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Abstract:

The article raises the question of Neoromanticism as a literary movement at the turn of the 19^th and 20^th centuries. In the Scandinavian countries and Finland, it was not perceived by contemporaries as a separate movement. An understanding of the aesthetic unity of the authors now associated with Neoromanticism develops only when it begins to be viewed not just as a continuation of the Romantic tradition, but as an independent phenomenon. The article puts forward the hypothesis that the source of Neoromanticism in Scandinavia is not Romanticism of the 19^th century, but Naturalism, as exemplified by the work of the Danish writer Holger Drachmann, who in his youth belonged to the supporters of the famous critic Georg Brandes and the “Modern breakthrough” movement. After the break with Brandes, Drachmann turns to folklore, national themes and fantasy, which corresponds to the aesthetics of Neoromanticism, while following the representation principles inherent in Naturalism. Drachmann can be called the first Scandinavian Neoromantic writer, since his later work is fully consistent with the principles formulated in Verner von Heidenstam’s treatise Renaissance, which became the program for the Scandinavian Neoromanticism. This Neoromantic trend in Scandinavian literature largely determined the vector of literary development from the “Modern breakthrough” movement to Modernism, opposing Decadent and Symbolist experiments.

Keywords: Neoromanticism, Romanticism, Naturalism, Danish literature, Scandinavian literature, H. Drachmann.