George Brandes' Main Currents (Hardcover)

Jens Bjerring-Hansen

ISBN 10: 8793890605 / ISBN 13: 9788793890602

Published by U Press, 2023

About this Item

Hardcover. "Georg Brandes' Main Currents became a kind of business card, or a letter of introduction, allowing Brandes to enter numerous national public spheres. Around 1900, he was, indeed, one of Europe's leading intellectuals, both as a scholar, a cultural critic, and a political activist. 'It is one of those books creating a swallowing gulf between yesterday and today', Henrik Ibsen wrote to Georg Brandes from Dresden, in 1872, upon reading the first tome of Main Currents.Due to the many agendas and layers, the impact of the work is multifaceted. In literary studies, the author is considered a pioneer in the field of comparative literature studies (Regis Boyer: 'Georg Brandes, le pere de la litterature comparee', Revue de litterature comparee, 2013:2, p. 135-144). Remarkable is also Brandes' interdisciplinary views, including not least his belief in the relevance of scientific methods and views for the cultural sciences (positivism and Darwinism). As a literary scholar, Brandes' ambition was to deploy the tools of his discipline in the service of big causes, such as the promotion of freedom, peace and modernity. In the Danish debate, he constantly challenged national narrow-mindedness and worked to establish a dialogue between nations and cultures. In a wider context, he helped to put not only Denmark, but also the entire Scandinavian region on the global literary map. All of this was made possible by the publication of Main Currents."- Lasse Horne Kjaeldgaard & Jens Bjerring-Hansen ('Introduction') Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9788793890602

Bibliographic Details

• Title: George Brandes' Main Currents (Hardcover)
• Publisher: U Press
• Publication Date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 8793890605
• ISBN 13: 9788793890602
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

Georg Brandes put the Scandinavian Region on the Global Literary Map

A companion to Brandes’ Main Currents is published on 30 November 2023.

It was a pioneering work in two respects: as a major contribution to the formulation of a modern European identity and as an innovative effort in the internationalization of literary studies.

"A bible of the young intellectual Europe"

"It is one of those books creating a swallowing gulf between yesterday and today,” Henrik Ibsen wrote upon the 1872 publication of the first volume of Brandes’ Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature.

After its appearance, the world was not the same.

Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature was celebrated by Thomas Mann as the "Bible of the young intellectual Europe at the turn of the century."

Cultural critique in the service of big causes

Brandes' ambition was to deploy the tools of his discipline in the service of big causes, such as the promotion of freedom, peace, and modernity. His grand narrative of the evolution of European literature was delivered in person to a large audience at the University of Copenhagen, and soon after published in six volumes between 1872 and 1890. In Danish circles, he constantly challenged national narrowmindedness and worked to establish dialogues between nations and cultures. In a wider context, he helped to put not only Denmark but the entire Scandinavian region on the global literary map.

All of this was made possible by the publication of Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature. This anthology compiles essays on the biographical background, overall structure, and individual volumes of Brandes' magnum opus. Hopefully, it may serve as a resource for newcomers as well as experienced readers looking for an overview of – and new paths in – Brandes' epoch-making work.

About the Author

Jens Bjerring-Hansen is Associate Professor of Scandinavian literature at the University of Copenhagen, specializing in eighteenth and nineteenth-century literature. Recent publications include the volumes Scandinavian Exceptionalisms. Culture, Society, Discourse (Nordeuropa-Institut der Humboldt Universität, 2021, co-edited with Torben Jelsbak and Anna Estera Mrozewicz) and Georg Brandes. Pioneer of Comparative Literature and Global Public Intellectual (Brill, 2023, co-edited with Lasse Horne Kjældgaard and Anders Engberg-Pedersen).

Lasse Horne Kjældgaard is CEO of the Carlsberg Foundation and Professor of Danish Literature at the University of Southern Denmark. He has authored and edited several monographs and anthologies on Danish literary and cultural history, most recently The Original Age of Anxiety. Essays on Kierkegaard and His Contemporaries (Brill, 2021) and Georg Brandes. Pioneer of Comparative Literature and Global Public Intellectual (Brill, 2023, co-edited with Jens Bjerring-Hansen and Anders Engberg-Pedersen).