National Poets, Cultural Saints: Canonization and Commemorative Cults of Writers in Europe

Erscheinungsjahr 2016
ISBN: 978-90-04-33539-4
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 12, 234 Seiten, Format (B × H): 159 mm x 241 mm, Gewicht: 495 g

Reihe: National Cultivation of Culture

In National Poets, Cultural Saints Marijan Dovic and Jón Karl Helgason explore the ways in which certain artists, writers, and poets in Europe have become major figures of cultural memory, emulating the symbolic role formerly played by state rulers and religious saints. The authors develop the concept of cultural sainthood in the context of nationalism as a form of invisible religion, identify major shifts in canonization practices from antiquity to the nationally-motivated commemoration of the nineteenth century, and explore the afterlives of two national poets, Slovenia's France Prešeren and Iceland's Jónas Hallgrímsson. The book presents a useful analytical model of canonization for further studies on cultural sainthood and opens up fruitful perspectives for the understanding of national movements.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Dovic, Marijan

Helgason, Jón Karl

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft | Kulturwissenschaften Kulturwissenschaften
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturwissenschaft: Lyrik und Dichter
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Europäische Länder
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kultur- und Ideengeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturgeschichte und Literaturkritik
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Ideologien Nationalismus

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface. vii
List of Figures, Charts, Tables, and Maps. xi

Introduction. 1

PART 1: Towards a Theory of Cultural Sainthood

1 Remembering the Dead: Contexts of Cultural Sainthood. 11
Cultural Memory and Invisible Religion. 14
Nationalism and Civil Religion. 23
Relics, Rituals, and Postulators. 29

2 Commemorative Cults of Poets and Writers: A Historical Perspective. 35
From Poets’ Hero Cults to the Concept of Canonicity. 36
Medieval and Early Modern Europe: From “Poets Laureate” to the Petrarch Cult. 42
The Cult of Centenary and Denkmalwut. 51
Ritual and Cult as the Core of Commemorative Culture. 58
The Rise of National Poets as Paradigmatic Cultural Saints. 61

3 The Canonization of Cultural Saints: A Dynamic Model. 71
Canonization, Canon, and Cultural Saints. 72
Vita: Potentials of the Individual for Canonization. 78
Cultus: The Production and Reproduction of Canonical Status. 81
Effectus: Consequences for Society at Large. 91

PART 2: National Poets from the European Periphery: Two Case Studies

4 “Glory to Prešeren!”: Canonizing a Paradigmatic Cultural Saint. 99
Examining the Threads of Vita. 100
Opera: Poetic Cult and the “European Level”. 106
A Prelude to Canonization: The Tombstones. 111
Vodnik, the “First Slovenian Poet”. 115
The Prešeren Centenary and the Monument to the National Genius. 122
From the Monument to the National Anthem. 134
The “Slovenian Cultural Syndrome”. 144

5 “I Sensed Your Desire for Your Home”: Postulators of the Memory of Jónas Hallgrímsson. 149
Vita and Persona: Prešeren’s Nordic Twin. 150
Opera and Acta: “His Story Still Can Make the Heart Beat High”. 155
Postulators: The Role of Friends and Relatives. 160
The Jónas Monument and the Icelandic Flag. 168
The Translation and Reburial of the Poet’s Relics. 176
Cultural Saints and Cultural Capital. 185

Epilogue. 189

Bibliography. 205
Index of Names. 226

Über Autor(innen)

Marijan Dovic is Associate Professor at the ZRC SAZU Institute of the Slovenian Literature and Literary Studies in Ljubljana. He publishes extensively in Slovenian and English on cultural nationalism, national poets, the literary canon, systems theory, the avant-garde, and authorship.

Jón Karl Helgason is a Professor in the Department of Icelandic and Comparative Cultural Studies at the University of Iceland. He has published monographs and articles on cultural history, metafiction and the afterlife of Iceland’s medieval literature.