George Brandes' Main Currents

Brandes ambition was to deploy the tools of his discipline in the service of big causes, such as the promotion of freedom, peace, and modernity. His grand narrative of the evolution of European literature was delivered in person to a large audience at the University of Copenhagen, and soon after published in six volumes between 1872 and 1890. In Danish circles, he constantly challenged national narrow-mindedness and worked to establish dialogues between nations and cultures. In a wider context, he helped to put not only Denmark but the entire Scandinavian region on the global literary map. All of this was made possible by the publication of Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature. This anthology compiles essays on the biographical background, overall structure, and individual volumes of Brandes magnum opus. It will serve as a resource for newcomers as well as experienced readers looking for an overview of and new paths in Brandes' epoch-making work.

Jens Bjerring-Hansen is Associate Professor of Scandinavian literature at the University of Copenhagen, specializing in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literature. Recent publications include the volumes <I>Scandinavian Exceptionalisms. Culture, Society, Discourse (Nordeuropa-Institut der Humboldt Universität, 2021, co-edited with Torben Jelsbak and Anna Estera Mrozewicz) and <I>Georg Brandes. Pioneer of Comparative Literature and Global Public Intellectual (Brill, 2023, co-edited with Lasse Horne Kjældgaard and Anders Engberg-Pedersen). <B>Lasse Horne Kjældgaard is CEO of the Carlsberg Foundation and Professor of Danish Literature at the University of Southern Denmark. He has authored and edited several monographs and anthologies on Danish literary and cultural history, most recently <I>The Original Age of Anxiety. Essays on Kierkegaard and His Contemporaries (Brill, 2021) and <I>Georg Brandes. Pioneer of Comparative Literature and Global Public Intellectual (Brill, 2023, co-edited with Jens Bjerring-Hansen and Anders Engberg-Pedersen).