Icelandic Romanticism

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Þórir Óskarsson (University of Iceland)

Ed. by Ármann Jakobsson, University of Iceland
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.3.4: Icelandic Writing and Culture.
Vol. editors: Ármann Jakobsson (University of Iceland), Kjerstin Moody (Gustavus Adolphus College), Sven Hakon Rossel (Universitat Wien), Herbert Rowland (Purdue University), Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen (University College London)

Dates

Date of occurrence c.1300-

Places

Iceland (Location)

Genres and Modes

Multigenre/Miscellaneous

Resources

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During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the term romanticism was quite uncommon in discussions about Icelandic literature. It was mainly applied to a few poets who challenged the rational literature of the Enlightenment with their aesthetic and patriotic view of Icelandic nature, and uneven and sometime unexpected poetic language. Around and after 1900, influential critics even claimed that proper European romanticism had never reached Iceland. Icelandic romanticism barely deserved its name. Since then, the term romanticism has gradually gained approval as a synonym for various artistic and ideological interventions that emerged in Icelandic literature in the first decade of the nineteenth century and prevailed until the latter part of the 1870s when a new generation of…

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3401 words

Citation: Óskarsson, Þórir. "Icelandic Romanticism". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 04 June 2024 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=19718, accessed 27 July 2024.]

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