The concept of "elite" in Scandinavian culture and society: description
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Prof. Annegret Heitmann, Department of Nordic Studies, LMU - Prof. Wilhelm Heizmann, Department of Scandinavian Studies, LMU
In the context of globalisation, which all over the world constantly produces new structures in areas such as the economy, society and culture, the issue of elite-formation has again become topical – not least in the modern German Academy. This wider phenomenon has in turn had important repercussions within Scandinavian culture, which traditionally has thought of itself as egalitarian.
Although social inequality is a constant feature of complex societies throughout history, the word ‘elite’ first appeared in seventeenth century Europe, when it was used in connection with goods that were valuable and expensive. From the eighteenth century, however, the term was applied to individuals who had obtained prominence through their own personal achievements – by contrast with the ascribed status of the higher clergy and the aristocracy. In the age of industrialisation, the meaning of the term increasingly changed to denote a relatively fixed boundary between the upper classes (differently conceived in different countries) and all others. In Scandinavia, from the beginning of the twentieth century, the increasingly influential social-democratic movements opposed the development of any marked differentiation elites and masses. It was thus that the very notion of ‘elite’ came to be negatively marked. Hierarchical structures tended to be thought of as the inverse of the Scandinavian social ideal. But modern sociological theory, since Veblen, assumes that every society will develop elites, whether overt or latent, in the process of establishing group-identities and narratives of social distinction.
The aim of the seminar is to problematise this issue as it affects Scandinavia from a literary and cultural-historical perspective. We will examine a wide variety of texts ranging from the middle ages to the present day from the specific point of view of the types of elite-formation, social domination and socio-political criticism represented and the understanding of elite and anti-elite. Several topics are in the course of preparation: in the field of Old Norse, the elite figure of the rune-master (=‘erilaz’), the elite class of the courtiers in the Old Norwegian ‘Courtiers mirror’ and the figure of the priest-chieftains (=‘gođi’) in the egalitarian society of Iceland; and in the field of modern Scandinavian, studies of the 19th-century elite based on education (Geijer, Heiberg, Wergeland), the cult of the genius ('Geistesaristokratie': Strindberg, Hamsun, Ibsen) and the cult of heroes (Amundsen, Nansen) around 1900, and on the fundamental criticism of the egalitarian cultural politics of the twentieth century, f.ex. by Lars Gustafsson.
Although social inequality is a constant feature of complex societies throughout history, the word ‘elite’ first appeared in seventeenth century Europe, when it was used in connection with goods that were valuable and expensive. From the eighteenth century, however, the term was applied to individuals who had obtained prominence through their own personal achievements – by contrast with the ascribed status of the higher clergy and the aristocracy. In the age of industrialisation, the meaning of the term increasingly changed to denote a relatively fixed boundary between the upper classes (differently conceived in different countries) and all others. In Scandinavia, from the beginning of the twentieth century, the increasingly influential social-democratic movements opposed the development of any marked differentiation elites and masses. It was thus that the very notion of ‘elite’ came to be negatively marked. Hierarchical structures tended to be thought of as the inverse of the Scandinavian social ideal. But modern sociological theory, since Veblen, assumes that every society will develop elites, whether overt or latent, in the process of establishing group-identities and narratives of social distinction.
The aim of the seminar is to problematise this issue as it affects Scandinavia from a literary and cultural-historical perspective. We will examine a wide variety of texts ranging from the middle ages to the present day from the specific point of view of the types of elite-formation, social domination and socio-political criticism represented and the understanding of elite and anti-elite. Several topics are in the course of preparation: in the field of Old Norse, the elite figure of the rune-master (=‘erilaz’), the elite class of the courtiers in the Old Norwegian ‘Courtiers mirror’ and the figure of the priest-chieftains (=‘gođi’) in the egalitarian society of Iceland; and in the field of modern Scandinavian, studies of the 19th-century elite based on education (Geijer, Heiberg, Wergeland), the cult of the genius ('Geistesaristokratie': Strindberg, Hamsun, Ibsen) and the cult of heroes (Amundsen, Nansen) around 1900, and on the fundamental criticism of the egalitarian cultural politics of the twentieth century, f.ex. by Lars Gustafsson.
