SSNS Seminar – Dr Guy Puzey – ‘A Norseman’s Views Revisited: Aasmund Olavsson Vinje in Edinburgh and the Emerging Nynorsk World View’

The SSNS Seminar Series continues on 22 June with a talk by Dr Guy Puzey (University of Edinburgh), titled ‘A Norseman’s Views Revisited: Aasmund Olavsson Vinje in Edinburgh and the Emerging Nynorsk World View’

This is a free, ticketed event; please register below.

Abstract:

In 1862, Norwegian writer Aasmund Olavsson Vinje arrived in London, before then heading north to Edinburgh, where he would spend the best part of a year. His state-funded journalistic expedition resulted in the book A Norseman’s Views of Britain and the British (1863).

The book has been described as one of the first Norwegian works of sociology, and it took quite a critical view of British society. As such, it was not especially well received by much of the Victorian press, with the London Standard and its sister papers calling Vinje ‘a lunatic pure and simple’. Notably, Vinje expressed more praise for Scotland, which may have contributed to the greater apparent appreciation of the book by reviewers in Scottish publications. Perhaps the most positive reception of the book, however, was to be found in papers from outwith England or Scotland, with the Dublin-based Nation stating that Vinje was ‘possessed of a very accurate insight into the true state of things’.

Notably, Vinje was one of the very first proponents of a language now known as Nynorsk, the lesser-used of the two official written standards of Norwegian. In revisiting the purpose of Vinje’s stay in Edinburgh, the contents of his book, and its reception, this talk will show the role this chapter of Vinje’s life played in the elaboration of the Nynorsk movement’s distinct world view. The talk will also contrast Vinje’s observational methods with those of another contemporary Scandinavian writer, Hans Christian Andersen, who wrote of his own travels in England and Scotland fifteen years before Vinje set forth across the North Sea.

Bio:

Dr Guy Puzey is Senior Lecturer in Scandinavian Studies at the University of Edinburgh, where he is also currently Head of the Department of European Languages and Cultures. His main research interests are in language policy and sociolinguistics, critical toponomastics, literary translation, connections between Scotland and Norway, and twentieth-century social and cultural history.

Registration below. Details for the Zoom meeting will be emailed in advance of the seminar.