‘The Generation of 1814’

Beskrivning

Thor Inge Rørvik, Oslo University

The formative ideals of Danish-Norwegian classicism have received little attention in Norwegian cultural history. One reason for this is probably due to its supranational character that makes it difficult to fit into the story of Norwegian national identity, which seems to have been the overall concern of Norwegian historiography since the middle of the nineteenth century. On the basis of one of the few books written on the subject, this article aims at providing an image of the old paradigm of breeding as it appears in the public sphere during the years after 1814. The aim is further to show how these ideals are rooted in the basic values of the Latin rhetorical-pedagogical programme of the grammar school (latinskolen), and to what extent these formative ideals correspond to the concept of civil education.

Thor Inge Rørvik (2011) remarks

For the last fifteen years my main topic of research has been the history of philosophy or, more precisely, philosophy in a historical context. One of the issues who have achieved my attention here is the often contested and ­fra­gile relationship between philosophy and rhetoric; both disciplines seminal to the concept of breeding and therefore also parts of the grammar school and university curriculum. My paper on the generation of 1814 – published in 1998 – was an attempt to demonstrate the extent to which the two disciplines intermingled, and how their interconnectedness were taken for granted, within the educational system as well as in the broader public sphere in Norway in the early nineteenth century. The point of departure (hence the title of my paper) was a book written by a norwegian art historian, mainly concerned with the then current concepts of style and expression in art, furniture, literature and public speech. By examining some of the literary examples here given, my intention was to show that whereas they on one hand carried the imprints of the classical rhetorical traditions understanding of civic virtue, they were – in a perhaps more fundamental sense – also expressions of a then current philosophical anthropology.

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Shadows in the Cave. Revisiting Mats Rosengren’s Doxology

Shadows in the Cave. Revisiting Mats Rosengren’s Doxology

Caves, images, and symbols are recurring topics in the work of Mats Rosengren, from his reading of Plato in his dissertation Psychagōgia – Konsten att leda själar, to his investigation of the world of paleolithic cave art in Cave Art, Perception and Knowledge. While other philosophers might have descended into the cave with the aim of guiding visitors back up into the blinding light of eternal truths, Rosengren seems to be at home in the underworld. Instead of dismissing the paintings that adorn its walls as merely shadowy copies or distorted images, or claiming that the truth of these pictures is readily available to us, Mats Rosengren invites any traveler joining him to understand them as different forms of sensemaking, forms which at first might appear foreign, but that, upon closer inspection, reveal themselves in all their complexity. In this volume, the contributors take on some of the key themes found in Rosengren’s work, mirroring the stylistic, generic, and topical range that characterizes it. The volume is titled “Shadows in the Cave”, signaling a focus not on eternal truth, but – alluding to Plato – on the shadowplay of our human caves. Läs mer...

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• Part of: Scandinavian Studies in Rhetoric. Rhetorica Scandinavica 1997-2010, Kjeldsen & Grue (eds.), Retorikförlaget Publishers 2011.
• Article pp 330–349
• Original Norwegian: “Slekten fra 1814 “, Rhetorica Scandinavica 5 (1998).

About Thor Inge Rørvik

Thor Inge Rørvik is Lecturer at the Department of Philosophy, History of Ideas, History of Art and Classical Studies, University of Oslo, Norway. His main interests are the history of universities, the history of Norwegian philosophy and Danish-Norwegian literary criticism in the eighteenth century.