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
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