Nordicism and Modernity

This book offers a complete narrative of the development of Nordicism, from its roots in the National Romantic movement of the late eighteenth century, through to its most notorious manifestation in Nazi Germany, and finally to the fragmented forms that still remain in contemporary society. It is distinctive in treating Nordicism as a phenomenon with its own narrative, rather than as discreet episodes in works studying aspects of Eugenics, Nationalism, Nazism and the reception history of Old Norse culture. It is also distinctive in applying to this narrative a framework of analysis derived from the parallel theories of Roger Griffin and Zygmunt Bauman, to examine Nordicism as a process of myth creation protecting both the individual and society from the challenges and terror of an ever-changing and accelerating state of modernity.

Auteur

Gregers Einer Forssling was born in Hørsholm, Denmark and brought up and educated in the UK. In 2019, he was awarded a PhD in history by Oxford Brookes University. His research interests include the reception history of Norse culture, Anglo-Scandinavian culture during the Viking Age and the socio-cultural dynamics of Nazism.

Contenu

1. Introduction: Nordicism, Myth and Modernity.- 2. New Foundations: Nationalist and Romantic Visions of Nordic Revival in Northern Europe and America.- 3. Regeneration: Racial Science, Eugenics and the Emergence of Nordicism.- 4. Towards Ragnark.- 5. Nordicism Unleashed.- 6. The Flotsam of Nordicism in our Liquid Modernity.