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.



Autorentext

Julie K. Allen is associate professor of Scandinavian studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.



Inhalt

Preface

Acknowledgments

Section One | Introduction

1. The Critic and the Actress: Crafting Art and National Identity

Section Two | George Brandes

2. The Literary Revolutionary: Marketing Danish Modernity in Imperial Germany

3. The Outspoken Radical: Political Journalism and Provocative Pacifism

Section Three | Asta Nielsen

4. The Danish Diva: Identity Games in Prewar Silent Cinema

5. The New Woman: Enacting Scandinavian Modernity on Screen

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Titel
Icons of Danish Modernity
Untertitel
Georg Brandes and Asta Nielsen
EAN
9780295804361
ISBN
978-0-295-80436-1
Format
E-Book (epub)
Veröffentlichung
25.08.2013
Digitaler Kopierschutz
Adobe-DRM
Dateigrösse
3.93 MB
Anzahl Seiten
280
Jahr
2013
Untertitel
Englisch