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Why a Danish Golden Age? Structural Holes in 19th Century Copenhagen

  • Thomas Gilbert
Published/Copyright: October 24, 2013
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Kierkegaard Studies Yearbook
From the journal Kierkegaard Studies Yearbook Volume 2013 Issue 1

Abstract

Situating historical intellectuals within a wider Danish “Golden Age” is common in Kierkegaard research, but there are few explanations for why this period occurred and why it would develop as a single cultural entity. I review a prominent example in the secondary literature, Bruce Kirmmse’s Kierkegaard in Golden Age Denmark, and then present, through the use of structural hole theory, an alternate interpretation of the Golden Age’s origins and cultural makeup-one that portrays it as both intellectually heterogeneous yet structurally cohesive. Furthermore, I suggest that the evolution of Kierkegaard’s pseudonymous authorship, rather than being exogenous to this cultural system, was definitively shaped by the social processes that produced the Danish Golden Age.

Published Online: 2013-10-24
Published in Print: 2013-10

© 2013 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co.

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Masthead
  2. Preface
  3. Table of Contents
  4. Section 1: Kierkegaard’s Concepts, Motifs and Figures
  5. Kierkegaard on the Atonement: The Complementarity of Salvation as a Gift and Salvation as a Task
  6. Recognition and Its Discontents: Johannes de Silentio and the Preacher
  7. In Defense of a Straightforward Reading of Fear and Trembling
  8. Verführung nach Kierkegaard. Ein soziologischer Versuch
  9. Johannes Climacus on Coming into Existence: The Problem of Modality in Kierkegaard’s Fragments and Postscript
  10. Kierkegaard’s Passion for Equality
  11. The Abyss of Demonic Boredom: An Analysis of the Dialectic of Freedom and Facticity in Kierkegaard’s Early Works
  12. Section 2: Love and Passion
  13. Selfless Passion: Kierkegaard on True Love
  14. Kierkegaard, Metaphysics, and Love
  15. Self-Love and Neighbor-Love in Kierkegaard’s Ethics
  16. Love as a Relation to Truth: Envisioning the Person in Works of Love
  17. “Love” Among the Post-Socratics
  18. Love, Death, and the Limits of Singularity
  19. Kierkegaard and the Sheer Phenomenon of Love
  20. Love’s Hidden Laugh: On Jest, Earnestness, and Socratic Indirection in Kierkegaard’s “Praising Love”
  21. Passion as a Will to Existence in Kierkegaard
  22. Section 3: Kierkegaard in Dialogue
  23. Die philosophische Verflüchtigung des Glaubensbegriffs. Kierkegaards Auseinandersetzung mit Immanuel Hermann Fichte
  24. Kierkegaard and the Traditions of the Comic in Philosophy
  25. Why a Danish Golden Age? Structural Holes in 19th Century Copenhagen
  26. Kierkegaard and Nietzsche on Living by a Guiding Passion
  27. The Self as a Center of Ethical Gravity: A Constructive Dialogue Between Søren Kierkegaard and George Herbert Mead
  28. Section 4: Current Debates and Controversies
  29. The Soul of a Philosopher: Reply to Turnbull
  30. Abbreviations
  31. List of Contributors
https://doi.org/10.1515/kier.2013.2013.1.403

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Masthead
  2. Preface
  3. Table of Contents
  4. Section 1: Kierkegaard’s Concepts, Motifs and Figures
  5. Kierkegaard on the Atonement: The Complementarity of Salvation as a Gift and Salvation as a Task
  6. Recognition and Its Discontents: Johannes de Silentio and the Preacher
  7. In Defense of a Straightforward Reading of Fear and Trembling
  8. Verführung nach Kierkegaard. Ein soziologischer Versuch
  9. Johannes Climacus on Coming into Existence: The Problem of Modality in Kierkegaard’s Fragments and Postscript
  10. Kierkegaard’s Passion for Equality
  11. The Abyss of Demonic Boredom: An Analysis of the Dialectic of Freedom and Facticity in Kierkegaard’s Early Works
  12. Section 2: Love and Passion
  13. Selfless Passion: Kierkegaard on True Love
  14. Kierkegaard, Metaphysics, and Love
  15. Self-Love and Neighbor-Love in Kierkegaard’s Ethics
  16. Love as a Relation to Truth: Envisioning the Person in Works of Love
  17. “Love” Among the Post-Socratics
  18. Love, Death, and the Limits of Singularity
  19. Kierkegaard and the Sheer Phenomenon of Love
  20. Love’s Hidden Laugh: On Jest, Earnestness, and Socratic Indirection in Kierkegaard’s “Praising Love”
  21. Passion as a Will to Existence in Kierkegaard
  22. Section 3: Kierkegaard in Dialogue
  23. Die philosophische Verflüchtigung des Glaubensbegriffs. Kierkegaards Auseinandersetzung mit Immanuel Hermann Fichte
  24. Kierkegaard and the Traditions of the Comic in Philosophy
  25. Why a Danish Golden Age? Structural Holes in 19th Century Copenhagen
  26. Kierkegaard and Nietzsche on Living by a Guiding Passion
  27. The Self as a Center of Ethical Gravity: A Constructive Dialogue Between Søren Kierkegaard and George Herbert Mead
  28. Section 4: Current Debates and Controversies
  29. The Soul of a Philosopher: Reply to Turnbull
  30. Abbreviations
  31. List of Contributors
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