The Silver Age of Swedish National Romanticism, 1905-1920
2002; University of Illinois Press; Volume: 74; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2163-8195
Autores Tópico(s)European Cultural and National Identity
ResumoIN REFLECTING ON THE PAST we are often struck by the disparity between the realities of a time and place, on the one hand, and the ideal picture of their society that contemporaries strove to create on the other. How different a view of classic Greece in the fifth century BC do we not get from the edle Einfalt und stille Grosse--in J. J. Winckelmann's memorable description--of cool, white marble, as opposed to reading Thucidydes's account of the savagery of the Peloponnesian War? It is evident, moreover, that the ideal so often directly contradicts the reality in an obvious effort to counterbalance the evils of the times. The problem of recreating an objective picture of a past era is compounded by the contrasting approaches of scholars in different disciplines. Historians of literature and the arts typically concentrate upon avant-gardes and new directions, whereas general historians seeking to recreate life as it was actually experienced at the time look for what was most typical. Characteristically the prevailing cultural climate of an era is the work of yesterday's--rather than today's--avant-gardes. A good example is the period between roughly 1905 and 1920 in Sweden. General historians reveal a society undergoing rapid and often traumatic change, fraught with social and industrial strife, and divided over fundamental conflicts of political principle. Historians of literature and the arts have sought above all to trace the origins of modernism during this period, as far back in time as possible. Yet in the experience of the great majority of Swedes there can be no doubt that these years saw the final culmination of the national romanticism that had arisen in the 1890s. This seems particularly evident between 1914 to 1918 when Sweden, together with Denmark and Norway, maintained its precarious neutrality during World War I. (1) This thought struck me with particular force when I was recently in Allhelgona Church, dedicated in 1918, built in wood, red-painted, and decorated in the style of a Dalarna country church, high on a wooded hill bordered by neo-classical apartment houses in chaste late Gustavian style, originally built for working class families, only a stone's throw from bustling Gotgatan in Stockholm. The later impression of a generational shift in Swedish culture is created not only by the appearance of new faces and ideas after the beginning of the new century but also by the passing of many of the leading figures of the later nineteenth century from the scene. Artur Hazelius died in 1901, Levertin in 1906, Froding in 1911, Strindberg in 1912. Yet many of them lived on into the period and beyond. Indeed, some of their best work was accomplished during the second and third decades of the new century. Eugene Jansson died in 1915, Carl Larsson and Richard Bergh in 1919, Anders Zorn in 1920, Karl Nordstrom in 1923, Ellen Key in 1926, Erik Axel Karlfeldt in 1931. Meanwhile Selma Lagerlof, Verner von Heidenstam, and Albert Engstrom lived on until 1940, Hjalmar Soderberg and Karl-Erik Forsslund until 1941, Wilhelm Peterson-Berger until 1942, and Prince Eugen until 1947. Others who first achieved prominence around the turn of the century carried on, in their own ways, aspects of the national romantic tradition: Bo Bergman, Henning Berger, Hjalmar Bergman, Anders Osterling, Hugo Alfven, Carl Wilhelmson, Carl Eldh. Meanwhile, influential critics, like Frederik Book, Klara Johansson, and Carl G. Laurin, held high the national romantic banner. The academic historians, mainly political conservatives, such as Carl Hildebrand, Ludvig Stavenow, or Gottfrid Carlsson, concentrated on Sweden's past glories while Carl Grimberg, Fabian Mansson, and others catered to a growing lay market for popularized history. If the Pantheon of the 1890s continued to dominate the areas of literature, the fine arts, and music during this period, in architecture national romanticism only fully came into its own after the turn of the century, particularly between 1905 and 1920 and for some years thereafter. …
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