Abstract
This chapter examines imagination in nineteenth-century Scandinavia, where the current of Idealism permeated aesthetic, religious as well as philosophical thought. Kallenbach surveys how imagination transitions from the divine exaltation of Romanticism and the veneration of the genius (interpreted in the figure of Aladdin) to the depreciation and pathologization of fantasizing (portrayed in, e.g., Peer Gynt). She analyzes how this reappraisal of imagination played a central role in the transition from Idealism and Romanticism to the emerging existentialism and modernism. The chapter provides insight into a substantial body of material from now scarcely known—but at the time influential—Nordic thinkers, such as the aesthetics of philosopher F. C. Sibbern and actress Johanne Luise Heiberg’s reflections on the art of acting.
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Notes
- 1.
Georg Brandes, “Fantasien i det nittende Århundrede,” in Samlede Skrifter (Kjøbenhavn: Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag, 1905), 481f.
- 2.
Brandes was a strong proponent not only of Ibsen’s work, but also of the works by Norwegian playwright Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson and several other progressive writers. After a series of lectures held at the University of Copenhagen in 1871, which literally instigated the modern breakthrough in Scandinavia, Brandes became recognized as heading the progressive, radical cultural battle between modernists and the conservative establishment. In the 1880s, Brandes was amongst the first critics to appreciate the works of Friedrich Nietzsche , with whom he held an ongoing correspondence and would introduce to the Danish public in a series of lectures in 1888. The lectures were later published first in Danish (1889–1890) and later in an English translation (1914) and Brandes was thus responsible for raising the awareness of Nietzsche’s work in a broader international context. Brandes also published numerous critical works on, e.g., Shakespeare and Kierkegaard, several of which have been translated into English.
- 3.
This chapter should not be read as an attempt to appropriate Ibsen to a Danish context. Rather, it aims to discuss, in its own right, Idealism and its decline, taking the point of departure in Danish Idealism, which was a dominant influence in a wider Scandinavian context.
- 4.
Although Brandes will figure as a major source of reference in this chapter, he should not necessarily be considered a witness of truth, but rather as being indicative of a contemporary, progressive voice in the process of breaking with the dominant, but outdated, Scandinavian regime of Idealism.
- 5.
Adam Oehlenschläger, Aladdin, 32 vols., vol. II, Oehlenschlägers poetiske Skrifter (Kbh.: Selskabet til Udgivelse af Oehlenschlägers Skrifter, 1857).
- 6.
Georg Brandes, “Adam Oehlenschläger: Aladdin,” in Samlede Skrifter (Kjøbenhavn: Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag (F. Hegel & Søn), 1899), 236. Brandes continues: “for he, who was the emperor of the kingdoms of wish and reverie, was in Denmark for long times in fact […] considered the quintessence of all truth and all right.”
- 7.
Ibid., 215.
- 8.
Ibid., 230.
- 9.
Ibid., 242.
- 10.
The context of idealism has also been explored in Toril Moi’s Henrik Ibsen and the Birth of Modernism: Art, Theatre, Philosophy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006). Moi, however, focuses on German Idealism, especially Schiller, while disregarding the specific Scandinavian context. She thereby omits an account of the very ideological foundation that Ibsen opposes, not to mention the context of his primary, implied audience.
- 11.
Tharald Blanc, Christiania Theaters Historie (1899), quoted in Frederick J. Marker and Lise-Lone Marker, A History of Scandinavian Theatre (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 133.
- 12.
Moi, 43.
- 13.
Henrik Ibsen, “De to Theatre i Christiania,” Morgenbladet 43, no. nr. 80, 85, 89 og 100 (1861), http://ibsen.uio.no/SAK_P18610321De.xhtml.
- 14.
See Øyvind Anker, Christiania Theater’s Repertoire 1827–99 (Oslo: Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, 1956). This was also evident at Det Norske Theater; see Jan Olav Gatland, “Det Norske Theater 1850–1863: Innleiing,” http://www.ub.uib.no/fag/hf-fag/teater/0DNTinnleiing1.pdf.
- 15.
Moi, 9.
- 16.
Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling, Einleitung Zu Den Ideen Zu Einer Philosophie Der Natur, Nachdruck ed., 13 vols., vol. I, Schellings Werke (München: C. H. Beck, 1965), 706.
- 17.
David J. Gouwens, Kierkegaard’s Dialectic of the Imagination (New York: P. Lang, 1989), 46.
- 18.
Ibid., 21.
- 19.
Cf. Kant’s notion of the genius, Chap. 5.
- 20.
In his “Introduction” to Main Currents in 19th Century Literature, Brandes extended this characterization to be descriptive of the character of the Danish people as such: “I will thus point out the trait of childishness in the Danish people’s character. We owe to this quality the almost unique naivety of our poetry.” Georg Brandes, “Indledning: Hovedstrømninger i det 19. Aarhundredes Literatur,” in Samlede Skrifter (Kjøbenhavn: Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag (F. Hegel & Søn), 1900), 7.
- 21.
“Adam Oehlenschläger,” 221.
- 22.
Says Brandes : “This idealism has, as Idealism and the escapism in all literatures, its cause in the fact that our poetry developed under a politically miserable and devastated condition as a sort of comfort in the real hardships, as some kind of spiritual conquest which should comfort for the material losses. But it has preserved a sad lack as a memory thereof.” Brandes, “Indledning,” 7. This is in contrast with European Romanticism, where a much more pronounced concern with darkness and horror is evident.
- 23.
Heiberg was also second cousin and a principal inspiration to the Norwegian poet Johan Sebastian Welhaven (1807–1873).
- 24.
Thus Brandes retrospectively writes that “[o]nly after his death he was, for a few years idolized and, when his collected works were published, then really read. It is exactly after his death that he—for too long—have dominated the royal theatre in Copenhagen and acted as a hindrance for a new and better art.” In “Johan Ludvig Heiberg,” 152.
- 25.
Cited in Frederik Schyberg, Dansk Teaterkritik (København: Gyldendal, 1937), 170.
- 26.
This was the central issue in the attack that Heiberg issued on Oehlenschläger , first in his review of Oehlenschläger’s play Væringerne in Miklagard and later in his response to Oehlenschläger’s counter-attack. Here writes Heiberg in response to Oehlenschläger, who values idea over form, “it is precisely in the form, wherein we shall recognize the Spirit, for no one has ever seen the soul outside the body, and the spirit, which is not mirrored in a form does not exist for our view.” J. L. Heiberg, “Svar paa Hr. Prof. Oehlenschlägers Skrift: “Om Kritiken i Kjøbenhavns Flyvende Post, over Væringerne i Miklagard”.” in Prosaiske Skrifter (Kjøbenhavn: J. H. Schubothe, 1841), 289.
- 27.
Ibid., 337. Goethe ’s Faust is mentioned as an example of this genre.
- 28.
Brandes, “Den Heibergske Æstetik (1889),” 498. Brandes further states that “[i]n Heiberg as in Hegel lurks the contempt for the single being behind the recognition of Spirits and works of Spirits. Not Man creates the work of art, nay, it is the Spirit itself, cosmic Spirit, that works via the chosen artist—who is therefore called inspired—creates the immortal work.” In ibid., 494f.
- 29.
Nicolai Wergeland, Retfærdig Bedømmelse af Henrik Wergelands Poesie og Karakter (Oslo: Ad Notam Gyldendal, 1995), 53.
- 30.
Carl Henrik Koch, Den danske idealisme 1800–1880, Den danske filosofis historie (København: Gyldendal, 2004), 141.
- 31.
Cited in Sune Auken et al., eds., Dansk Litteraturs Historie, vol. 2: 1800–1870 (København: Gyldendal, 2008), 116.
- 32.
Brandes, “Adam Oehlenschläger,” 225.
- 33.
Schack von Staffeldt, “Til Phantasien,” in Samlede Digte (København: Det danske Sprog- og Litteraturselskab, C. A. Reitzels Forlag, 2001), 446., stanzas 11–12
- 34.
Ibid., 447, stanzas 12, 17 and 19.
- 35.
N. F. S. Grundtvig, Danne-Virke, vol. II (Kiøbenhavn: A. Schmidts Forlag, 1817), 187–89.
- 36.
Ibid., 189.
- 37.
Marcus Jacob Monrad, Om Det Skjønne: Tolv Forelæsninger, (Christiania: Feilberg & Landmarks Forlag, 1873), http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-nb_digibok_2008042510008. 18. I quote from the second edition.
- 38.
Ibid., 11. Although Baggesen meant well, the letter spurred a year-long fight between the two poets, the young, upcoming Oehlenschläger and the older, experienced Baggesen. See also ibid., 19f.
- 39.
Ibid., 215.
- 40.
Ibid., 216f.
- 41.
Sibbern was, incidentally, also a keen advocate of Gall’s theory of phrenology (see Chap. 5), which he discusses in Om Forholdet imellem Sjæl og Legeme (1849).
- 42.
Frederik Christian Sibbern, Psychologie, indledet ved almindelig Biologie, i sammentrængt Fremstilling, 4th ed. (Kjøbenhavn, 1862), 367. All quotes are from the revised and expanded 1862 fourth edition.
- 43.
Ibid., 275.
- 44.
Ibid., 374.
- 45.
Ibid., 375.
- 46.
Ibid.
- 47.
Ibid., 377.
- 48.
Om Poesie og Konst i Almindelighed, med Hensyn til alle Arter deraf, dog især Digte-, Maler-, Billedhugger- og Skuespillerkonst 1. Deel, 2nd ed. (Kjøbenhavn, 1855), 28. I quote from the second expanded edition.
- 49.
Ibid., 264.
- 50.
Ibid., 328.
- 51.
Ibid., 329.
- 52.
Quoted in Auken et al., 42.
- 53.
Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling, System des Transzendentalen Idealismus, Nachdruck ed., 13 vols., vol. II, Schellings Werke (München: C. H. Beck, 1965), 630.
- 54.
He continues: “Therefore it is not, as handicraft can be, pure reproduction, no, the human spirit must always have put its creative, idealising touch on that which deserves the name artwork. The ideality of art is beauty, because beauty is the natural expression of goodness in external forms. Therefore, where art portrays ugliness, it is not the real ugliness, but the idealising one.” Fredrik Petersen, “Henrik Ibsen’s Drama “A Doll’s House”, trans. May-Brit Akerholt, Aftenbladet (1880), http://ibsen.nb.no/id/11186647.0.
- 55.
Johanne Luise Heiberg, “Er Skuespilkunsten en moralsk berettiget Kunst?,” in Et Liv gjenoplevet i Erindringen, ed. Aage Friis (København: Gyldendal, 1944), 153.
- 56.
Ibid.
- 57.
Ibid., 154.
- 58.
The full entry reads as follows: “The first is that which in the dramatic artist is generally called: Imagination, and that he truly is in possession of this quality, is proven on stage by the last, which includes three things: (a) to copy the character perceived by imagination—as in an internally visible image—which we would call to realize it; (b) to bring the character in complete harmony with one’s own personality, which we would call to individualize it; and (c) to maintain the character through all its various situations. The latter is sometimes the hardest.” In Johan Christian Ryge, Critisk Sammenligning imellem nogle af det Kongelige Theaters Skuespillere og Skuespillerinder (Kiøbenhavn: J. H. Schubothe, 1832), 4.
- 59.
Heiberg, “Skuespilkunsten,” 156.
- 60.
Ibid., 158.
- 61.
Ibid.
- 62.
Søren Kierkegaard, The Concept of Irony [Om begrebet Ironi], trans. Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong, Kierkegaard’s Writings (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1989), 292.
- 63.
Heiberg, “Skuespilkunsten,” 180.
- 64.
Ibid. Cf. Friedrich Schlegel ’s assertion in Fragment no. 249 that “[t]he poetizing philosopher, the philosophizing poet, is a prophet. A didactic poem should be and tends to become prophetic.” In Philosophical Fragments, trans. Peter Firchow (Minneapolis, London: University of Minnesota Press, 1991).
- 65.
161.
- 66.
Et liv gjenoplevet i Erindringen, 4th ed., 4 vols. (København: Gyldendal, 1944), vol. III, 68.
- 67.
Cited in Robert Neiiendam, Det Kongelige Teaters Historie, vol. III: 1878–1882 (København: Pios Boghandel, 1925), 51f, 53.
- 68.
Petersen.
- 69.
Kearney, 188.
- 70.
Sha, “Toward a Physiology of the Romantic Imagination,” 13.
- 71.
Brandes, “Indledning,” 7.
- 72.
Ibid., 9.
- 73.
Kant, “Antropology,” §31A. 285.
- 74.
A similar term is the German Schwärmerei, translated as fanaticism and enthusiasm. Jonkers suggests “the neologism fantasmatism, in order to stress its emotionally exaggerated and illusory character.” “Illusory Imagination Versus Nihilistic Reason,” Ars Disputandi 2 (2002): 5.
- 75.
Kearney, 196.
- 76.
Søren Kierkegaard, Training in Christianity [Indøvelse i Christendom], trans. Walter Lowrie, Reprinted ed. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1967).
- 77.
The Sickness unto Death [Sygdommen til Døden], trans. Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong, Kierkegaard’s Writings (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1980), 30f. See Gouwens, 141ff. for a discussion of the imagination as the capacity instar omnium.
- 78.
Ibid., 159.
- 79.
Kierkegaard, The Sickness unto Death, 31.
- 80.
Training in Christianity, 190.
- 81.
Ibid., 185f.
- 82.
Ibid., 186.
- 83.
The Concept of Irony, 292. Another possible translation could be “imaginative view.”
- 84.
Gouwens, 70.
- 85.
Ibid., 72.
- 86.
Kierkegaard, The Sickness unto Death, 117.
- 87.
Kearney, 210.
- 88.
Hans Egede Schack, Phantasterne, Fortælling, 3rd ed. (Kjøbenhavn: Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag, 1899), 189.
- 89.
See Børge Gedsø Madsen, “Hans Egede Schack’s ‘Phantasterne’,” Scandinavian Studies 35, no. 1 (1963): 55.
- 90.
All quotes to the play refer to Henrik Ibsen, Peer Gynt: A Dramatic Poem, trans. Christopher Fry and Johan Fillinger (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989).
- 91.
All quotes refer to Georg Brandes, “Peer Gynt anmeldt av Georg Brandes i Dagbladet (København) 16. Desember 1867,” Dagbladet (1867), http://ibsen.nb.no/id/230.0. For a systematic comparison of Peer Gynt to The Phantasts, see A. Le Roy Andrews, “Further Influences upon Ibsen’s “Peer Gynt”: IV. Schack’s “Phantasterne”,” The Journal of English and Germanic Philology 19, no. 2 (1920).
- 92.
Here cited from Søren Kierkegaard, Stages on Life’s Way [Stadier paa Livets Vej], trans. Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong (Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 2013), 106.
- 93.
Ibsen, Peer Gynt: A Dramatic Poem, xii f.
- 94.
Mike Gane, Auguste Comte, Key Sociologists (London: Routledge, 2006), 68.
- 95.
Brann, 108.
- 96.
Brandes, “Fantasien og Livet,” 486.
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Kallenbach, U. (2018). The Disenchantment of the Idealist Imagination. In: The Theatre of Imagining. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76303-3_6
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