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Edinburgh Critical Studies in Romanticism

British Romanticism and Denmark

By Cian Duffy

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£95.00

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About this book

Traces a multifaceted discourse about Denmark in British eighteenth-century and Romantic-period culture
  • Offers original perspectives on British, Danish, and European Romanticism, and the relationship between them
  • Contributes to the scholarly discussion of Romantic nationalism and the emergence of the idea of ‘regional’ cultural identities in the early nineteenth century
  • Addresses a wide range of Nordic as well as Anglophone scholarship
  • Provides a select chronology of key historical events and points of cultural contact between Britain and Denmark in the long eighteenth century

British Romanticism and Denmark shows how the articulation in British Romantic-period writing of the idea of a ‘Northern’ cultural identity – shared by Britain and Denmark and rooted in the Classical Scandinavian past – played an important role in the emergence and development of Romanticism and Romantic nationalism in both countries. By addressing a wide range of Nordic as well as Anglophone scholarship, this study offers new perspectives on British, Danish and European Romanticisms, and on the relationship between them.

Reviews

The pioneering and critical scholarship of Cian Duffy in British Romanticism and Denmark allows such Anglo-Danish intellectual exchanges to be re-examined afresh. Indeed, the critical literary and historical perspectives pursued and developed in this monograph will long serve as aids to reflection for innumerable critics of the Romantic period. The study forms, in fact, a comprehensive and incisive critical encyclopedia of the history of literary and cultural relations between Britain and Denmark in this remarkable age.

British Romanticism and Denmark is a historically rigorous work that provides new knowledge about the transfer of contemporary Danish Romanticism to Britain and the changing British representations of Denmark.

[...]a necessary resource for anyone interested in Nordic Romanticism.

British Romanticism and Denmark is a detailed and precise study, both in terms of its scholarly positioning and research; Duffy synthesizes an array of sources, and he readily grapples with the inevitable complications that such synthesizing work necessarily encounters. On the whole, he makes a convincing case for the importance of contemporary Danish literature and culture, especially as it could contribute to a sense of Northern identity.
By opening access to an archive of partly forgotten texts, this thorough and well-researched book has the power to reframe with new accounts the much-discussed topics of nationhood, history and Romanticism. Duffy's study of the British engagement with Denmark through the late enlightenment and early Romantic periods widens the perspective on a Nordic allegiance in British literary Romanticism. It also prompts further investigation of the British impact and influence on Danish literature of the same period.

Written in a clear, engaging style and scrupulously researched, this fascinating study maps hitherto largely neglected British engagements with Denmark between the 1770s and 1820s. Recovering unfamiliar material, the book sheds new light on the cultural history of Britain during the Romantic period and is an important addition to ongoing scholarship on border-crossing interactions between individual national romanticisms.

Table of contents

AcknowledgementsSelect Chronology

Introduction: ‘The country of our ancestors’

1. ‘One of the finest capitals of Europe’: some British Romantic views of Copenhagen

2. ‘The dwelling-place of a mighty people’: travellers beyond Copenhagen

3. ‘A mine yet to be explored’: Romanticism and Anglo-Danish literary exchanges

4. ‘The brothers of Englishmen’: British reflections on the Danish national character

5. ‘No trifling kingdom’: Anglo-Danish politics beyond the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars

Coda: The ‘German’ Oehlenschläger

Appendices Bibliography

About the author

Cian Duffy

Cian Duffy is professor and chair of English literature at Lund University, Sweden. He has authored monographs, scholarly and collected editions, chapters, articles and internet media dealing with various aspects of the intellectual life and cultural history of Britain during the late eighteenth century and Romantic period. Recent publications include Romantic Norths: Anglo-Nordic Exchanges, 1770-1842 (ed.; Palgrave, 2017) and Percy Bysshe Shelley: Selected Poetry and Prose (ed. with Jack Donovan; Penguin 2017).

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