1st Edition

Volume 12, Tome III: Kierkegaard's Influence on Literature, Criticism and Art Sweden and Norway

By Jon Stewart Copyright 2013
    216 Pages
    by Routledge

    216 Pages
    by Routledge

    While Kierkegaard is primarily known as a philosopher or religious thinker, his writings have also been used extensively by literary writers, critics and artists. This use can be traced in the work of major cultural figures not just in Denmark and Scandinavia but also in the wider world. They have been attracted to his creative mixing of genres, his complex use of pseudonyms, his rhetoric and literary style, and his rich images, parables and allegories. The present volume documents this influence in the different language groups and traditions. Tome III investigates the works of Swedish and Norwegian writers and artists inspired by Kierkegaard. In Sweden the novelist Victoria Benedictsson made use of Kierkegaard during the period of the so-called Modern Breakthrough, as did the playwright August Strindberg. Later Swedish writers have continued to draw on his thought, such as Selma Lagerlof, Lars Ahlin, Lars Gyllensten, and Carl-Henning Wijkmark. The Norwegian reception of Kierkegaard also began remarkably early and was shaped by the leading names in Norwegian cultural life. Despite his coy responses to questions about his relation to Kierkegaard, Henrik Ibsen clearly seems to have been inspired by the Dane in works such as Brand. Norwegian writer and poet Bjornstjerne Bjornson, who was influenced by the Modern Breakthrough movement, was also deeply inspired by Kierkegaard. Finally, the celebrated Norwegian artist Edvard Munch (1863-1944) closely studied key Kierkegaardian concepts such as anxiety, and his influence is notable in his iconic paintings such as The Scream.

    Contents: Part I Sweden: Lars Ahlin: Kierkegaard’s influence - an ambiguous matter, Hans Erik Johannesson; Victoria Benedictsson: a female perspective on ethics, Camilla Brudin Borg; Lars Gyllensten: inventor of modern stages of life, Camilla Brudin Borg; Selma Lagerlöf: ‘more clever than wise’, Elise Iuul; August Strindberg: along with Kierkegaard in a dance of death, Ingrid Basso; Carl-Henning Wijkmark: paradoxical forms and an interpretation of Kierkegaard and Dacapo, Jan Holmgaard. Part II Norway: Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson: Kierkegaard’s positive influence on Bjørnson in his youth and adulthood, Esben Lindemann; Henrik Ibsen: the conflict between the aesthetic and the ethical, Eivind Tjønneland; Edvard Munch: the painter of The Scream and his relation to Kierkegaard, Hans Herlof Grelland; Indexes.

    Biography

    Jon Stewart