The Danish Golden Age

Due to numerous translations, Søren Kierkegaard and Hans Christian Andersen have long been familiar names in the anglophone world. However, as is well known inside Denmark, Kierkegaard and Andersen were not isolated figures in the Danish intellectual and artistic scene of the day; rather, they were merely the best-known representatives of an extremely rich period in Danish cultural life that began at the start of the nineteenth century and continued for some fifty or sixty years. This period, which has been designated "the Golden Age of Denmark," is only now coming to be appreciated for its full significance.

The Series

The main goal of the interdisciplinary series Texts from Golden Age Denmark is to make available for the first time in English some of the most important texts from the leading writers and intellectual figures of this period. The texts featured come from many different authors, representing many different fields, e.g., literature, philosophy, theology, drama and art history. They serve to paint a more complete picture of the cultural milieu of the period and to make its rich intellectual life available to the world of international scholarship.

The Principles

In addition to the translations themselves, the volumes in this series include both a general introduction that serves the function of introducing the specific figures and texts, and locating them within the period. Each volume also includes extensive explanatory notes or commentaries, which supply additional background information about specific aspects of the featured texts. One of the goals of the series is to present the texts as a contemporary reader might have read them. Therefore, all of the translations have been made using the original printings and first editions of the various articles and monographs.

Texts from Golden Age Denmark is edited by Jon Stewart, Research Fellow at the Institute of Philosophy at Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava.

See also the series Danish Golden Age Studies