Søren Blak Hjortshøj, Syddansk universitet
Résumé
The Female Danish-Jewish Protagonist of Modern Breakthrough realism as a Democratic Nation Builder
In the first Danish realism of the Modern Breakthrough, we can observe a number of Danish-Jewish female protagonists that re- interpret one of the most consistent Jewish stereotypes. As Zygmunt Baumann and others have shown (e.g. Goldberg 2017), the European Jew has often been a stereotyped as a medium for disruptive change. In S4, focus is on a new type of female Danish-Jewish protagonist who, by contrast, become a co-builder of modern Denmark through chronotropes: In Pontoppidan’s Lykke- Per (1896-1904), Jakobe Salomon creates a children's asylum which is a utopia of a modern welfare state (Hjortshøj 2022). In Henri Nathansen's Indenfor Murene (1912), Esther Levin creates a pluralistic marriage by insisting on a town hall marriage to a Protestant man. In Olivia Levison's realism, several female characters remain caught between emancipation dreams and realities reflected in the presence of multiple languages and syntaxes.