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Interpreting Kierkegaard in the general context of Golden Age Denmark, this interdisciplinary anthology features articles which treat his various relations to his most famous Danish contemporaries. It aims to see them not as minor figures laboring in Kierkegaard's shadow but rather as significant thinkers and artists in their own right. The articles illuminate both Kierkegaard's influence on his contemporaries and their varied influences on him. By means of the analyses of these various relations, aspects of Kierkegaard's authorship are brought into new and insightful perspectives. The featured essays treat some of the most important figures from the time, representing the fields of philosophy, theology, literature, criticism and art.
List of contents
I. Philosophy
Poul Lübcke/F.C. Sibbern, Epistemology as Ontology · Peter Thielst/Poul Martin Møller, Scattered Thoughts, Analysis of Affectation, Struggle with Nihilism · Johannes Witt-Hansen/H.C. Ørsted, Immanuel Kant and the Thought Experiment · K. Brian Söderquist, Kierkegaard's Contribution to the Danish Discussion of 'Irony' · Jon Stewart, Kierkegaard and Hegelianism in Golden Age Denmark
II. Theology
John Saxbee, The Golden Age in an Earthen Vessel: The Life and Times of Bishop J.P. Mynster · Curtis L. Thompson, H.L. Martensen's Theological Anthropology · Niels Thulstrup, Martensen's Dogmatics and its Reception · Flemming Lundgreen-Nielsen, Grundtvig and Romanticism
III. Literature
Kathryn Shailer-Hanson, Adam Oehlenschläger's Erik and Roller and Danish Romanticism · Niels Ingwersen, The Tragic Moment in Oehlenschläger's Hakon Earl the Mighty · John L. Greenway, Reason in Imagination is Beauty: Ørsted's Acoustics and H.C. Andersen's The Bell · Katalin Nun, Thomasine Gyllembourg's Two Ages and her Portrayal of Everyday Life
IV. Literary and Dramatic Criticism
Henning Fenger, Kierkegaard - A Literary Approach · George Pattison, Søren Kierkegaard: A Theatre Critic of the Heiberg School · Janne Risum, Towards Transparency: Søren Kierkegaard on Danish Actresses · Peter Vinten-Johansen, Johan Ludvig Heiberg and his Audience in Nineteenth-Century Denmark · Hans Hertel, P.L. Møller and Romanticism in Danish Literature
V. Art
Else Kai Sass, Thorvaldsen: An Introduction to his Work · Ragni Linnet, Golden Tears: Johan Thomas Lundbye and Søren Kierkegaard
About the author
The editor is Associate Research Professor at the Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre at the University of Copenhagen.
Report
"Kierkegaard and His Contemporaries is as a whole a most welcome contribution to the continuing effort of a part of many scholars to offer accounts of the cultural and intellectual milieu in which Kierkegaard worked that will provide a surer foundation for understanding his works in terms of the norms and expectations of his time. The volume is clearly based on the assumption that a rounded, textured, and subtly nuanced contextualization will contribute significantly to the understanding of his works."Steven P. Sondrup in: Scandinavian Studies 2005
