Scandinavism Overlapping and competing identities in the Nordic world: 1770 - 1919

In contrast to earlier studies that have understood Scandinavism primarily as a political movement that failed to acquire any long-lasting success, this dissertation argues that Scandinavism was a significant ideological force throughout the nineteenth century by highlighting the cultural activism inspired by the idea of a common Scandinavian identity. Not only did Scandinavism contribute to crystallizing this transnational identity, fostering rapprochement between Denmark, Norway, and Sweden in the process, it would also have a decisive influence on the shape and direction the nationally-specific nation-building projects were to take. On the one hand, the greater Scandinavian context functioned as an amplifying sounding board against which the distinctive national identities could be reinforced. On the other hand, ‘Scandinavia’ could at times fulfil the role of the ‘Other’ against which the own identity was carved out.
The dissertation studies the complex entanglements between the national and pan-national levels of identity formation through the prism of historicism and cultural memory. Objects of study are a broad selection of cultural products and practices that invoke an image of the past. Of special interest are cultivations of Old-Norse culture, which formed a bone of contestation between competing national and pan-national claims of ownership, as well as the so-called ‘Age of Severance’, the three centuries marked by inter-Scandinavian warfare (1523–1814). Case studies of literary works and visual representations of this troublesome past demonstrate that artists went to great lengths to play down historical conflict to make harmonious relations in the present possible.