Civilization; LITERARY CRITICISM / European / Scandinavian; PERFORMING ARTS / Film & Video / History & Criticism
Description: "Julie Allen utilizes the lives and friendship of the Danish literary critic George Brandes (1842-1927) and the silent film star Asta Nielsen (1881-1972) to explore questions of culture and national identity in early twentieth-century Denmark. Danish culture and politics were influenced in this period by the country's deeply ambivalent relationship with Germany. Brandes and Nielsen, both of whom lived and worked in Germany for significant periods of time, were seen as dangerously cosmopolitan by the Danish public, even while they served as international cultural ambassadors for the very society that rejected them during their lifetimes. Allen argues that they were the prototypical representatives of a socially liberal and culturally modern "Danishness" (Danskhed) that Denmark itself only gradually (and later) grew into. This lively study brings its central characters to life while offering an original, thought provoking analysis of the origins and permutations of Danish modernism and Danish national identity--issues that continue to be significant in today's multi-ethnic Denmark. Icons of Danish Modernity is a book about the uneasy waves that arise when celebrities take on national symbolism, and the beginnings of this formula in the early twentieth century.Julie K. Allen is associate professor of Scandinavian studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison."Allen weaves a compelling cultural analysis about national identity and its mores. The juxtaposition of the works of Georg Brandes and Asta Nielsen is highly original and Allen's contribution offers a much-needed introduction to an English reading audience of these important cultural figures." -Karin Sanders, University of California, Berkeley"--

"Utilizes the lives of literary critic Georg Brandes and silent film star Asta Nielsen to explore questions of national identity in early twentieth-century Denmark"--