The Development of National Self-Identification in Scandinavian Culture and Literature

• Main Author: Alfred A. Matsevitch
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences 2016-09-01
• Series: Studia Litterarum
• Subjects: Scandinavia; national self-identification; cultural monuments; literary monuments; peasant traditions.
• Online Access: http://old.studlit.ru/articles/Matsevitch.pdf
• ISSN: 2500-4247; 2541-8564

The article examines the development of national self-identification in the three main countries of the Scandinavian region — Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. All the three countries have been interconnected for centuries, at least since the first millennium due to their geographical proximity and linguistic affinities, and this fact fostered their parallel historical, political, and cultural development in spite of their differences, contradictions, and conflicts, including military conflicts and territorial claims (as for example, Denmark’s failed attempt to dominate the Baltic region and to found a united Scandinavian state under Danish supremacy). The problem of self-identification in Scandinavian countries strongly manifested itself at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries characterized by intensive industrial growth, urbanization, and the increase of cosmopolitan, global tendencies threatening to destroy cultural traditions and welfare of these countries. As a result, there sprang a tendency to preserve and resurrect historical, cultural, and literary monuments, to turn to national history and especially to peasant traditions, customs, and national folklore as opposed to new urban values.