The Crisis of the Danish Golden Age and Its Modern Resonance

Book excerpt: The historical circumstances of the Danish Golden Age are well known: the Napoleonic Wars, the bombardment of Copenhagen, the state bankruptcy in 1814 with the ensuing financial crisis, the Revolution of 1848, and the establishment of a parliamentary democracy in 1849. There were peasant reforms, religious upheavals, and changes in class and social structures. These events constituted the milieu in which the Golden Age was born and developed. The guiding idea of the present volume is that these different crises served not just as a backdrop or as obstacles but rather as catalysts for the flowering of culture in the Golden Age. Despite their many debates and polemics among themselves, the leading figures of Golden Age Denmark were generally in agreement about the fact that their age was in a state of crisis. The dramatic events spilled over into the various cultural spheres and shaped them in different ways. The articles in this volume trace the different crises as they appear in literature, criticism, religion, philosophy, politics and the social sciences. The contributing authors draw compelling parallels between the perceived crisis of the Golden Age and the acute issues of our own day. The articles collected here thus together show the continuing relevance of the Golden Age for readers of the 21st century.00Nathaniel Kramer is Associate Professor of Comparative Arts and Letters and Director of Scandinavian Studies at Brigham Young University Jon Stewart Ph.d., Dr. habil. theol. & phil. is Research Fellow at the Institute of Philosophy at Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava. He is chief editor of the series Danish Golden Age Studies and Texts from Golden Age Denmark.